Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Letter to My Daughter

Letter to My Daughter
fantastacy avatar reviewed on + 10 more book reviews


It was 17 years ago, but I remember how frustrating being 15 years old was. I felt like nobody, not even my mother, could ever understand what I was going through. I imagine it was a very frustrating time for my mother, too! Somehow, George Bishop captured these feelings exactly in his book Letter to my Daughter.

As the book begins, Laura's 15-year-old daughter Elizabeth has just run away from home after a bad fight with her parents. Laura is not sure how to cope, and she desparately wants her daughter to know that she loves her and understand her. To express this and to keep herself busy in the hours after her daughter leaves home, Laura begins to write her a letter about her own adolescence. She writes about love and loss, school, boyfriends, friends, and all of the confusing, conflicting feelings that are so common during the teenage years.

I don't know how the author is so empathic to the trials of being a teen-aged girl, but he gets it dead-on. His is an empathic voice through the main character, and he takes the reader on a journey that is both familiar and heart-wrenching. I wish this book was around when I was younger, but I know I will keep it and share it with my potential future daughters. This was a great read!