Wanted: Mother-Daughter Book Club Pen Pals

Have you ever had a pen pal? Someone you connected with who lived far away and wrote letters to you about what her life was like? In today’s world where it’s so easy to connect technologically, it may seem old fashioned to have a pen pal. Yet, I believe there’s still plenty value in forming a relationship with someone you’ve never met before who lives in a different place than you do.

For one thing, when you send notes of your own to a pen pal, you’re really thinking about what it is about your day-to-day life that someone else may find interesting. For another, there’s something really fun about slowly getting to know someone as they send you notes about their lives. Whether you correspond the old-fashioned way by sending letters or connect electronically, getting meaningful mail can still put a smile on your face.

As a way to help mother-daughter book clubs members around the country (or in other parts of the world) connect with each other, I’m creating a pen pals exchange on Mother Daughter Book Club.com. In part I was inspired by Heather Vogel Frederick’s great new addition to her mother-daughter book club novels, Dear Pen Pal (review to come soon). I was also influenced by a mom in a book club who wrote in to ask if I knew of resources for their club members who were seeking pen pals.

If you’d like to be part of this exchange, here’s what I need from you. Please email me the number of mom/daughter pairs in your club and the age of the girls along with your hometown and state. Then tell me who will be the contact for your group (must be a mom). I will print your information on the pen pals page of my website, along with other clubs who are searching for pen pals.

I won’t match groups to one another, rather I’ll let you decide if a group matches what you’re looking for. I also won’t print email or contact information. The official contact for a group will let me know when she wants to connect to another group, and I’ll provide exchange information then. Once you’ve made a connection, just let me know and I’ll take you off the list.

Already there are three clubs who have sent in info for the pen pals page. Send my yours and I’ll add you to the list as well.