Book Blast from the Past: The Dear America Series

This feature was inspired by a post by Eleni at La Femme Readers. My goal for this new feature is to go back to the books that I loved as a pre-teen/teen, and write about why I still enjoy them.

The Dear America series, Published by Scholastic

The Dear America series began releasing the the late 90's, and I picked one up right around the time I turned ten (and Harry Potter was first released). The Winter of Red Snow, which discussed the topic of the revolutionary war, was the first one I recall reading. Each book contains the diary of a young girl, and takes place during a different time period in U.S. history. What's not to enjoy?

I still love this series for sentimental reasons, and I've been contemplating the idea of rereading the series. When I was young, I enjoyed reading about girls dealing with real historical issues. Now, I think I'd focus on the roles of women throughout history. At the start of the series, many the girls would undoubtedly be preparing for their role as caretaker of the home. I think it would be interesting to see how those roles evolve over the course of the books. Due to some in-depth history courses, I think I'd also have a greater appreciation for the stories involving racism and immigration. So, there may be some mini-reviews of these books popping up during my holiday break.

This fall, Scholastic actually announced that they would be relaunching the series! They have created new websites for the series (one is for fans, the other was created for educators), and are re-releasing many of the books. Of course, I'm partial to the hardcovers that I grew up with. After all, they had pretty ribbon as a built in bookmarks. My collection had been sadly neglected, so I headed to ebay to see what they were selling for. I got a great deal on a couple of my favorites...now I just need space for them.