Dear America


Dear America is a series of historical fiction novels for older girls published by Scholastic in 1996. The series was cancelled in 2004 with its final release, Hear My Sorrow. However, it was relaunched in the fall of 2010. 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. The Dear America series covers a wide range of topics, including: the Pilgrims' journey to the New World, the Salem Witch Trials, the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, western expansion, slavery, immigration, nineteenth-century prairie life, the California Gold Rush of 1849, the Great Depression, Native Americans' experiences, racism, coal mining, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the fight for women's suffrage, the sinking of the RMS Titanic, the Battle of the Alamo, the Vietnam War, and more. The breadth of historical topics covered in these books through fiction makes the Dear America series a favorite teaching device of history schoolteachers around the country. The re-launch series and releases contain a new cover style and different pictures of the main characters than those of the original releases. Originally all the books had a ribbon inserted as a bookmark for the books but were removed in the later releases. Several of the stories were filmed and released on videotape. There is also a televised adaptation on Qubo.

Original series

There are thirty-six books in the original Dear America series:
The Dear America series was relaunched in September 2010 with their first new book since 2004, The Fences Between Us by Kirby Larson, set during World War II, as well as re-releases of earlier books. New books for 2011 include Like the Willow Tree, Cannons at Dawn, With the Might of Angels, Behind the Masks, A City Tossed and Broken, and Down the Rabbit Hole. There have also been new editions of several earlier books released in 2011.
Books in the relaunched Dear America series:
Three other spin-off book series were also published by Scholastic:
In addition, several of Scholastic's international divisions have published series inspired by the Dear America series:
Other, Non-Scholastic series, spin-offs include: