Dear Highlights: What Adults Can Learn from 75 Years of Letters and Conversations with Kids
A unique, inside look at American childhood through the conversations between Highlights magazine and its young readers and a call to grown-ups to make time to actively listen to the children in their lives.


Every year, tens of thousands of children write to Highlights magazine, sharing their hopes and dreams, worries and concerns, as if they were writing to a trusted friend. From the beginning, the editors at Highlights have answered every child individually. Longtime editor in chief Christine French Cully has curated a collection of this remarkable correspondence (letters, emails, drawings, and poems) in Dear Highlights—revealing an intimate and inspiring 75-year conversation between America’s children and its leading children’s magazine. From the timeless, everyday concerns of friendship, family, and school, to the deeper issues of identity, sexuality, divorce, and grief, here is a unique time capsule of American childhood in the voices—and the very handwriting—of children themselves. The book captures a child's-eye view of some of the most important events of the past 75 years: the COVID-19 pandemic, 9/11, the Challenger Disaster, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Cully’s insightful narrative becomes a call to action for adults to lean in and listen to children, to make sure our kids know that they matter and what they think matters, and to assure them that they have the power to become people who change the world.

By turns funny, heartbreaking, moving, and enlightening, Dear Highlights will cause readers to reflect, to listen, and to embrace the children in their lives.

From the foreword by nationally syndicated columnist Amy Dickinson:

In times of great stress or trouble, Mr. Rogers advised children: ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ That’s exactly what children writing to ‘Dear Highlights’ find when they put pen to paper: helpers whose open-minded trust and kindness surely has made our world a better place.”
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Dear Highlights: What Adults Can Learn from 75 Years of Letters and Conversations with Kids
A unique, inside look at American childhood through the conversations between Highlights magazine and its young readers and a call to grown-ups to make time to actively listen to the children in their lives.


Every year, tens of thousands of children write to Highlights magazine, sharing their hopes and dreams, worries and concerns, as if they were writing to a trusted friend. From the beginning, the editors at Highlights have answered every child individually. Longtime editor in chief Christine French Cully has curated a collection of this remarkable correspondence (letters, emails, drawings, and poems) in Dear Highlights—revealing an intimate and inspiring 75-year conversation between America’s children and its leading children’s magazine. From the timeless, everyday concerns of friendship, family, and school, to the deeper issues of identity, sexuality, divorce, and grief, here is a unique time capsule of American childhood in the voices—and the very handwriting—of children themselves. The book captures a child's-eye view of some of the most important events of the past 75 years: the COVID-19 pandemic, 9/11, the Challenger Disaster, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Cully’s insightful narrative becomes a call to action for adults to lean in and listen to children, to make sure our kids know that they matter and what they think matters, and to assure them that they have the power to become people who change the world.

By turns funny, heartbreaking, moving, and enlightening, Dear Highlights will cause readers to reflect, to listen, and to embrace the children in their lives.

From the foreword by nationally syndicated columnist Amy Dickinson:

In times of great stress or trouble, Mr. Rogers advised children: ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ That’s exactly what children writing to ‘Dear Highlights’ find when they put pen to paper: helpers whose open-minded trust and kindness surely has made our world a better place.”
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Dear Highlights: What Adults Can Learn from 75 Years of Letters and Conversations with Kids

Dear Highlights: What Adults Can Learn from 75 Years of Letters and Conversations with Kids

Dear Highlights: What Adults Can Learn from 75 Years of Letters and Conversations with Kids

Dear Highlights: What Adults Can Learn from 75 Years of Letters and Conversations with Kids

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Overview

A unique, inside look at American childhood through the conversations between Highlights magazine and its young readers and a call to grown-ups to make time to actively listen to the children in their lives.


Every year, tens of thousands of children write to Highlights magazine, sharing their hopes and dreams, worries and concerns, as if they were writing to a trusted friend. From the beginning, the editors at Highlights have answered every child individually. Longtime editor in chief Christine French Cully has curated a collection of this remarkable correspondence (letters, emails, drawings, and poems) in Dear Highlights—revealing an intimate and inspiring 75-year conversation between America’s children and its leading children’s magazine. From the timeless, everyday concerns of friendship, family, and school, to the deeper issues of identity, sexuality, divorce, and grief, here is a unique time capsule of American childhood in the voices—and the very handwriting—of children themselves. The book captures a child's-eye view of some of the most important events of the past 75 years: the COVID-19 pandemic, 9/11, the Challenger Disaster, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Cully’s insightful narrative becomes a call to action for adults to lean in and listen to children, to make sure our kids know that they matter and what they think matters, and to assure them that they have the power to become people who change the world.

By turns funny, heartbreaking, moving, and enlightening, Dear Highlights will cause readers to reflect, to listen, and to embrace the children in their lives.

From the foreword by nationally syndicated columnist Amy Dickinson:

In times of great stress or trouble, Mr. Rogers advised children: ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ That’s exactly what children writing to ‘Dear Highlights’ find when they put pen to paper: helpers whose open-minded trust and kindness surely has made our world a better place.”

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781644723258
Publisher: Highlights
Publication date: 08/10/2021
Pages: 336
Sales rank: 1,053,610
Product dimensions: 6.70(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

An outspoken and trusted voice on issues that impact children and their well-being, Christine French Cully is dedicated to helping raise curious, creative, caring, and confident children, and to championing Highlights' belief that children are the most important people on earth. A writer, advocate for children, and longtime editor in chief of Highlights magazine, she is a frequent speaker at writers' and educators' conferences and the host of the Dear Highlights podcast. Cully is sought-after for guidance on how to talk to kids about challenging topics, providing thoughtful advice not only to parents and families but to kids directly. She has personally answered thousands of their letters received at Highlights over the years and continues to do so every week. She compiled dozens of these letters in Dear Highlights, bestowing indispensable insight on kids' hopes, dreams, fears, and aspirations to the grown-ups in their lives. Cully is the mother of two grown children. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Table of Contents

Foreword 8

Where the Conversation Began 12

Letters About Family 20

Letters About School 52

Letters About Friendship 78

Letters About Feelings & Confidence 106

Letters About Self-Improvement 136

Letters About Hopes & Dreams 162

Letters About Societal Concerns & Events 188

Letters About Biases & Exclusion 222

Letters About COVID-19 252

Letters About Really Hard Things 278

What We've Learned 316

Acknowledgments 323

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