Your Letter weaves a delightful tale of resilience and kindness, inspiring readers to be their best selves and craft their own scavenger hunt of joy.
Your Letter is a sweet and heartfelt story that explores the magical world of friendship and finding it in the most unexpected ways. It delves into bullying and the traumatic aftermath, similar to A Silent Voice, but focuses more on how one person reaching out can help someone move past the harm. Yet, within the story is a wonder that lifts the spirit with each note. Your Letter weaves a delightful tale of resilience and kindness, inspiring readers to be their best selves and craft their own scavenger hunt of joy.
Created by Hyeon A Cho, translated by Webtoon, and lettered by Abigail Blackman, the Yen Press comic focuses on Sori Lee, a middle schooler about to face unforeseen drama. After standing up for someone in school who gets bullied, she becomes the next victim. The former victim transfers away, and Sori soon moves back in with her father, transferring schools too to escape. Unfortunately, the residual pain leaves Sori struggling to converse with her classmates. However, she soon finds a letter taped underneath her desk—a letter that helps her adapt to her school.
Your Letter Does Not Sugarcoat Bullying
It’s a relief that the series does not make the clashes between students overly graphic. It gets its point across, nonetheless. The focus is the toll on the victim and the fight to regain their confidence. Plus, the harassment does not end when someone transfers to another school. Sadly, the harm remains, and there’s likely another victim at the new school. But Sori finds a note under her desk that helps her navigate the school, finding hidden joys and magical wonders around the campus.
Later, it explores bullying with a new problem student. It shows how stopping it is two-pronged—kids must speak up. But when they do, it is up to the adults around them to take it from there. Your Letter doesn’t shy away from the trauma. It also demonstrates the importance of connection and friendships.
A Gradual Opening Up
As Sori navigates through each letter, they are part guides for the school and part scavenger hunt. While initially shunned at school because of classmates’ assumptions, the letters help Sori slowly escape her shell. Anyone who played a game of hide-and-seek as a kid or around Easter can recall the joyful fun.
But here, there is additional assistance for Sori that allows her to open up again. Aside from the fun, Sori tries to discover who is penning this scavenger hunt. So, another door opens for possible friendship and surprises for Sori and the reader. Additionally, Your Letter shows how help and connection can have an impact that surpasses expectations.
A Journey Worth Taking
Like Sori, Your Letter is a story that readers must experience because it’s about the journey to healing. It’s sweet and heartfelt, and you’ll be hard-pressed to resist starting your own scavenger hunt of joy. The end fills the reader with possibilities for the friends in the pages and lifts one’s spirit. Your Letter delves into heavy subjects of bullying and isolation and blends them with fanciful yet possible paths to growth.
