[Jenny Mueller]

Hello Mr. Korman.

My son is entering 5th grade this fall and has set a goal to read through the Mark Twain Award Nominee list (there is a bit of incentive as anyone who reads four gets to go on a field trip ;) but I'm proud he has decided to do a bit more). For the summer, I have decided to read the books along with him. After finishing each, we go on a fun outing and discuss the book. Linked was our second pick and Russell was excited to see your name as the author, after having read War Stories last year.

I am so grateful for each of his experiences, so far, with reading your books. War Stories came up while I was blogging my great grandparents WWII letters. In response to the blog, I had been asked to speak at the reunion of my great grandfather's division. Russell started the book while we were traveling to the reunion. He received quite an education there, heard some incredible stories, met a WWII veteran, and met the granddaughter of General Patton. I very much believe he wouldn't have gotten so much out of his experience in San Antionio if not for your book, and he has a broader understanding of how important your book is because he had that experience in San Antonio. He started talking to me and comparing the stories he had heard in real life to the ones he was reading, and he was excited to read General Patton's name in the book after meeting Helen. He still brings it up after almost a year. He is also prouder of his own family's history because of these experiences. 

As for Linked, I'm mostly grateful for having decided to read along with him this summer. We both finished the book this evening, each of us with tears in our eyes. I was so happy to see there was enough of an understanding there...that he felt something from the book and maybe was feeling similar to the way I was feeling. There is so much about this book that is important and I'm excited to talk to him about so many things. Not just the difficult subject matter, but the overall lessons we can take away. Our book club meeting will be tomorrow night and since rule #1 of book club is that we can't talk about the book until our meeting, we are both anxious and excited.

Basically, maybe it's a bit silly, but I just wanted to say thank you. I am so glad my son has read these two books, and I have a sneaking suspicion he will be picking up more of your books in the future.

-Jenny

[Gordon Korman]

Hi, Jenny,

Thanks for posting and for all the nice things you said about WAR STORIES and LINKED. I hope your book club meeting will enhance your enjoyment of LINKED. As you can imagine, writing it was quite an experience for me as well, so it's good to know that you and Russell both enjoyed it and are, seemingly, brimming over with commentary! All good, I hope!

Thank you again for your comments, and especially for raising a reader!         -----Gordon Korman-----