Letters to Annie
Letters to Annie: A Grandmother’s Dreams of Fairy Tale Princesses, Princes, & Happily Ever After. FriesenPress, 2022.
“As a grandparent of six grandchildren whose ages are ten and under, I have often thought about how, other than reading the great fairy tales and fantasy stories, I might develop and deepen their appreciation for these stories. We should be grateful to Monika Hilder for having written Letters to Annie. These fictitious but oh so true letters are filled with wisdom about the moral and spiritual lessons children and adults can learn from the stories we love.”
Vigen Guroian, author of Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child’s Moral Imagination
“It’s a love letter written for all of us [. . .] We learn what’s essential, what matters, what is lasting—and all in a breezy read.”
Carolyn Curtis, co-editor of Women and C. S. Lewis: What His Life and Literature Reveal for Today’s Culture
“An impressive imaginative work that I highly recommend.”
Rolland Hein, Emeritus Professor of English, Wheaton College
“[. . .] readers will undoubtedly find just what they need to hear.”
Elizabeth Baird Hardy, author of Milton, Spenser, and The Chronicles of Narnia: Literary Sources for the C. S. Lewis Novels
“[. . .] a well-told inspirational coming-of-age story [. . .].”
Colin Duriez is an author of books on C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Dorothy L. Sayers, and others, focusing on themes of fantasy, biography, and history
“I needed to read this book. Readers from 1 to 100 will be captivated!”
Crystal Hurd, C. S. Lewis scholar and book review editor for Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
“Letters to Annie is a kind of imaginative tonic.”
Laura N. Van Dyke, Inklings scholar, co-editor of The Inklings and Culture: A Harvest of Scholarship from the Inklings Institute of Canada
“With equal parts grace, charm, and insight, Hilder draws her readers into—and incites us towards having too! —a truly meaningful life.”
Matthew and Joy Steem, Radix Magazine
. . . There is a wise and generous, gracious and kindly way that Monika weaves together the perennial wisdom of multiple fairy tales, the layered life lessons packed into such tales, and the careful knitting together of Biblical insights and fairy tales in this must-read of a book.
. . . . There is . . . no flinching from the hard questions of sadness, suffering, and the tragic on our all too human journey. Letters to Annie does cover many of the disappointments, betrayals, and confusions of the faith and life journey and the dangers such challenges pose to the aspiring (or not so aspiring) princesses and princes—many discerning insights can be gleaned, when read wisely and well, from fairy tales—Monika certainly asks of her readers much deeper and layered reads of such classic tales, tales sadly so domesticated and sanitized by the Disney industry.
Ron Dart, Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice
“A sincere, engaging, and thought-provoking look at life through the lens of fairy tales.”
Kirkus Reviews
Monika Hilder 