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Book Letters Pen Pal Program

During the school year, teens in grades 6–12 can write Book Letters to homebound Henrico residents and earn community service credit. You will write these letters on your own—at home, in free periods, or at letter writing “write-in” events.

You can earn 1 hour of Community Service Learning (CSL) credit for each qualifying letter you submit. You may earn up to 10 hours of CSL credit per semester.

Questions? Ask the librarian in the Teen area of your library, attend an upcoming Book Letters information session, or email HCPL Teen Programming Librarian Amanda Sullivan at [email protected].

Letter Requirements

For your Book Letter to qualify for credit, it must:

  • Be handwritten, unless you require assistive technology to write. Do not use AI, please. We may require you to rewrite a letter if it seems AI-generated.
  • Be at least partly about a book that you have recently read, or is a favorite or meaningful book to you.
  • Be about 300 words long or longer. This sample letter shows about how many words that is.

Take care to not include any personally identifying information about yourself (your full name, your address, etc.).

When you’ve completed a letter, bring it to the teen desk of any Henrico public library. Attach a submission form and give your letter to the librarian. No envelope or stamps are needed. They will see that it gets delivered to your Pen Pal, and that you get your service credit. Credit may take a week or more to be approved.

On your letter's submission form, you can also allow responses from your Pen Pal. If your Pen Pal writes back to you, you can write back to them! Every qualifying response letter you write will also count for 1 hour of credit.

Additional Topic Suggestions

While your letter should be about a book you know, you can also write to your Pen Pal about other topics. Feel free to include drawings!
  • What's something that makes you happy?
  • What do you do for fun?
  • What do you love about Henrico or Virginia?
  • What is your favorite holiday?
  • How would you spend your ideal day?
  • What is your favorite food?
  • If you could have lunch with a character in a book, who would you choose? Why?
  • What is something you are thankful for?
  • What places would you like to travel to?
  • Who is your favorite superhero?
  • What is your favorite movie or TV show?
  • Who is your favorite artist?
  • Do you have any hobbies?
  • What is a childhood memory of yours?

About the Book Letters program

How does this help the library? One aspect of the Henrico County Public Library mission is to enrich community life. To help with this, HCPL has partnered with Henrico County Public Schools to provide service opportunities for local teens. Henrico County has also undertaken initiatives to enhance social engagement and wellness for its vibrant aging population.

This project enables teens to practice the skill of letter writing to foster new connections with their community.