I recently lost power due to Tropical Storm Zeta. I’ve had Chika since Christmas last year, but always seemed to never had time to start. I inhaled the story in three hours and was so moved. As a elementary school principal, I find the message and lesson of this book so deep and valuable, not only as a parent, but as an educator. The love, empathy, and building of relationships every teacher should have for children is so relevantly conveyed in this beautiful story. I plan to provide every staff member of my school with a copy of Chika. With a commitment to totally opening themselves up as they read this book, I expect that they all will see their roles a bit differently.
Thanks, Mr. Albom. I’ve been an admirer of your works for 30 + years. Keep up the amazing work you do.

Dear Mitch,

First of all, thank you. Thank you for your beautiful words, and thank you for your inspiration.
In fact, inspiration is why I’m writing to you today. Every teacher has their “favorite unit“ that they love to teach, that they look forward to all year, and that they know will be inspiring to their students. For me, a ninth grade English teacher, your book The Five People You Meet In Heaven was MY unit. The moment I read your book on a trip to New York City, and was weeping openly on the subway ride, I knew I had to inspire my students to love this book as much as I did. For the record, I also found out that day that the easiest way to get a seat by yourself on a crowded subway, is to start crying hysterically over a small red and white book.

I went back to school that following Monday in upstate New York, and instantly petitioned my department chair, the principal, and any human being with ears, that I needed this book for my students, and I needed it now.
I went back to school that following Monday in upstate New York, and instantly petitioned my department chair, the principal, and any human being with years, that I needed this book for my students, and I needed it now.

The stars aligned, and I was soon able to teach your amazing novel. Do you know in movies? When the teacher stands on the desk, and all of the kids do the same, and you feel so inspired because those kids are inspired. Well, my reception wasn’t that dramatic, but it was still the most movie-worthy moment of anything I’ve ever done in a classroom. I saw students crying and tough football players in a ball on their chairs. I had a student that openly would share how he “Hates school, hates reading, and hates me,” come up to me when I finished the last page and tell me he’s never liked a book so much in his life. That he had actually finished reading the book weeks ago. That it was really the only book he’d ever read. He had been so hooked from the get go that he chose to pick up the book on his own and finish it. This is the same student who I had spent the entire year nearly begging to stop staring at the window and at least look at the page of what we were doing.
I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but this book…well, I am amazing at teaching it.

That is, until 2020…

Mr. Albom, I began trying desperately, to teach your book over distance learning, and it absolutely breaks my heart, because I know that they are not appreciating it as a they would sitting in my classroom. They are viewing this as a chore, and not getting the love from the book that I try to gift them.

I ask if you could please, take time out of your busy day to join in on one of my Zoom classes. If you could please inspire them to love your book as the near thousand of my past students have before. If you could bring some joy back from this pandemic that robbed my students of this gift.

Thank you so much,
Stephanie Gurdo

Dear Mr. Albom,

I have been teaching Tuesdays with Morrie since it was published and it is consistently a favorite of my students, especially my reluctant readers. Along with reading and journaling, I have my students interview someone in their own lives and write a paper comparing that person’s views to those of Morrie. It is an assignment that has survived the test of time and for some students a way to talk about things they would not normally with someone they respect and/or love. For the first time since I began teaching Tuesdays, I am at a loss. My books are stuck at school while my students are safe at home. I have tried making contact with you via other methods (free press email, Instagram message, comment on FB that I later deleted). I know how busy you are and realize this is a long shot, but is there a way to provide an ebook version I could use with my students? I am currently trying to use Google Classroom with my students and would love to put a pdf on (in?) my classroom that they could access in order to read the book. Or, another thought I had would be the possibility of placing an ebook link on your website so students could go there to access the book (an opportunity that could be extended to other students in this time of crisis). Maybe this could become an assignment on a large scale for those interested. I could then provide a link to your website in my Google Classroom. I understand you are a writer who needs to make a living so I feel uncomfortable requesting free access, yet I can’t think of a better part of my curriculum to share with my students during these unprecedented times. Now, more than ever, we are reflecting on and perhaps re-evaluating what is most important in our lives. If you are able to help me in any way, I would be so appreciative. More importantly, so would my students.

Mr. Albom,
I am a first-year teacher. I decided to pursue a teaching career at the age of 40. I was given 3 classrooms of freshmen who struggle with reading. Upon reviewing the option for reading selections, I chose “The 5 People You Meet in Heaven. I was not sure how students would respond to the story itself. But after the first chapter, all 65 of my Reading students had become more engaged in your book, than anything else we have done since. When we would complete the daily readings, they would literally be upset that I stopped reading for the day. They simply wanted more. When we had other assignments to complete, they always wanted to learn more about Eddie. They smiled as Eddie saw Marguerite, they cried as Eddie learned the fifth lesson from Tala. They were so engaged. It made my class a joy to teach.

As much of a long shot as it may be, I would be remiss if I didn’t ask for you to possibly have the generosity to come to Snyder, Texas, and possibly visit, with not only my students but other students in the school. I personally teach Tutorials, Reading and Speech and Debate. We have a thriving Theatre program that I am sure would love to simply talk. If you are able and willing, please let me know. We would be more than thrilled. Thank you for all you have done in the world of literature.

Zackery Carlock

Seventh graders in my Language Arts class spent a few weeks this fall reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven. They did group work, reflected on the story and its lessons, and wrote a theme essay in which they chose which lesson from the book they found the most compelling.

Studying this novel in a Catholic school, where faith is often discussed, made for a comfortable union. Mitch Albom’s characters resonated with the students and will last with them longer than most titles read in class. When they learned that the sequel had just been released, many showed sincere interest and excitement in reading it outside of class … not always a frequent occurrence in middle school English classes.

Here are a few excerpts from some of the student papers …

Mitch Albom shows that not forgiving someone is like a virus that eats you up and fills you with hatred, but finally forgiving someone face to face cleanses you and makes you feel stronger and most of all free. – Colton Wilburn

People are afraid sometimes. That’s okay; everyone is afraid of something. I think the theme of the book The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom is don’t be afraid. I think this is the theme because if Eddie was afraid he would have never met his wife or found out the truth about his dad. He also wouldn’t had helped one special little girl … Don’t be afraid to talk to people you like. If you like a boy or girl in your class just tell them about it. The worst that can happen is they will just say they don’t feel the same about you. It’s not the end of the world if they don’t like you, there is plenty of fish in the sea. – Chris Bissinger

Forgiveness is a powerful gift. It is a theme that ran through the book. I learned that forgiveness not only needs to be given, but also accepted. It needs to be accepted from others and yourself. In order to move on in life without hatred in your heart, forgiveness must be there. – Devin Medley

We were all put on Earth for a purpose. We all have an impact on the people around us and we teach them our own lessons about life even if we don’t know it at the time. We all impact each other in different ways, but not one person in the world can say that they don’t have a lesson to share. – Sabina Rapp

So, St, Nicholas Academy thanks you, Mitch Albom, for writing a book that is both accessible and complex, universal yet personal. Out seventh graders ate it up like a new confectionery treat from a Ruby Pier vendor.

Dear Mr. Albom,
I have been teaching Tuesdays with Morrie for 19 years to my high school English classes or should I say Tuesdays with Morrie has been teaching us. Three years ago I had a challenging last period of the day English class and several of my students had no parents, one was pregnant, two had been in institutions for violence and to say the least, there were some emotional scars. Once we started reading Tuesdays with Morrie and talking about the issues, one of my students realized it was a Tuesday and we had talked the whole class about their issues. After that, we started having Tuesdays with Lori (my name) (on their suggestion to start having these personal talks on Tuesday) and it was amazing. I could write a book about our experiences because of the book. If you are ever bored (hee hee), we would love for you to visit us in East Tennessee. Thank you for the spark to many important conversations.

The students in the classroom were silent and absorbed, during the movie. The feelings could almost be reached out and touched. Upon the completion of the movie, discussions were held relating to the movie, but most of all the book and the manor in which the subject manner was conducted. Students volunteered with quotes from the book, which was sensitive and moving.
One of the many comments over and over by the students, ” it brought me so much comfort on how to handle this delicate subject for many people”. How can we ever begin to thank the author? As the instructor my reply, ” practice the thoughts in the book with the people you come in contact. Help the people to understand all the emotions, based on your study of Elizabeth Kubler Ross.
Now as an instructor, I am thanking you for touching so many lives, and making an uncomfortable subject for some, a reality of love, empathy and understanding.

We are students from a private high school located in Clarksville, Tennessee. Recently, our Spanish teacher, Danny Magrans, showed us the movie “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” and utilized it to not only teach us the lessons shown in the movie, but managed to make a spanish lesson out of it by quizzing us on it in spanish and having us use the different past tenses to answer questions over it. This movie served as a big eye opener to all of us as students into the different lessons such as forgiveness, sacrifice, the eternal sense of love, strangers being family we have never met, as well as every life having a purpose. These are lessons that our teacher has been trying to embed in us over the course of the past three years and this movie has helped him to do so. Coach Magrans has been an inspiration to us as students in the way he always seems to extend his heart to others whether or not he has just met them, or known them all his life, whether they have wronged him or done everything for him, and would willingly sacrifice anything for anyone out of the kindness of his heart. Your movie has contributed to his compassion in a way where he is able to see how demonstrating these acts can be beneficial, and we would just like to take a moment to thank you for encouraging not only us, but for encourage our mentor to be the person he is today.

Much thanks,
Becca and Cassidy

At our school we have students read The Five People You Meet in Heaven in 10th grade and Tuesdays with Morrie in 12th grade. I want to combine those two themes and talk about an incredible teacher students meet during the course of their high school years and readings of both books. Lisa Dotson is our pre-AP, AP Language and AP Literature teacher. Her culminating projects for both books take students into a deep dive of personal meaning making fomented by the words and themes in your writing. Just this week students presented their Five People projects – one was a birthday cake for Eddie, a “character cake,” so to speak. The slices had facts about Eddie and the people he meets in the novel. It was “iced” with cotton balls and you could pull out the pieces of the cake to investigate the characters. It would be a great project for other classes to replicate. Thank you to this awesome teacher who has touched the lives of her students and thank you, Mr. Albom, for giving us much to think about and be thankful for in both fiction and non-fiction reading!

I got hugs and e mails from young people who may have never seen a grown man cry or be willing to put their feeling before his. I thank you greatly for this opportunity. I have taught this lesson every single year of my teaching career, sometimes twice.

If only I could put my words down like you did. I would likely find the clarity and peace that you found after Morrie “took his new job”

On behalf of all the students I have taught this lesson, all of which have signed by very tattered copy of the book, I am indebted to you.