![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/7pics\/2021\/07\/Mailbox3buse.jpg\")
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First-grader Mayu is visiting her grandparents during the winter holidays. She lives with her parents in a tall apartment building in the big city, but her grandparents live near a grand forest. “She smiled every time she imagined the forest,” we read. But now that she’s spending time with her grandparents, she takes the opportunity to visit it. <\/p>\n
Right after seeing the joy her grandfather experiences over receiving a letter from a friend \u2014 an experience Mayu hasn’t quite had yet in her life \u2014 she sees a mailbox in the forest: “Mailbocks,” it says on the side. “Please put letters in here Everyone is welcome From forest friend.” Mayu writes a letter on the back of a receipt and places it in the box. A correspondence is born. (Back at her grandparents’ place, Mayu eventually finds some stationery). Mayu is pleasantly surprised to discover the identity of her letter-writing friend, one she assumed was a boy. (Spoiler alert! This is pictured below.) <\/p>\n
Was the whole thing real or imagined? The better question may be: Does it even matter if it was<\/em> imagined? The experience for Mayu is as real as can be. <\/p>\n Each letter in this story appears on its own page, Mayu’s stationery always lined. The dustjacket is designed, front and back, such that it looks like an envelope. It even closes with an empty piece of stationery for children to cut (on the dotted line) and remove from the book. It’s a full-package tribute to the joys of letter-writing with a friend; the narrative itself captures the thrill of receiving, opening, and reading correspondence from a pen pal. Mayu’s is all the more mysterious and exciting, given her friend’s unknown identity. <\/p>\n Takahashi’s soft watercolors, appearing in both grayscale and color illustrations, are warm and inviting \u2014 and add a wondrous tone to the whole book. It’s full-on charming to enter the forest with Mayu and approach the mailbox. <\/p>\n Here are some of the illustrations. … Note for any new readers: 7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome.<\/em><\/p>\n Happy August, dear Imps!<\/p>\n My apologies, but I’m once again (as I think I did two weeks ago) keeping it very short this week, as I am heading to East Tennessee to surprise a former sign language interpreting colleague at her retirement lunch. (By the time you read this, it will no longer be a surprise!) <\/p>\n I’ll be back on Sunday to read your kicks, so do tell me: <\/p>\n What are YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks this week? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “That evening Mayu went to the forest mailbox with her letter.Her heart beat faster as she put her letter into the box. Then she ran home.” Those of you who still correspond with friends and family via letter-writing know that to receive a letter from a friend, sitting there in your mailbox amongst all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,3,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday","category-intermediate","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/7pics\/2021\/07\/Mailbox1small.jpg\")
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\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/7pics\/2021\/07\/Mailbox2smallzz.jpg\")
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‘Grandpa, does that letter make you happy?'”<\/em><\/center>
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\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/7pics\/2021\/07\/Mailbox3small.jpg\")
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She had never received a letter before. She hadn’t written one before either.”<\/em><\/center>
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\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/7pics\/2021\/07\/Mailbox4small.jpg\")
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\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/7pics\/2021\/07\/Mailbox5small.jpg\")
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It was not a boy; it was a fox child!”<\/em><\/center>
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\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/7pics\/2021\/07\/Mailboxcoveruse.jpg\")
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\nTHE MAILBOX IN THE FOREST. Text copyright \u00a9 2019 by Kyoko Hara. Illustrations copyright \u00a9 2019 by Kazue Takahashi. English translation copyright \u00a9 2021 by Museyon Inc. First published in Japan in 2007 by SOENSHA Publishing Co., Ltd. Illustrations reproduced by permission of the publisher, Museyon, New York.<\/em><\/p>\n
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