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Introducing Dear America and My Name Is America
The Dear America and My Name Is America series have proven to be a welcome addition to literature written for children. The diary and journal formats allow youngsters to experience American history through the eyes of someone their own age. Once readers have read eleven-year-old Remember Patience Whipple's account of her journey on the Mayflower and her mother's death in Plymouth, or Abigail Stewart's description of the snow at Valley Forge stained with blood from the feet of American soldiers who had no shoes, or witnessed the courage of Scott Pendleton Collins on Omaha Beach in 1944, they can no longer look at American history as a collection of dry facts in a textbook. The Dear America and My Name Is America books are perfect for parents, teachers, librarians, and booksellers looking for fiction that blends reading motivation and American history for readers in elementary and middle school.
With over five million copies in print, a television series, and a number of distinguished awards, Scholastic's Dear America and My Name Is America books have become some of the bestselling historical fiction ever published for children. Their success has shown just how much young readers will enjoy history if it is presented in an accessible and enjoyable way.
One important key to the success of both series is the quality authors who write these diaries and journals-a who's who of the best people working in the field of literature for children today. Newbery Medal winner Karen Hesse brings her unique voice to the books, as do Coretta Scott King Honor and Award winners Joyce Hansen, Patricia McKissack, and Walter Dean Myers. Kathryn Lasky, Jim Murphy, Barry Denenberg, Mary Pope Osborne, and Kristiana Gregory add to the sampling of respected award-winning authors creating books for the Dear America and My Name Is America series. These authors are all noted for the quality research they put into the books they do for children, and that hallmark of extensive research is a part of each of their books in the Scholastic series. Indeed, although the characters are created by the authors, many of the books are inspired by actual diaries and journals of the time.
The diary format is another reason for the success of these books. Young female readers have always found pleasure in this intimate writing form. The Dear America keepsake diaries are beautifully designed with period paintings selected from museum collections, and a special ribbon placeholder; they feel like real antique diaries. Another unique quality is that the Dear America books provide readers with history told from a young female point of view. Girls experience American history through the diary entries of another girl their own age, rather than only reading about the famous, but remote, men who populate history textbooks.
As young female readers, educators, and booksellers clamored for more Dear America books, boys began to ask for a similar series for themselves. My Name Is America was born. These novels are journals rather than diaries and feature male characters living out their lives during important periods of American history. For example, The Journal of William Thomas Emerson gives students a feel for the days leading up to the American Revolution as he relates a story of intrigue and clandestine meetings around Boston when the boy becomes an active spy for the colonial patriots in 1774. Walter Dean Myers takes boys on to the 1944 battlefield at Omaha Beach as Scott Pendleton Collins writes his journal filled with courage, death, and the will to survive. Just like the Dear America diaries, the My Name Is America journals also provide extensive back matter and resource information including maps, photos, drawings, songs, and an author's note that sets the journal in historical context. Also included is an epilogue which tells the fate of the main character in the years to come.
Educators, booksellers, and critics praise the unique blend of quality writing and popularity with young readers.
"More than a supplement to classroom textbooks, this series is an imaginative, solid entree into American history." - Publishers Weekly
"An impressive series that will challenge students to make connections from prominent historical events to relevant life situations...A wonderful asset to the classroom as well as to home libraries."
- Children's Book Review Service
"Engaging, accessible historical fiction." - School Library Journal
"The Dear America diaries represent the best of historical fiction for any age." - Chicago Tribune
Praise for the TV series:
"Forget the Spice Girls. "Dear America," based on the popular Scholastic book series, is real girl power. This brilliant merging of history and entertainment presents fictionalized accounts of real events from a teenage heroine's point of view, but has enough crossover appeal to attract a wide audience." - Laura Fries, Daily Variety
Another recently launched companion series is "The Royal Diaries." These fictional diaries, based on historical research, illuminate the thoughts and lives of famous royal figures such as Cleopatra, Isabella of Spain, Elizabeth I of England, and Marie Antionette of France.
Making Connections: A Thematic Approach
In many schools, an integrated language arts-social studies curriculum promotes interdisciplinary connections and encourages students to recognize the importance of reading and writing in all facets of their lives. The Dear America diaries and My Name Is America journals facilitate this cross-curricular approach for students of diverse ability levels.
Other schools teach language arts from a genre perspective, in which all students on a particular grade level read historical fiction, then pattern their own writing after the author's style. Because of the diary and journal formats, the Dear America and My Name Is America books work well for examining historical fiction as "genre," as well as for emulating historical fiction writing.
A third use for the Dear America and My Name Is America books is the exploration of themes. Readers can pursue connections across time periods and settings. Instead of simply studying transportation at the time of the Pilgrims or the western pioneers, from a textbook or encyclopedia, readers can experience it for themselves and discuss it in the context of Remember Patience Whipple, Hattie Campbell, and Teresa Angelino Viscardi, all brave, adventuresome girls who traveled to a new home with their families, by ship, wagon train, and steam engine.
This guide introduces some fundamental connections and themes you can expand upon in your own book discussion groups. More detailed discussion guides on individual books, featuring questions about that book, student activities, and an interview with the author, are available on the Internet at www.scholastic.com/dearamerica.
From Foreign Shores: The Immigrant Experience
Increasing numbers of students are entering American schools as strangers in an alien land. These children hope for compassion and understanding in their schools, but often what they find are teachers and classmates unfamiliar with the difficulties immigrant families experience. One of the most valuable functions of all literature, but particularly historical fiction, is to establish empathy between reader and protagonist. Some of the young people we meet in Dear America and My Name Is America reflect the profound differences between an immigrant's former existence and her new life in America. The Dear America books not only enhance themed units relating to immigration, but also act as a bridge between the experiences of American-born children and those of newcomers.
Dear America diaries and journals address a number of immigration issues: poverty, substandard housing, hazardous labor conditions, social classes, and limited access to education. In order to survive these challenges, the diary and journal writers-Remember Patience Whipple, Anetka Kaminska, Margaret Ann Brady, Mary Driscoll, Sean Sullivan, Wong Ming-Chung-have to be adventurous, hardy, courageous, and hopeful. Some of these youngsters, like feisty Zippy Feldman in The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, are not easily convinced this new country will be worth the effort. As with other immigrant families, Zippy's parents, plagued by all their hardships, begin to argue. Their home, unlike what they have left behind, is a narrow, foul-smelling tenement apartment with a shared lavatory in the hallway. School is bewildering. Because she doesn't speak English, Zippy is placed in a first grade classroom. "I have never felt more completely lost. And humiliated, far beyond blushing...I am miserable-totally, completely miserable." These obstacles, and the character traits that allow new citizens to survive, are a motif throughout the Dear America diaries.
What are the character traits Dear America diary and journal writers share with real immigrant children? Kathryn Lasky, award-winning author of both Remember Patience Whipple's and Zippy Feldman's diaries, observes that each group of newcomers, from the Pilgrims of 1620 to the pilgrims who flock to America today, bring with them "extraordinary and true stories of bravery and strength and faith." Reflecting on the diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi, whose parents immigrated, author Jim Murphy concludes that immigrants are risk-takers. "Think about leaving behind everything you know"-friends, relatives, home, and even favorite foods-for an unknown future that comes with no guarantees. People willing to risk that much must "possess a fierce determination to survive and to better themselves." What we see in the diary of Mary Driscoll, one of thousands of immigrants forced from Ireland by the potato famine, is a determination to survive. Barry Denenberg, the author of Mary's diary, believes that immigration begins with "profound suffering," and includes "wrenching decisions...hardships...fear and loneliness."
Six months after arriving at Ellis Island, Zippy Feldman and her sister contemplate the hardships their family members have endured. By taking risks, they have surmounted considerable tragedy to embrace the American dream. "What is it about this country that makes one dream such big dreams?" In answer to her sister's question, Zippy responds, "There is something in the air here in America that does this to people."
Dear America and My Name Is America books that include Immigration issues and themes:
A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple
The Journal of Jaspar Jonathan Pierce: A Pilgrim Boy
So Far from Home: The Diary of Mary Driscoll, an Irish Mill Girl
The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung: A Chinese Miner
The Journal of Sean Sullivan: A Transcontinental Railroad Worker
West to a Land of Plenty: The Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi
A Coal Miner's Bride: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska
Dreams in the Golden Country: The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish Immigrant Girl
Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady
Westward expansion: the pioneer experience
"Go west, young man, go west." Those words, spoken in 1859 by Horace Greeley, energize not only Libby West's father but also a nation of adventurers, free thinkers, gold miners, homesteaders, and cowboys. The Dear America and My Name is America books encourage readers to establish connections between themselves and the children who once trudged across the American frontier. Although Libby's and thousands of additional families may have uprooted themselves from different cities for various reasons, they share common experiences as they head "out west."
The journey itself is dangerous and frequently deadly. Men, women, and children succumb to illness and accident. As author William Durbin notes in Sean Sullivan's journal, "The trip took several months, and the risks of being killed by bandits or Indians, or dying from exposure during the desert and mountain crossings were great." Sacrifice is a major ingredient of the westward migration as friends and family are left behind. Communication with the folks back home is virtually impossible. Even the mementos of a more civilized life become obstacles and are eventually jettisoned along the way. When asked what surprised her most in her Oregon Trail research, Kristiana Gregory replied, "It's hard to fathom the personal sacrifices people made to begin their new lives; they left behind friends, families, possessions, and beloved landscapes."
The young writers of these diaries miss the clean dresses and pretty ribbons they would have worn in more civilized settings. Libby West writes: "It seems my shoes are always dirty, my fingernails, too, and the front of my dress has tiny holes from sparks...I'm afraid I'm very far from looking like a lady." After only a few days on the trail, families realize they are dependent upon nature for much of their food and water. Foraging for food is an unfamiliar task and the results are often disastrous. Sean Sullivan complains that "we now have to haul our water fifty miles" and Joshua Loper describes the water as "so foul you got to strain it through the sweat of your neckerchief." The hardships encountered in the westward migration varied little from one family's experience to another.
Adventure is also a common denominator among the pioneers. Teresa Angelino Viscardi learns tracking and survival skills, scares off bandits, and protects herself and her family-things a teen from New York would not normally experience. Joshua Loper's adventure comes in the guise of stampedes but he also acquires a reputation as a "shooter" by wounding two rustlers.
Sean Sullivan reflects on the changes that his work on the transcontinental railroad has made as he and his father ride a train back to Chicago. "It used to take a half a year to sail the eighteen thousand miles from New York to San Francisco, but these iron ribbons can take a man across the whole country in only a week." The days of the pioneer draw to a close as Sean and Libby West witness-from different vantage points-luminaries hammering the "golden" spike that couples the Central and Union Pacific railroad tracks. Joshua Loper may have expressed the feelings of all the pioneers when he says he is "right in the middle of that dream and riding high."
Dear America and My Name Is America books that include a Westward Expansion theme:
A Line in the Sand: The Alamo Diary of Lucinda Lawrence
Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie: The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell
The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl
The Journal of Sean Sullivan: A Transcontinental Railroad Worker
The Great Railroad Race: The Diary of Libby West
The Journal of Joshua Loper: A Black Cowboy
West to a Land of Plenty: The Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi
Captives in our Own Lands: The Native American Experience
"Sometimes history is just lies that men have agreed upon," observed Libby West's father, a newspaper editor/reporter in post-Civil War Colorado. His statement mirrors author Kristiana Gregory's view of history. "With every subject I've researched-from Cleopatra to the Revolutionary War-there has been conflicting information," Gregory affirms. "Sometimes ‘history' is one person's opinion of an event, rather than what actually took place. Sometimes true events have been distorted or left out of an account to make things look better or worse, depending on the writer and the intended audience."
During past centuries, sanctioned versions of American history have often ignored "what actually took place," substituting self-serving, chauvinistic interpretations of events. This is especially true for information about Native American tribes presented to young readers in history textbooks. The diaries of Nannie Little Rose and Sarah Nita directly address two of the most grievous injustices suffered by Native American people: one, the boarding schools that attempted to assimilate Native American children and eradicate their language and culture, and the other, forced removals of populations (in this case, the Long Walk). Further, other Dear America diaries and My Name Is America journals denounce the prejudice and stereotyping inflicted on Native peoples. Throughout the diaries and journals, the relationships between Native Americans and pioneers-beginning with the earliest settlers in Jamestown and Plymouth-is a repeated theme.
Catharine Carey Logan's diary, Standing in the Light, indicates that the Lenape tribe of Pennsylvania was cheated then slaughtered by English settlers and soldiers, even before the Revolutionary War. Author Mary Pope Osborne reveals that animosity arose when English settlers stole Indian lands and Native Americans fought against colonists during the French and Indian War. These incidents, in turn, generated Indian raids against English settlements. "Perhaps the distance between the two worlds was ultimately unbridgeable, but it seems to me that if there had been more leaders like William Penn, men who respected and honored the Indians, much of the bloodshed and horror of that period might have been avoided."
It is important to remember that the Dear America diaries and My Name Is America journals are fiction. They comprise only one segment of a balanced social studies or literature program. Students should also read informational accounts written by Native American authors. Examining and discussing atrocities-such as the Long Walk that Sarah Nita recounts in her diary-from multiple perspectives is one of the key elements in promoting students' critical thinking. Mary Pope Osborne, author of Catharine Carey Logan's diary, Standing in the Light, says her hope for the diary is that it "will inspire young readers to seek human connections that transcend cultural differences."
Dear America and My Name Is America Books that include a Native American Experience theme:
Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catharine Carey Logan
Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie: The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell
The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl
The Journal of Sean Sullivan: A Transcontinental Railroad Worker
The Great Railroad Race: The Diary of Libby West
My Heart Is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl
West to a Land of Plenty: The Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi
Slavery, Discrimination, and Prejudice: African American Experiences
"Slavery's chains were hard to break." The Dear America diary of Patsy, a freed slave, begins during the anxious days following the Civil War as a divided nation struggles to pry open the remaining links in its manacles of slavery. In many ways, the remnants of slavery's chains still surround contemporary American society. Young readers may find it difficult to relate events from hundreds of years ago to their day-to-day lives. Dear America and My Name Is America provide opportunities to discuss slavery, discrimination, and prejudice, and to relate these to current social problems.
Slavery is the dominant motif in Patsy's and Clotee's diaries. These two young girls-one recently freed and one still enslaved-give substance to the horrors of slavery as they struggle to survive. I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl begins with slavery's collapse. Patsy, confined to serving her masters as a house slave because of her deformed leg, treasures her literacy almost as much as her freedom. She becomes known as Little Teacher because her classroom leads freed Blacks-young and old-to learning. A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl is a precursor to Patsy's narrative. Clotee's story takes place before the Civil War, at the height of slavery. Mas' William's tutor introduces Clotee to the Underground Railway, which in turn conducts Clotee to her own personal interaction with freedom. However, slavery is not the only topic their diaries address. Both books include a personal window on life in the slave quarters in addition to accounts of man's inhumanity to man.
Slavery and the Civil War are themes in other Dear America diaries. When Will This Cruel War Be Over? The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson stands in stark contrast to Clotee's diary. Emma is the daughter of a plantation owner and slaveholder; Clotee is a slave. Emma complains about her hardships and the injustice of her life; Clotee prays she may continue fanning her young master while he takes his lessons-so she too may continue learning. James Edmond Pease is a Union soldier during the Civil War. His journal presents his battlefield thoughts and actions, as well as his interaction with a family of slaves he helps escape to freedom. Amelia Martin provides A Light in the Storm, both literally and figuratively, in a lighthouse on the Delaware coast during the calamitous winter of 1861. Both Amelia and James Pease grow tremendously in their understanding of themselves and of Black Americans. Amelia muses that "like Mother, I once believed unquestioningly in the institution of slavery...I had always thought Mother was right, that slaves were simpleminded. But these slaves, there was something in their eyes, in their way with one another, that made me question how simpleminded, in fact, they were."
The Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation outlawed slavery but did not bring an end to bigotry and prejudice. Joshua Loper's story, the journal of a Black cowboy riding the Chisholm Trail in 1871, provides an alternative view of African Americans' experiences as free citizens. Throughout the Dear America and My Name Is America books, the young people who relate their personal histories also expose their nation's assumptions and beliefs about minorities. The diaries and journals disclose the anguish and despair of prejudice in all its insidious forms: dehumanizing others because of their skin color; conferring privilege on groups because of artificially erected social standings; owning other human beings as property; whipping, abusing, and murdering without legal censure. Through their reading of these books, students may discover with James Edmond Pease that "These are my friends...you will treat them with respect."
Dear America and My Name Is America Books that address prejudice as a theme:
African American
A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl
A Light in the Storm: The Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin
The Journal of James Edmond Pease: A Civil War Union Soldier
I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl
The Journal of Joshua Loper: A Black Cowboy
Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love
Native American
Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catharine Carey Logan
The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl
My Heart Is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl
European Immigrants
So Far from Home: The Diary of Mary Driscoll, an Irish Mill Girl
The Journal of Sean Sullivan: A Transcontinental Railroad Worker
West to a Land of Plenty: The Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi
Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady
Other Immigrants
The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung: A Chinese Miner
The Great Railroad Race: The Diary of Libby West
Dreams in the Golden Country: The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish Immigrant Girl
The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559, Mirror Lake Internment Camp
Life Is Precious: The War Experience
"This war has made me see how precious life is. Odd when I am surrounded by death and darkness." This quote from When Will This Cruel War Be Over? typifies the way the realities of war come across in the Dear America and My Name Is America: war is not glorified. The gift of life is affirmed. Young readers experience the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and World War II through the fictional writings of boys and girls living during each historical event. While youngsters are exposed to the causes of the American Revolution or the Civil War, these are not stories of war told from the adult viewpoint of George Washington or Robert E. Lee. It is history from the bottom up, not the top down, as author Barry Denenberg says. "Not the history made by politicians, but the history made by ordinary people during extraordinary times."
In The Winter of Red Snow and The Journal of William Thomas Emerson, eleven-year-old Abigail Stewart and twelve-year-old Will Emerson put human faces on the American Revolution. Abigail's diary recreates the famous winter at Valley Forge. She watches the American soldiers stain the snow red with their shoeless, bloody feet as they march by her cabin. Abigail's diary entries paint pictures of courage and cowardice, of charity and greed, of life and death during that bitter winter, but it also highlights the strength of the human spirit and shows today's readers that even in times of war, love and hope can prevail.
Will Emerson's journal is filled with intrigue and clandestine meetings as Will becomes an active spy for the colonial patriots in Boston just before the Revolutionary War. When Will watches a best friend die from a beating given by British soldiers, readers make an emotional connection with the war. The Journal of William Thomas Emerson describes the building anger against the British felt by the common folks in the city of Boston.
As time moves on in American history, the sounds and smells of war reappear in the 1860s. The Dear America and My Name Is America books give readers four views of the Civil War. In A Light in the Storm: The Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin, Newbery Medal winner Karen Hesse sets her story in the state of Delaware in 1861. Amelia Martin's diary is a tale of wanting to hold things together-a family, a state ("half the state holding slaves, half the state opposed to the practice"), and a country. As Amelia tries to hold her family together, she considers the mammoth job facing Abraham Lincoln and she writes, "Mr. Lincoln's hands...they must be a thousand times stronger than mine. Please God, give Mr. Lincoln strong hands."
When Will This Cruel War Be Over? The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson is also about holding things together-a way of life. It is Virginia in 1864 when Emma shares the feelings of helplessness and anger of Southern homeowners when Yankee troops enter their houses, take their family possessions, and burn the homes. The Simpson's gracious antebellum life is changing forever. Emma's diary reveals the episodes of melancholy that haunt her life. But her attitude invariably returns to hopeful as she realizes the things that are important. "This war has made me see how precious life is."
Award-winning author Jim Murphy gives readers yet another view of the Civil War in his Journal of James Edmond Pease: A Civil War Union Soldier. Here is war from the vantage point of a sixteen-year-old soldier. The journal is filled with the mundane events in the life of a soldier-complaints of bad food and no sleep. But the horror of war is here as well. "Sgt. Donoghue was sitting with is back against the breastworks, shot thru the bowels, holding his guts in his hands and bleeding badly." James matures, discovers love, earns the respect of his peers and superiors, and in the process manages to survive the most deadly war in the history of America.
Finally, there's I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl, set in 1865 in South Carolina. What was it like to be a slave one day and free the next? What does a girl do with that freedom when slavery is all she's known? How does it feel to be thought of as a slow dunce only to carry inside you a fire for learning, a love for books, and the secret that you can read and write? The answers to these questions are at the core of Patsy's diary.
History continues, and the troops keep marching. It is now the 1940s and World War II. In The Journal of Ben Uchida, readers find out what life was like in a Japanese Internment Camp in California. Twelve-year-old Ben tells the story of his world changed overnight with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. "I never thought I looked different from the other kids. Never once, even though most of them are Caucasian, except for Billy Smith, who's a Negro, and Charles Hamanda, who's part Japanese, part jerk. But now I realize my face was different. My hair was black. My skin was yellow. My eyes were narrow. It never seemed to matter before, but it sure did matter now. Now my face was the face of the enemy."
The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins: A World War II Soldier by Walter Dean Myers brings readers right into the thick of battle. The warm good-bye scene at Scott's Virginia home is quickly contrasted with Omaha Beach, France, in 1944. Through Scott's journal entries, readers can smell the smoke and death of war, hear the bullets and screams, and taste fear and courage as Scott and his fellow soldiers make their way up the beach toward the German pillbox and the machine gun fire raining down on them.
While they deal with war, each of these books is also about bravery, sacrifice, the resilience of the human spirit, and a youngster's dreams of a hopeful future.
Dear America and My Name Is America Books that include War as a theme:
The Journal of William Thomas Emerson: A Revolutionary War Patriot
The Winter of Red Snow: The Revolutionary War Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart
A Light in the Storm: The Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin
The Journal of James Edmond Pease: A Civil War Union Soldier
When Will This Cruel War Be Over? The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson
I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl
The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559, Mirror Lake Internment Camp
The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins: A World War II Soldier
Additional themes in Dear America and My Name Is America books
In addition to the major themes presented above, there are numerous others that may be found in the Dear America and My Name is America books. The following descriptions represent only a sampling of themed connections. We're sure you will discover others when you share these books with young readers.
Changing View of Women and Women in the Workplace
All of the Dear America diaries and many of the My Name Is America journals provide examples of talented women and girls who challenge stereotypical concepts of femininity. Wives and daughters step in to assist or replace their male counterparts in work, battle, or providing for the family's survival.
When Will This Cruel War Be Over? The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson
A Line in the Sand: The Alamo Diary of Lucinda Lawrence
A Light in the Storm: The Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin
The Great Railroad Race: The Diary of Libby West
West to a Land of Plenty: The Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi
Dreams in the Golden Country: The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish Immigrant Girl
Influential Father Figure
It is important for young people to have heroes and role models-both male and female-to emulate. Dear America and My Name is America books feature not only strong women but also courageous, loving, and gentle men who are exemplary models for male and female readers.
Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catharine Carey Logan
A Light in the Storm: The Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin
The Journal of Sean Sullivan: A Transcontinental Railroad Worker
The Great Railroad Race: The Diary of Libby West
The Journal of Joshua Loper: A Black Cowboy
The Strong family
The Dear America and My Name Is America books are filled with portraits of supportive families and the positive role these family members play in providing youngsters on the brink of adolescence with love and security even in the most difficult circumstances.
Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie: The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell
The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl
The Great Railroad Race: The Diary of Libby West
West to a Land of Plenty: The Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi
Dreams in the Golden Country: The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish Immigrant Girl
The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559, Mirror Lake Internment Camp
The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins: A World War II Soldier
Exciting Reads for Boys
If the boys you know complain that books are "boring," share one of these journals or diaries with them. Along with history, each features action and courage by placing young men in challenging and often dangerous situations. Furthermore, the brevity of entries is a psychological enticement for reluctant readers.
Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catharine Carey Logan
The Journal of William Thomas Emerson: A Revolutionary War Patriot
A Line in the Sand: The Alamo Diary of Lucinda Lawrence
The Journal of James Edmond Pease: A Civil War Union Soldier
The Journal of Sean Sullivan: A Transcontinental Railroad Worker
The Great Railroad Race: The Diary of Libby West
The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559, Mirror Lake Internment Camp
The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins: A World War II Soldier
Complete list of Dear America and My Name is America Titles
(through July 2000)
Colonial Period
A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple, the Mayflower, 1620
by Kathryn Lasky
0-590-50214-X $10.95
The Journal of Jasper Jonathan Pierce, A Pilgrim Boy, Plymouth, 1620
by Ann Rinaldi
0-590-51078-9 $10.95
(July 2000)
Revolutionary War
The Journal of William Thomas Emerson: A Revolutionary War Patriot, Boston, Massachusetts, 1774
by Barry Denenberg
0-590-31350-9 $10.95
The Winter of Red Snow: The Revolutionary War Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, 1777
by Kristiana Gregory
0-590-22653-3 $10.95
Slavery
A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, A Slave Girl, Belmont Plantation, Virginia, 1859
by Patricia C. McKissack
0-590-25988-1 $10.95
Civil War
A Light in the Storm: The Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin, Fenwick Island, Delaware, 1861
by Karen Hesse
0-590-56733-0 $10.95
The Journal of James Edmond Pease: A Civil War Union Soldier, Virginia, 1863
by Jim Murphy
0-590-43814-X $10.95
When Will This Cruel War Be Over? The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson, Gordonsville, Virginia, 1864
by Barry Denenberg
0-590-22862-5 $10.95
Reconstruction
I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl, Mars Bluff, South Carolina, 1865
by Joyce Hansen
0-590-84913-1 $10.95
Westward Expansion
A Line in the Sand: The Alamo Diary of Lucinda Lawrence, Gonzales, Texas, 1835
by Sherry Garland
0-590-39466-5 $10.95
Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie: The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell, 1847
by Kristiana Gregory
0-590-2265107 $10.95
The Journal of Sean Sullivan: A Transcontinental Railroad Worker, Nebraska and Points West, 1867
by William Durbin
0-439-04994-6 $10.95
The Great Railroad Race: The Diary of Libby West, Utah Territory, 1868
by Kristiana Gregory
0-590-10991-X $10.95
The Journal of Joshua Loper: A Black Cowboy, The Chisholm Trail, 1871
by Walter Dean Myers
0-590-02691-7 $10.95
West to a Land of Plenty: The Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi, New York to Idaho Territory, 1883
by Jim Murphy
0-590-73888-7 $10.95
Native American Experience
Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catharine Carey Logan, Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania, 1763
by Mary Pope Osborne
0-590-13462-0 $10.95
The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl, New Mexico, 1864
by Ann Turner
0-590-97216-2 $10.95
My Heart Is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl, Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania, 1880
by Ann Rinaldi
0-590-14922-9 $10.95
Immigration
So Far from Home: The Diary of Mary Driscoll, an Irish Mill Girl, Lowell, Massachusetts, 1847
by Barry Denenberg
0-590-92667-5 $10.95
The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung, A Chinese Miner, California, 1852
by Laurence Yep
0-590-38607-7 $10.95
(April 2000)
A Coal Miner's Bride: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska, Lattimer, Pennsylvania, 1896
by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
0-439-05386-2 $10.95
(July 2000)
Dreams in the Golden Country: The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish Immigrant Girl, New York City, 1903
by Kathryn Lasky
0-590-02973-8 $10.95
Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, RMS Titanic, 1912
by Ellen Emerson White
0-590-96273-6 $10.95
The Great Migration
Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North, Chicago, Illinois, 1919
by Patricia C. McKissack
0-590-51159-9 $10.95
(April 2000)
World War II
The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559, Mirror Lake Internment Camp, California, 1942
by Barry Denenberg
0-590-48531-8 $10.95
The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins: A World War II Soldier, Normandy, France, 1944
by Walter Dean Myers
0-439-05013-8 $10.95
World History ...don't miss The Royal Diaries
Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile, Egypt, 57 B.C.
by Kristiana Gregory
0-590-81975-5 $10.95
Isabel: Jewel of Castilla, Spain, 1466
by Carolyn Meyer
0-439-07805-9 $10.95
(April 2000)
Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor, England, 1544
by Kathryn Lasky
0-590-68484-1 $10.95
Marie Antoinette: Princess of Versailles, Austria-France, 1769
by Kathryn Lasky
0-439-07666-8 $10.95
(April 2000)
Discussion guide written by Richard F. Abrahamson, Professor of Literature for Children and Young Adults, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, and Linda M.Pavonetti, Assistant Professor, Department of Reading and Language Arts, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan.
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