P.S. Longer Letter Later Booktalk

  • Grades: 6–8

Can friendship survive on letters alone? Elizabeth and Tara*Starr, who've vowed to be friends forever, spend their seventh grade year finding out.

Elizabeth is shy and quiet, and lives in a huge house with her parents and little sister, plus a maid, a cook, a gardener, and a swimming pool. Tara*Starr lives with parents, who are only seventeen years older and much less responsible than she is, she wears glitter and sequins, and loves being the center of attention. Naturally, they're best friends – they have been ever since Tara*Starr and her parents moved to town three years ago. They spent 4th, 5th, and 6th grades together. But during the summer between 6th and 7th grades, Tara*Starr and her parents move again, this time to Ohio, states and states away.

Instead of doing everything together and talking for hours on the phone everyday, Tara*Starr and Elizabeth can only write letters – their parents have decided against phone calls, unless it's an emergency. And sometimes letters just aren't enough. Tara*Starr's parents start to act like real parents, getting good jobs, making new rules, and being responsible. But at the same time, Elizabeth's family is falling apart. Her father seems to spend all this time at work, and refuses to explain why. Her mother won't explain either, saying that it's grown-up business. Elizabeth is left to wonder if her parents are getting a divorce, her father is having an affair, or if there is something else going on.

Soon Tara*Starr is more worried about Elizabeth than she is about all the problems she's having with a new school and with what seems to be a new set of parents, but letters just aren't enough anymore. You can't share things in letters the way you can in person or even over the phone. Misunderstandings are easier, and ending fights is much more difficult. Can the two girls’ friendship survive? Read their letters and find out!

Also available:

Snail Mail, No More (a sequel to P.S. Longer Letter Later)



  • Subjects:
    Changes and New Experiences, Divorce, Friends and Friendship, Moving