Thanks Aunt Zelda!: Thank-You Cards for Kids to Craft

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

“Dear Grandma, where did you find a sweater exactly the color of dog
barf? Well, one good thing—if Rusty ever throws up on it, no one will
ever know the difference! It even has funny lumps that look like dog
barf, too.” “Dear Grandma, thank you for the sweater. It is
different from anything I already had in my dresser. I like having lots
of different clothes.”

In the above two letters, Cynthia MacGregor demonstrates the wide gap
between what a child might want to write on a thank-you note and what a
child should actually write. By using humor, MacGregor has created a
how-to-write-thank-you-notes book that children might actually read. The
first part of the book explains why people should write thank-you notes
(it is the polite thing to do and you might not get any more treats if
you are rude). To make the dreaded thank-you chore less boring, the
second part of the book offers nine creative ideas for making
nontraditional notes. These include a collage card, a comical character
note, a glittering stars card, a jigsaw note, a yarn picture card, a
confetti card, a potato stamp card, and a stencil and splatter card. All
these projects can be created with standard arts-and-crafts materials
(scissors, glue, yarn, and cardboard), and the instructions are clearly
laid out in easy-to-understand language. Anouk Pérusse-Bell’s bright,
charming illustrations work beautifully with MacGregor’s lively prose.
Highly recommended.