So I keep trying to ensure I get my posts up the night before, and I do have most of it done by then, but then somehow it spills over into the next day. But here is hoping I get better over the next few days!! For now, today makes me happy. Speaking of, you must have noticed today’s words are happiness, hope and humor. April is National Month of Hope as well as National Humor Month and as for happiness… we need it always!

The simplest way to be happy is to be simply be, as in Tolstoy’s words below:

“If you want to be happy, be.”– Leo Tolstoy

And happiness and humor can also be found in so many different ways. How about celebrating these quirky holidays?

• National Name Yourself Day – This is simply what it states. Go ahead, be creative and give yourself a name for today, and use it for the day (or more if you wish). But make sure that others around whom you plan to use it know it too.
• National Unicorn Day – And it is unicorns everywhere! Don’t they make you happy? We just watched Disney’s Onward yesterday and those unicorns are a different sort 🙂 But we did enjoy the movie.
• And April 10th is National Siblings Day.

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“Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes.” – Charles Dickens 

“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.”
― Emily Dickinson

The Book

Happy Mail

Book Info

My Thoughts

This book includes the basics of letter writing along with tips and tools for writing along with reasons one writes letters. It also comes with prompts for a whole month of letters, so you can challenge yourself. Did you know that April is also National Card and Letter Writing Month? With everyone at home, now might be the perfect time to send some happiness across to loved ones via the good ol’ “snail-mail!”

The book includes worksheets to help practice lettering styles, and templates as well as tear-out cards and stationary towards the end of the book. I especially loved the many projects included with detailed step by step instructions for creating cards and envelopes. The accompanying photographs help inspire and provide more information to the clear text. Different techniques and tools are used across the projects, making it fun to keep creating, as we use acrylic paint and pencil in one, and washi tape and watercolor paint in another.

The book definitely caters to the age group they are writing for with the art and text used in the cards. Poop emoji, anyone?? and then words like ‘awesome sauce!’

For me, these project ideas were more an inspiration than do it exactly (but following steps will be useful for those beginning to try their hands at this). I definitely loved many(well, who am I kidding? I loved all) of the ideas and had tried out a few when I first read this book.

Some of the projects include a cute list-letter which is a list of things you like about the recipient (and it folds out as they read it), personal stationary project, and a letter to your future self. All of these will appeal to the young readers and inspire them to get writing letters, and making many someones happy!

Sidenote/Caveats

• While the front pages include the proper instructions for how to address/mail a letter, the templates for the envelopes included at the end have the ‘From’ address on the center of the back of the envelope instead of at the top-right on the front.
• This works best for the intended age group of 8-12 year olds, while it definitely provides inspiration for all.

In Summary

A happy book that will make a great gift for those 8 year olds to tweens. Full of ideas and inspiration to get the readers in the intended audience ready to write letters, now!!

So get this book for your young ‘uns or yourself, be inspired and Write On!!

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Disclaimer: Thank you to Edelweiss and the publishers for the original eARC of the book; these are my honest opinions after reading and using this artsy book.

“Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” ― Shel Silverstein

My ‘H’ Book Stack

The Books

• The Human Body
• Halloween
• How Grammar Works
• The Hot Belly Diet
• How to Live Without Fear and Worry
• How to Write Letters for All Occasions
• Human Acts
• How to Write a Memoir in 30 Days
• Home Safe
• The House of the Seven Gables
• The House on Mango Street
• How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk
• How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life
• Before you ask, yes, that is really the title of this book! How to Give a Wedgie
• How to Win Friends and Influence People
• An Heiress at Heart
• The Husband
• How to Abduct a Highland Lord
• Hanging Woman Creek
• Heidi
• Handbook
• Heat
• Horace Alexander: Birds and Binoculars
• Holes
• Hobbit
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• How to Develop Self Confidence and Improve Public Speaking
• And then all the Harry Potter books including the Cursed Child one (not pictured due to lack of space)

Quick Notes

I have read part or all of most of the How To books pictured above, and they have all definitely helped in different ways. Please note that I have not read the How to Give a Wedgie (I think this came to our bookshelves courtesy some friends of my kids’ :-)).

Some of my favorite reads in the ones above are of course the Harry Potter series, Dale Carnegie’s books and Heidi (which is a childhood fav). And I definitely highly recommend the parenting book How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk.

“No medicine cures what happiness cannot.”
– Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Random Thing(s)

Today’s random things are again words, just a couple of them

Horripilation is the first one. And this is the medical term for goose-bumps! So all of us have had horripilation one time or the other:)

With the next word, which is hedley-medley meaning a confused jumble, I simply seem to be following the pattern for yesterday’s ‘G’ words!

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.” — Charles Dickens

And now, the end of this post

So, dear reader, as always, a couple of questions for you. Have you read any of the pictured books in my ‘H’ stack? Any comments on them? Any interesting ‘H’ words or facts for me?

“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one.” ― John Lennon

For previous posts, click on the links below:

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Linking up to the April A to Z Blogging Challenge, and the Ultimate Blog Challenge (click on the images to learn more about these challenges)