A few days ago, Ben, Sean and I received this incredible letter from Josephine and her mom, Julie.  Mother and daughter said it was okay if we posted some of it - I love this letter because it conveys exactly what shared love of books can do - connect people and create a community.

Dear Ms. Wolf & Messrs. Hilts,

We love The Insomniacs!

My daughter found it at our local library and chose it for her “birthday book” for school. In lieu of bringing in the once traditional birthday cupcakes, the birthday child’s caregiver can come in and read a picture book to the class.

My daughter, Josephine, just turned 7 and she is in first grade. 

I prefaced the reading saying, “This is a story about a family, The Insomniacs. They do things a little bit differently than most families and that’s ok. In fact, our differences can be interesting and beautiful.”

The class just loved the story. The enjoyed explaining to me what “nocturnal” means and enjoyed learning about new nocturnal animals. They especially loved the part about the upside down mice. The drawings are BEAUTIFUL. Their teacher had never heard of the book before and remarked on how gorgeous the illustrations are. I left the book with her so that she could take a look at it prior to sending it back home with Josephine.

I’m so glad she chose this out of the library. It was somewhat therapeutic for me to read to the class because we’re kind of regarded as the weird family in town. It was nice to have a beautiful, lighthearted picture book to frame that aspect in a positive light :)

Thanks so much and “bravi” to you three for this very special book.

Julie