Dear America

An agonizing dilemma plagues these brother-sister diarists. He is a Marine stationed in Vietnam. She is at home in America, far away from her brother's war zone, fighting for peace. As the marine writes in his journal about his experiences as a soldier, fighting an enemy he can't see, his sister seeks peace. In these gripping installments of DEAR AMERICA and MY NAME IS AMERICA, Ellen Emerson White captures the unique time period when America was at war both in a far-off place, and at home where adults and children alike marched in the streets for peace and freedom. Poignant and complex, these two characters will give readers a glimpse into perhaps the most tumultuous time in modern American history

The two-time Coretta Scott King Honor Book recipient offers a poignant narrative about a freed slave girl during the Reconstruction Era in the South.

In the diary account of her life at a government-run Pennsylvania boarding school in 1880, a twelve-year-old Sioux Indian girl reveals a great need to find a way to help her people.

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.

It is the Fall of 1941 and Madeline Beck is living with her mother at Mrs. Hawkins' Mansion-by-the-Sea, a boarding house on Long Island. Her father has been sent off to guard the Pacific coast on an aircraft carrier, and Madeline is very scared of all that she hears about the impending War in the Pacific. Will her Dad be alright? What if the Japanese decide to attack? Along with her worries about the war and her father, she must also deal with the anxiety of being the new kid at school. Things brighten up, though, when Johnny Vecchio, who is fascinated by the war and her father's role in it, starts paying close attention to Madeline. They develop a friendship that helps Madeline through the toughest times, from the awful fear of losing her father to the tragic and terrifying bombing of Pearl Harbor. He helps her to remain brave and committed in the face of the war.

New dreams and old traditions flourish and clash when a Jewish girl and her family emigrate from Russia to America.

The narrator describes her experiences as her Navajo tribe is forced to relocate by the U.S. Army in 1864 New Mexico.

An ordinary girl living extraordinary events. Her family, Love, characterizes her comfortable, secure world in Bradford Corners, TN. Until Uncle Pace is murdered by the KKK. The Author gradually exposes the prejudice & segregation existing even though slavery has been abolished over 50 years. All discover, how whites live on one side of the only road, & Colored live on the other. We recognize the fear in the adults' faces when the sheriff warns against reading NAACP materials. & while Nellie's father & uncle attempt to find the only Colored doctor in 2 counties - who's far away delivering twins Nellie & her sister Erma Jean watch Uncle Pace's life slip away. With his death, Erma Jean's voice abandons her. In order to find better treatment for his daughter, Mr. Love & Erma Jean leave for Chicago. Soon, Nellie Lee & her mom join them. Life in Chicago even with less apparent segregation - isn't the promised land her family hoped. However, all that sustained the family in TN hold them together there. Home, once a large 2-story with trees, becomes a 2 room with a shared toilet. Religion, becomes Nellie & Erma's deliverance. Underneath the refined exterior, Chicago is a city of secrets. Mr. Love finds that bribery opens or shuts doors as he struggles with his business. Lake Michigan, a refuge for summer days, ignites racial rioting. The family watch in horror as a friend drowns while white's hurl rocks at Colored swimmers trying to rescue him. For over 2 weeks, all are held hostage & rioting consumes the streets: 38 dead, 100's injured, De facto segregation becomes more firmly rooted there. Mos later, Nellie reflects on her family's time there. The lynchings, rioting. James Weldon Johnson called 1919 the Red Summer - so much blood spilled. they survived battered & torn, but standing." Her diary ends New Year's Eve, 1919 with a summary

Brought up in France as the African slave companion of a nobleman's daughter, thirteen-year-old Zettie records the events of 1763, when she and her mistress escape to the New World where they are inadvertently drawn into the hostilities of the ongoing French and Indian War and, eventually, find a new direction to their lives.

After being orphaned during the influenza epidemic of 1918, eleven-year-old Lydia Pierce and her fourteen-year-old brother are taken by their grieving uncle to be raised in the Shaker community at Sabbathday Lake. Includes author's note about the Shakers.

Thursday, February 28, 1861 P. Cloudy. Wind N.W. Fresh Mr.Lincoln has arrived at last in Washington.... In one week, he inherits the trouble of this great, unhappy country. In one week, the responsibility will be his--whether we come together again a Union,or fall entirely to pieces. And here we sit, in Delaware, on the border between North and South, half the state hauling slaves, half the state opposed to the practice.... It is hard enough to hold a family together. Poor Mr. Lincoln. It is in his hands to hold a whole country together.... My hands are calloused and strong from rowing and working the ropes, from lifting and carrying barrels of oil and scrubbing stone floors and spiral stairs, but I do not know if they are strong enough to hold Mother and Father together. Mr. Lincoln's hands... they must be a thousand times stronger than mine. Please God, give Mr. Lincoln strong hands

Day or two later Freedom is one of the first words I teached myself to write. Down in the Quarters people pray for freedom - they sing 'bout freedom, but to keep Mas' Henley from knowin' their true feelings, they call freedom "heaven." Everybody's mind is on freedom. But it is a word that aine never showed me no picture. While fannin' this afternoon, my eyes fell on "freedom" in a book William was readin'. No wonder I don't see nothin'. I been spellin' it F-R-E-D-U-M. I put the right letters in my head to make sure I remembered their place. F-R-E-E-D-O-M. I just now wrote it. Still no picture...

In 1968 Massachusetts, after her brother Patrick goes to fight in Vietnam, fifteen-year-old Molly records in her diary how she misses her brother, volunteers at a Veterans' Administration Hospital, and tries to make sense of the war in Vietnam and the tumultuous events in the United States. Includes historical notes.

Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, R.M.S. Titanic 1912 (Dear America Series)