Hope your holidays were great. Christmas happens to be one of my favorite days of the year.

And my family outdid themselves this year. I got some great books myself, gave a couple good ones—including one of my all-time favorites, To Kill a Mockingbird—to my son, Jack. I also received some of the world’s best ice cream, from Graeter’s in Cincinnati.

So now it’s time for thank-you notes! I know, thank-you notes can seem like a total drag and, these days, with the speed and ease of email, IMs, cell phones, and texting, it seems downright old-fashioned and inefficient to actually commit pen to paper, but I personally think part of enjoying books comes from an appreciation of this old-fashioned, first-hand, and magical experience of turning our own thoughts into words.

To that end, even if thank-you notes are a hard-sell with your child, have you ever considered getting them a blank notebook? Here’s a thought and a letter you’re welcome to adapt for your own young reader:

Dear ___,

You ought to keep a journal. Do you know what a journal is? It’s basically your own book. And it’s a place where you can keeps things you want to remember. Things like [and of course use your own examples here, these are just for-instances]:

• How much the Cowboys are going to win by in the next game
• What sorts of table scraps Rex likes best
• The right amount of ketchup one should use on one’s burger
• What is the best joke you heard at school this week
• What day of the week you get your allowance on
• How many Whiffle balls you’ve hit into the next-door-neighbors’ yard
• What sort of cake you want for your birthday
• What Mom or Dad said to you that ticked you off the other day
• Best fishing spots at the river
• Secrets that nobody should know but you

My point is that if you have a journal and practice writing in it—just like with our bike or smacking Whiffle balls into the neighbors’ yard—you’ll get good fast.

And writing’s a good thing to be good at. It helps you remember things, it helps you get your ideas to across to other people (so you can get into good schools and get good jobs and stuff like that) and it can even be pretty good fun.

And you don’t have to write in this journal when you don’t feel like it. You can glue pictures you’ve cut out of magazines, things you’ve printed off the computer, hide money in it, or even smash leaves or bugs into it if you like. Or you can neglect it for weeks or months at a time.

Anyhow, why don’t you give it a try, and let me know if there’s anything I can help with? I’m proud of you being such a good reader and writer.

JP