The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple: Mayflower, 1620
November 1, 2001
Kathryn Lasky adds to the Dear America series with Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, set in Indianapolis, Ind., in 1932. Even though things look bleak, Minnie's family figures out a way to celebrate the holiday. Period photographs and the lyrics to Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? add historical color.
September 2, 1996
In the impressive inaugural installments of the Dear America series, three accomplished authors give readers illuminating glimpses of the nation's past. Presented as a girl's diary, each book features real-life historical figures and the diarists' subjective descriptions of significant occurrences (respectively, the Pilgrims' journey on the Mayflower and founding of Plimoth colony in 1620, Washington's army's arduous winter of 1778 at Valley Forge, and the Union occupation of a Virginia town in 1864). The greatest emphasis, however, is on the girls' daily lives and their relationships with family, friends and sometimes annoying acquaintences. All three authors include an abundance of hard-hitting incidents and images: the mothers of two of the narrators die; Remember watches as bodies of the dead are thrown overboard from the Mayflower; near an army surgeon's hut, Abby spies a trough filled with hands and feet. Journal entries in Denenberg's book are decidedly more formal and ponderous than those penned by Lasky and Gregory, but his heroine's personality and way of life emerge almost as convincingly as those of her counterparts. Epilogues provide a follow-up to the fictional characters' lives, while historical notes objectively summarize key events of the periods. Rough-edged pages and sewn-in ribbon place-markers give these attractively priced, paper-over-board volumes the look of genuine diaries. More than a supplement to classroom textbooks, the series is an imaginative, solid entree into American history. Ages 8-13.
January 1, 2011
Three reissued titles find orphaned Margaret as companion to a wealthy woman aboard the Titanic; Abigail describing Valley Forge; and "Mem" telling of the Mayflower voyage. In new series entry Fences, Piper discusses her family's involvement in WWII. Each of the fictional diaries, in addition to presenting one girl's unique perspective, conveys engaging information about the story's time period.
(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)