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. [1] 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 .
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.
| Date (original) | Date (reprint) | Author | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | September 2010 | Kathryn Lasky | A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple, Mayflower, 1620 [2] |
| 1996 | September 2010 | Kristiana Gregory | The Winter of Red Snow: The Revolutionary War Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, 1777 |
| 1996 | April 2011 | Barry Denenberg | When Will This Cruel War Be Over? The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson, Gordonsville, Virginia, 1864 |
| 1997 | January 2011 | Patricia McKissack | A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl, Belmont Plantation, Virginia, 1859 |
| 1997 | April 2012 | Kristiana Gregory | Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie: The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell, 1847 |
| 1997 | — | Barry Denenberg | So Far from Home: The Diary of Mary Driscoll, an Irish Mill Girl, Lowell, Massachusetts, 1847 |
| 1997 | July 2011 | Joyce Hansen | I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl, Mars Bluff, South Carolina, 1865 |
| 1998 | — | Jim Murphy | West to a Land of Plenty: The Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi, New York to Idaho Territory, 1883 |
| 1998 | — | Kathryn Lasky | Dreams in the Golden Country: The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish Immigrant Girl, New York City, 1903 |
| 1998 | May 2011 | Mary Pope Osborne | Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catherine Carey Logan, Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania, 1763 |
| 1998 | November 2010 | Ellen Emerson White | Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, RMS Titanic, 1912 |
| 1998 | — | Sherry Garland | A Line in the Sand: The Alamo Diary of Lucinda Lawrence, Gonzales, Texas, 1836 |
| 1999 | — | Ann Rinaldi | My Heart Is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl, Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania, 1880 [3] |
| 1999 | — | Kristiana Gregory | The Great Railroad Race: The Diary of Libby West, Utah Territory, 1868 |
| 1999 | March 2011 | Karen Hesse | A Light in the Storm: The Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin, Fenwick Island, Delaware, 1861 |
| 1999 | — | Ann Turner | The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl, New Mexico, 1864 |
| 2000 | — | Susan Campbell Bartoletti | A Coal Miner's Bride: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska, Lattimer, Pennsylvania, 1896 |
| 2000 | — | Patricia McKissack | Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North, Chicago, Illinois, 1919 |
| 2000 | — | Barry Denenberg | One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping: The Diary of Julie Weiss, Vienna, Austria to New York, 1938 |
| 2000 | — | Mary Pope Osborne | My Secret War: The World War II Diary of Madeline Beck, Long Island, New York, 1941 |
| 2001 | — | Sherry Garland | Valley of the Moon: The Diary Of Maria Rosalia de Milagros, Sonoma Valley, Alta California, 1846 |
| 2001 | — | Kristiana Gregory | Seeds of Hope: The Gold Rush Diary of Susanna Fairchild, California Territory, 1849 |
| 2001 | September 2012 | Kathryn Lasky | Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1932 [4] |
| 2001 | — | Barry Denenberg | Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, Hawaii, 1941 |
| 2001 | — | Jim Murphy | My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher, Broken Bow, Nebraska, 1881 |
| 2002 | — | Ellen Emerson White | Where Have All the Flowers Gone? The Diary of Molly MacKenzie Flaherty, Boston, Massachusetts, 1968 |
| 2002 | — | Kathryn Lasky | A Time for Courage: The Suffragette Diary of Kathleen Bowen, Washington, D.C., 1917 |
| 2002 | — | Barry Denenberg | Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: The Diary of Bess Brennan, Perkins School for the Blind, 1932 |
| 2002 | — | Katelan Janke | Survival in the Storm: The Dust Bowl Diary of Grace Edwards, Dalhart, Texas, 1935 |
| 2002 | — | Beth Seidel Levine | When Christmas Comes Again: The World War I Diary of Simone Spencer, New York City to the Western Front, 1917 |
| 2002 | — | Marion Dane Bauer | Land of the Buffalo Bones: The Diary of Mary Ann Elizabeth Rodgers, an English Girl in Minnesota, New Yeovil, Minnesota, 1873 |
| 2003 | — | Ann Turner | Love Thy Neighbor: The Tory Diary of Prudence Emerson, Green Marsh, Massachusetts, 1774 |
| 2003 | — | Megan McDonald | All the Stars in the Sky: The Santa Fe Trail Diary of Florrie Mack Ryder, The Santa Fe Trail, 1848 |
| 2004 | — | Patricia McKissack | Look to the Hills: The Diary of Lozette Moreau, a French Slave Girl, New York Colony, 1763 |
| 2004 | September 2011 | Lisa Rowe Fraustino | I Walk in Dread: The Diary of Deliverance Trembley, Witness to the Salem Witch Trials, Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1691 |
| 2004 | January 2014 | Deborah Hopkinson | Hear My Sorrow: The Diary of Angela Denoto, a Shirtwaist Worker, New York City, 1909 |
| September 2010 | — | Kirby Larson | The Fences Between Us: The Diary of Piper Davis, Seattle, Washington, 1941 [5] [6] |
| January 2011 | Lois Lowry | Like the Willow Tree: The Diary of Lydia Amelia Pierce, Portland, Maine, 1918 [7] | |
| May 2011 | Kristiana Gregory | Cannons at Dawn: The Second Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, 1779 | |
| September 2011 | Andrea Davis Pinkney | With the Might of Angels: The Diary of Dawnie Rae Johnson, Hadley, Virginia, 1954 | |
| January 2012 | Susan Patron | Behind the Masks: The Diary of Angeline Reddy, Bodie, California, 1880 [8] | |
| March 2013 | Judy Blundell | A City Tossed and Broken: The Diary of Minnie Bonner, San Francisco, California, 1906 [9] | |
| March 2013 | Susan Campbell Bartoletti | Down the Rabbit Hole: The Diary of Pringle Rose, Chicago, Illinois, 1871 [10] | |
Three similar series were also published by Scholastic:
In addition, several of Scholastic's international divisions have published series inspired by the Dear America series:
Similar series from other publishers include:
Half-hour dramatizations of nine books from the series aired on HBO between March 1999 and July 2000. As of November 2025, all nine episodes are available for streaming on Tubi and The Roku Channel, split into two "volumes" [11] of six and three episodes. [12] [13]
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "A Picture of Freedom" | Helaine Head | Ron Stacker Thompson & Ashley Tyler | March 14, 1999 | |
Main cast: Shadia Simmons as Clotee, Alison Sealy-Smith as Aunt Tee, Erica Luttrell as Spicy, Jason Burke as Hince, Richard Sali as Master Henley, Andrew Dinner as William, Catherine Fitch as Miz Lilly, Delores Etienne as Hannah [14] | |||||
| 2 | "Dreams in the Golden Country" | Shawn Levy | Jill Soffer | April 1, 1999 | |
Main cast: Natalie Vansier as Zippy, Dov Tiefenbach as Yitzy, Heather Brown as Tovah, Joshua Peace as Sean, Paul Hecht as Papa, Maggie Huculak as Mama, Sarah Manninen as Helen [15] | |||||
| 3 | "A Journey to the New World" | Don McCutcheon | Eric Tuchman | May 6, 1999 | |
Main cast: Alison Pill as Mem, Andrew Airlie as Father, Brenda Bazinet as Mother, Susannah Hoffmann as Hannah, Kennetch Charlette as Squanto, Donald Burda as Captain Standish, Cody Jones as John Billington, Sally Cahill as Mistress Billington, Alana Brascoupe as Noami, Chris Britton as Brewster [16] | |||||
| 4 | "Standing in the Light" | Stacey Stewart Curtis | Jill Soffer | September 12, 1999 | |
Main cast: Stephanie Mills as Caty, Marc Donato as Thomas, Grant Nickalls as Snow Hunter, Madeleine Bergeron as White Bird, C. David Johnson as Father, Jane Johanson as Mother, Jennifer Podemski as Bright Eyes, Jack Burning as Sachem [17] | |||||
| 5 | "So Far From Home [18] " | Don McCutcheon | Carl Binder | October 2, 1999 | |
| 6 | "The Winter of Red Snow [19] " | Don McCutcheon | Carl Binder | November 6, 1999 | |
| 7 | "Color Me Dark [20] " | Helaine Head | Ann MacNaughton | February 7, 2000 | |
| 8 | "A Line in the Sand [21] " | William Fruet | Heather Conkie | April 10, 2000 | |
| 9 | "When Will This Cruel War Be Over? [22] " | William Fruet | Rhonda Olson | July 5, 2000 | |