Dear Highlights

What Adults Can Learn from 75 Years of Letters and Conversations with Kids

By: Christine French Cully, Amy Dickinson - introduction

Narrated by: Christine French Cully, Amy Dickinson, Jamie K. Brown, Carla Corvo, Shaan Dasani, Em Grosland, Greta Jung, Yuuki Luna, Cassandra Morris, Angel Pean, Julie Shields, Allison Strong, Hemi Yeroham

A unique, inside look at American childhood through the conversations between Highlights magazine and its young readers and a call to grown-ups to make time to actively listen to the children in their lives.

Every year, tens of thousands of children write to Highlights magazine, sharing their hopes and dreams, worries and concerns, as if they were writing to a trusted friend. From the beginning, the editors at Highlights have answered every child individually. Longtime editor in chief Christine French Cully has curated a collection of this remarkable correspondence (letters, emails, and poems) in Dear Highlights--revealing an intimate and inspiring 75-year conversation between America’s children and its leading children’s magazine. From the timeless, everyday concerns of friendship, family, and school, to the deeper issues of identity, sexuality, divorce, and grief, here is a unique time capsule of American childhood in the voices--and the very handwriting--of children themselves. The audiobook captures a child's-eye view of some of the most important events of the past 75 years: the COVID-19 pandemic, 9/11, the Challenger Disaster, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Cully’s insightful narrative becomes a call to action for adults to lean in and listen to children, to make sure our kids know that they matter and what they think matters, and to assure them that they have the power to become people who change the world.

By turns funny, heartbreaking, moving, and enlightening, Dear Highlights will cause listeners to reflect, to listen, and to embrace the children in their lives.

Great potential for teaching adults

I remember these magazines when I was a kid. Actually, I don't remember much of what was in them although they were something to help pass time when having to wait wherever a waiting room existed.
I guess I should have paid more attention. I didn't realize about all the letters and help between children and the authors to help kids deal with the complexities of growing up.
Maybe I should have rated 4 as this had a much greater potential. Most of this is illustrating how they help kids and issues throughout the eras we went through. I think this could have been an excellent opportunity to teach adults how to cope and communicate with kids as they face issues. Something tells me they've only revealed the surface of what kids seek advice and help. I'm not talking a book that states, when a kid suffers a loss then you say and do "this." I'm saying when loss happens, we sometimes forget how we felt so we need to remember, know how to ask or talk, and how to advise and help. Some things are very sensitive, maybe some more depth in how to write, advise, and help with those situations. Also, for the good times, how to celibate and reach kids when they are underwhelmed, in the zone, or overwhelmed. Realize here in the US a lot of people, now adults, were raised by parents, guardians, etc... not best equipped to improve on what we learned. This book moves a great step forward in helping adults see how kids need and ask for help. The next step is helping many of us provide that help as parents, teachers, adults, care givers, and every person having responsibilities where kids might be involved.