Dear America is a series of historical fiction novels for children published by Scholastic starting in 1996. By 1998, the series had 12 titles with 3.5 million copies in print. Each book is written in the form of a diary of a young woman's life during important events or time periods in American history, such as the establishment of Plymouth Colony, the Salem Witch Trials, slavery, the California gold rush, the Great Depression, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the sinking of the RMS Titanic, and most major wars. Originally all the books had a ribbon inserted as a bookmark, furthering the concept of the book as a diary, but this was later discontinued.

Nine books in the series were adapted as half-hour television episodes for HBO in 1999 and 2000, followed by three volumes of the spin-off series The Royal Diaries.

List of books There are thirty-six books in the original Dear America series, which was published between 1996 and 2004.

The series was relaunched in September 2010 with its first new title since 2004, The Fences Between Us by Kirby Larson, as well as re-releases of earlier books. 2011 saw the publication of the first sequel in the series: Cannons at Dawn, a sequel to The Winter of Red Snow. + List of Dear America books Date (original) Date (reprint) Author Title 1996 September 2010 A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple, Mayflower, 1620 1996 September 2010 The Winter of Red Snow: The Revolutionary War Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, 1777 1996 April 2011 When Will This Cruel War Be Over? The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson, Gordonsville, Virginia, 1864 1997 January 2011 A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl, Belmont Plantation, Virginia, 1859 1997 April 2012 Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie: The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell, 1847 1997 So Far from Home: The Diary of Mary Driscoll, an Irish Mill Girl, Lowell, Massachusetts, 1847 1997 July 2011 I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl, Mars Bluff, South Carolina, 1865 1998 West to a Land of Plenty: The Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi, New York to Idaho Territory, 1883 1998 Dreams in the Golden Country: The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish Immigrant Girl, New York City, 1903 1998 May 2011 Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catherine Carey Logan, Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania, 1763 1998 November 2010 Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, RMS Titanic, 1912 1998 A Line in the Sand: The Alamo Diary of Lucinda Lawrence, Gonzales, Texas, 1836 1999 My Heart Is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl, Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania, 1880 1999 The Great Railroad Race: The Diary of Libby West, Utah Territory, 1868 1999 March 2011 A Light in the Storm: The Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin, Fenwick Island, Delaware, 1861 1999 The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl, New Mexico, 1864 2000 A Coal Miner's Bride: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska, Lattimer, Pennsylvania, 1896 2000 Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North, Chicago, Illinois, 1919 2000 One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping: The Diary of Julie Weiss, Vienna, Austria to New York, 1938 2000 My Secret War: The World War II Diary of Madeline Beck, Long Island, New York, 1941 2001 Valley of the Moon: The Diary Of Maria Rosalia de Milagros, Sonoma Valley, Alta California, 1846 2001 Seeds of Hope: The Gold Rush Diary of Susanna Fairchild, California Territory, 1849 2001 September 2012 Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1932 2001 Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, Hawaii, 1941 2001 My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher, Broken Bow, Nebraska, 1881 2002 Where Have All the Flowers Gone? The Diary of Molly MacKenzie Flaherty, Boston, Massachusetts, 1968 2002 A Time for Courage: The Suffragette Diary of Kathleen Bowen, Washington, D.C., 1917 2002 Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: The Diary of Bess Brennan, Perkins School for the Blind, 1932 2002 Survival in the Storm: The Dust Bowl Diary of Grace Edwards, Dalhart, Texas, 1935 2002 When Christmas Comes Again: The World War I Diary of Simone Spencer, New York City to the Western Front, 1917 2002 Land of the Buffalo Bones: The Diary of Mary Ann Elizabeth Rodgers, an English Girl in Minnesota, New Yeovil, Minnesota, 1873 2003 Love Thy Neighbor: The Tory Diary of Prudence Emerson, Green Marsh, Massachusetts, 1774 2003 All the Stars in the Sky: The Santa Fe Trail Diary of Florrie Mack Ryder, The Santa Fe Trail, 1848 2004 Look to the Hills: The Diary of Lozette Moreau, a French Slave Girl, New York Colony, 1763 2004 September 2011 I Walk in Dread: The Diary of Deliverance Trembley, Witness to the Salem Witch Trials, Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1691 2004 January 2014 Hear My Sorrow: The Diary of Angela Denoto, a Shirtwaist Worker, New York City, 1909 September 2010 rowspan=7 The Fences Between Us: The Diary of Piper Davis, Seattle, Washington, 1941 January 2011 Like the Willow Tree: The Diary of Lydia Amelia Pierce, Portland, Maine, 1918 May 2011 Cannons at Dawn: The Second Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, 1779 September 2011 With the Might of Angels: The Diary of Dawnie Rae Johnson, Hadley, Virginia, 1954 January 2012 Behind the Masks: The Diary of Angeline Reddy, Bodie, California, 1880 March 2013 A City Tossed and Broken: The Diary of Minnie Bonner, San Francisco, California, 1906 March 2013 Down the Rabbit Hole: The Diary of Pringle Rose, Chicago, Illinois, 1871

Spin-offs Three similar series were also published by Scholastic: My Name is America, a series of fictional journals of young men during American history My America, a series of fictional diaries of young children during American history The Royal Diaries, a series of fictional journals about the teenage years of famous royal women throughout world history

In addition, several of Scholastic's international divisions have published series inspired by the Dear America series: Dear Canada and I Am Canada, published by Scholastic Canada My Story, published by Scholastic UK. This series republishes at least three of the Dear America books: A Journey to the New World (as Mayflower), A Picture of Freedom (as Slave Girl), and Voyage on the Great Titanic. My Australian Story, published by Scholastic Australia My New Zealand Story, published by Scholastic New Zealand Dear India and The Teenage Diary of..., published by Scholastic India

Similar series from other publishers include: Diarios Mexicanos, published by Planeta (Spain) Mon Histoire, published by Gallimard Jeunesse (France) Fy Hanes I, published by Gamer Press (Wales)

Television adaptation Half-hour dramatizations of nine books from the series aired on HBO between March 1999 and July 2000. They were also played on FX in the 2000s. As of November 2025, all nine episodes are available for streaming on Tubi and The Roku Channel, split into two "volumes" of six and three episodes.

Episodes

References

External links