Pen Pals

Adult pen pals are unique elements that spark students' excitement for In2Books. With the enthusiastic and caring support of our adult pen pals, we inspire students in grades 3-5 to achieve their personal best.

How Does It Work?

• Students select and read age-appropriate, high-quality books carefully selected by a team of children's literature experts.


• Students are matched with adult pen pals who read the same books as the students.


• Students engage in an ongoing, dynamic online conversation about the important issues in the books.


• Teachers access online professional development and practical teacher-tested learning activities.


• Teachers provide genre instruction and teach reading, writing and thinking skills appropriate to the genre. The yearlong In2Books curricula are called the Informed Reader Series and include: Realistic Fiction, Social Science, Biography, Folktales, and Science.


• Pen Pals are caring adults of all ages, ethnicities, and professions who are carefully screened through In2Books or chosen by a student's parents. The adult pen pals serve as intellectual mentors and friends, giving their student pen pals insights into alternative points of view and what it's like to be successful adults.

Our students often tell us that their pen pals are their best friends, or the adults they wish to become. This is your opportunity to be a coach, a catalyst, and a role model to a child. By sharing your ideas and love of learning through an exchange of email letters, you open up new worlds to young minds.

The Pen Pal Experience

Being an In2Books pen pal is a great way to help young people. As literacy coaches, you partner with teachers and families in the development of students' reading, writing, and critical thinking skills - skills we know to be essential to personal and professional success.

Through it all, In2Books provides pen pals with the resources and training needed to be effective coaches, role models, and catalysts. The curricula affords a birds-eye view into the life of elementary school age children, helping many pen pals become better parents, family members and friends.

Who Are Our Pen Pals?

In2Books pen pals are a diverse group of caring adults. They may be parents of children in the school or volunteers from local community organizations, corporations, government agencies, universities, and professional organizations. They are adults of all ages, working or retired, having occupations ranging from lawyer to web designer to stay-at-home parent. Despite their diversity, pen pals have one thing in common --- a commitment to helping school-age children reach their personal and academic potential.

In the home version of In2Books, the adult pen pals are chosen by parents or guardians and may be grandparents, non-custodial parents, aunts, uncles, family friends or neighbors.

In2Books adult pen pals do not go to the schools and are never given personal information about your child, including his or her last name, teacher's name, or school's name unless the specific class or school decides to include the pen pals in "in class" activities.