The Royal Diaries


The Royal Diaries is a series of 20 books published by Scholastic Press from 1999 to 2005. In each of the books, a fictional diary of a real female figure of royalty as a child throughout world history was written by the author. The Royal Diaries was a spin-off of Scholastic's popular Dear America series. While Dear America, My Name Is America, and My America were all cancelled in 2004, The Royal Diaries continued until 2005.
Unlike Dear America, which consisted of diaries of young girls living during pivotal periods in American history, The Royal Diaries is a series that features women of royalty from all over the world. The series is fictional, though it involves real historical figures. Facts and images concerning the historical figure featured in the book are given at the end of each of the books.

Subjects in ''The Royal Diaries''

The Royal Diaries has covered many famous women in royalty, including Jahanara, Marie Antoinette, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen Elizabeth I, Mary, Queen of Scots, Isabella I of Castile, Cleopatra VII, the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, Catherine the Great, Empress Elisabeth, and Queen Victoria. The series has also covered less known women, such as Anacaona of the Taínos, Weetamoo of the Pocassets, the Lady of Ch'iao Kuo of the Hsien, the Lady of Palenque of the Mayans, and Nzingha of Ndongo. It also covers the life and customs of these women. The target age for these books is nine to twelve.

Books in the Series

In 2000, HBO created three TV movies based on the three of the Royal Diaries books: Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor , Isabel: Jewel of Castilla , and Cleopatra: Daughter of the Nile . The title characters were portrayed by Tamara Hope, Lisa Jakub and Elisa Moolecherry, respectively.
Reruns of these adaptations also air on Qubo.