A Thank You Note

Dear Mrs. Naylor,
I read my first Alice book at age nine and now, twelve years later, they’re still my comfort books. I go back to them whenever I’m sad, anxious or when I just want to feel comfortable. I guess you could say I feel at home between the pages of your books. I remember, as a child/teen I used to think of Lester as a fully grown up person and now I’m older than he is in the first ten books or so.

A couple of years ago I convinced my mum to read them too and every once in a while, we end up having hour long conversations about the characters and everything that’s happened to Alice and the people around her.

Apart from thanking you for creating such a safe space for me (and so many amazing, lovable, flawed, relatable, wonderful characters), I also wanted to congratulate you for tackling so many tricky issues so well. Today, we’re having much more open conversations about certain subjects such as sexual harassment and mental health but back when the Alice books were released, so many of those subjects were still taboos which makes you a pioneer, I guess. And you didn’t just briefly touch upon those subjects either, you did it in a very sensitive, realistic way. So thank you for doing such an important job!

I wish you all the best and I’m sending you all the love from Austria

I appreciate your letter so much, and am just delighted that your mum enjoys the Alice books too.  There are a number of Alice book clubs, I hear, and some of them include mothers.  I know that some of the topics were quite sensitive, but many I took from newspapers, so I knew such things were happening.  I hope you were able to find all 28 books in Austria!