Teen stories through diaries, email and letters
Whether novels told through letters or journals of real people, these books may inspire teens to write their own stories.
This booklist was contributed by Appleton Public Library Reference and Information Services Staff, 11/06
Historical Fiction
A coal miner's bride : the diary of Anetka Kaminska by Susan Bartoletti(2000)Part of the Dear America Series.
A diary account of thirteen-year-old Anetka's life in Poland in 1896, immigration to America, marriage to a coal miner, widowhood, and happiness in finally finding her true love.
The journal of Jesse Smoke: a Cherokee boy by Joseph Bruchac(2001)Part of the My Name Is America Series.
Jesse Smoke, a sixteen-year-old Cherokee, begins a journal in 1837 to record stories of his people and their difficulties as they face removal along the Trail of Tears. Includes a historical note giving details of the removal.
The journal of Wong Ming-Chung : a Chinese miner by Laurence Yep(2000)Part of the My Name Is America Series.
A young Chinese boy nicknamed Runt records his experiences in a journal as he travels from southern China to California in 1852 to join his uncle during the Gold Rush.
Mable Riley : a reliable record of humdrum, peril, and romance by Marthe Jocelyn(2004)In 1901, fourteen-year-old Mable Riley dreams of being a writer and having adventures while stuck in Perth County, Ontario, assisting her sister in teaching school and secretly becoming friends with a neighbor who holds scandalous opinions on women's rights.
Moon over Tennessee : a boy's Civil War journal by Craig Crist-Evans(1999)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.
My face to the wind : the diary of Sarah Jane Price, a prairie teacher by Jim Murphy(2001)Part of the Dear America Series.
Following her father's death from a disease that swept through her Nebraska town in 1881, teenaged Sarah Jane must find work to support herself and records in her diary her experiences as a young school teacher.
My secret war : the World War II diary of Madeline Beck by Mary Pope Osborne(2000)Part of the Dear America Series
Thirteen-year-old Madeline's diaries for 1941 and 1942 reveal her experiences living on Long Island during World War II while her father is away in the Navy.
The Pox party by M.T. Anderson(2006)Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age sixteen, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War.
This vast land : a young man's journal of the Lewis and Clark Expedition : a novel by Stephen Ambrose(2003)A fictional journal recounting the travels--from 1803 to 1806--of eighteen-year-old George Shannon, the youngest member of Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery, as the Corps explores the west and seeks a water route to the Pacific Ocean.
