Diaries in Literature from Inquiry Unlimited practitioner formerly sited at Boston KidWeb at Joseph Lee School, Boston, MA

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Literacy Diaries in Literature

DIARIES AS A MODEL FOR STUDENT WRITING

Ayres, Katherine. North by Night. NY: Delacorte Press, 1998. (176 ps.)
Presents the journal of a sixteen-year-old girl whose family operates a stop on the Underground Railroad.
Beatty, Patricia. Turn Homeward, Hannalee. NY: Morrow, 1984. (193 ps)
Twelve-year-old Hannalee Reed, forced to relocate in Indiana along with other Georgia millworkers during the Civil War, leaves her mother with a promise to return home as soon as the war ends. (193 ps.)
Blos, Joan. A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830 - 32. NY: Atheneum, 1979. (144 ps.)
The journal of a 14-year-old girl, kept the last year she lived on the family farm, records daily events in her small New Hampshire town, her father's remarriage, and the death of her best friend.
Brill, Marlene Targ. Diary of A Drummer Boy. Conn: Millbrook Press, 1998.
The fictionalized diary of a twelve-year-old boy who joins the Union army as a drummer, and ends up fighting in the Civil War.
Crist-Evans, Craig. Moon Over Tennessee: A Boy's Civil War Journal. Houghton Mifflin, 1999 . 60 ps.
A thirteen-year-old boy sets off with his father from their farm in Tennessee to join the Confederate forces on their way to fight at Gettysburg. Told in the form of diary entries.
Denenberg, Barry. So Far From Home. NY: Scholastic, 1997. (170 ps) [Dear America series]
In the diary account of her journey from Ireland in 1847 and of her work in a mill in Lowell, Massachusetts, fourteen-year-old Mary reveals a great longing for her family.
Denenberg, Barry. The Journal of William Thomas Emerson, a Revolutionary War Patriot. NY: Scholastic, 1998. [Dear America series]
William, a twelve-year-old orphan, writes of his experiences in pre-Revolutionary War Boston where he joins the cause of the patriots who are opposed to the British rule.
Garland, Sherry. The Line in the Sand: The Alamo Diary of Lucinda Lawrence. NY: Scholastic, 1998. [Dear America series]
In the journal she receives for her twelfth birthday in 1835, Lucinda Lawrence describes the hardships her family and other residents of the "Texas colonies" endure when they decide to face the Mexicans in a fight for their freedom.
Gregory, Kristiana. The Great Railroad Race: The Diay of Libby West. NY: Scholastic, 1999. [Dear America series]
As the daughter of a newspaper reporter, fourteen-year-old Libby keeps a diary account of the exciting events surrounding her during the building of the railroad in the West in 1868.
Gregory, Kristiana. Prairie Dust: The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell, Booneville, Missoura, 1847. NY: Scholastic, 1997. (173 ps.) [Dear America series]
In her diary, thirteen-year-old Hattie chronicles her family's arduous 1847 journey from Missouri to Oregon on the Oregon Trail.
Gregory, Kristiana. The Winter of Red Snow: The Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, 1777-1778. NY: Scholastic, 1996. (173 ps.) [Dear America series]
Eleven-year-old Abigail presents a diary account of life in Valley Forge from December 1777 to July 1778 as General Washington prepares his troops to fight the British.
Hansen, Joyce. I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, A Freed Girl. NY: Scholastic, 1997. [Dear America series]
Twelve-year-old Patsy keeps a diary of the ripe but confusing time following the end of the Civil War and the granting of freedom to former slaves.
Hopkinson, Deborah. Birdie's Lighthouse. NY: Atheneum, 1997.
The diary of a ten-year-old girl who moves with her family in 1855 from a town on the Maine coast to rugged Turtle Island where her father is to be the lighthouse keeper.
Lasky, Kathryn. Dreams in the Golden Country: The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, A Jewish Immigrant Girl. NY: Scholastic, 1998. [Dear America series]
Twelve-year-old Zippy, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, keeps a diary account of the first eighteen months of her family's life on the Lower East Side of New York City in 1903-1904.
Lasky, Kathryn. A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple: Mayflower/Plimouth Colony, 1620. NY: Scholastic, 1996. [Dear America series]
Twelve-year-old Mem presents a diary account of the trip she and her family made on the Mayflower in 1620 and their first year in the New World.
Mathis, Sharon. Running Girl. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1997.
In her diary Ebonee Rose records her passion for running, her desire to be like the great African American women athletes who have come before her, and her preparations for the All-City Meet.
McKissack, Pat. A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl, Belmont Plantation, Vriginia, 1859. NY: Scholastic, 1997. [Dear America series]
In 1859 twelve-year-old Clotee, a house slave who must conceal the fact that she can read and write, records in her diary her experiences and her struggle to decide whether to escape to freedom.
McPhail, David. Farm Boy's Year. NY: Atheneum, 1992.
Diary entries and illustrations evoke a boy's life on a New England farm in the1800s.
Moss, Marissa. Amelia Hits the Road. Tricycle Press, 1997. Ten-year-old Amelia keeps a journal of the summer car trip she takes with her mother and sister to Grand Canyon, Death Valley, and their California home town to visit Amelia's best friend.
Moss, Marissa. Rachel's Journal: The Story of A Pioneer Girl. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1998.
In her journal, 10-year-old Rachel chronicles her family's adventures traveling by covered wagon on the Oregon Trail in 1850.
Murphy, Jim. The Journal of James Edmond Pease, A Civil War Union Soldier. NY: Scholastic, 1998. [Dear America series]
James Edmond, a sixteen-year-old orphan, keeps a journal of his experiences and those of "G" Company which he joined as a volunteer in the Union Army during the Civil War.
Murphy, Jim. West to a Land of Plenty: The Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi. NY: Scholastic, 1998. [Dear America series]
While traveling in 1883 with her Italian American family (including a meddlesome little sister) and other immigrant pioneers to a utopian community in Idaho, fourteen-year-old Teresa keeps a diary of her experiences along the way.
Myers, Walter Dean. The Journal of Joshua Loper: A Black Cowboy. NY: Scholastic, 1999. [Dear America series]
In 1871 Joshua Loper, a sixteen-year-old black cowboy, records in his journal his experiences while making his first cattle drive under an unsympathetic trail boss.
Osborne, Mary Pope. Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catherine Carey Logan, Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania, 1763. NY: Scholastic, 1998. [Dear America series]
A Quaker girl's diary reflects her experiences growing up in the Delaware River Valley of Pennsylvania and her capture by Lenape Indians in 1763.

White. Ellen Emerson. Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Bardy, R.M.S. Titanic, 1912. NY: Scholastic, 1998. [Dear America series]

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