The “Alexandru and Aristia Aman” County Library, through the Media Library section and American Corner Craiova, is organizing the book exhibition: “Dear America”.
“Dear America” is a series of historical fiction novels for children, published by Scholastic starting in 1996. By 1998, the series had 12 titles, with 3.5 million copies printed.
Each book is written in the form of a diary depicting the lives of young people during important events or periods in American history, such as the founding of Plymouth Colony, the Salem Witch Trials, slavery, the California Gold Rush, the Great Depression, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the sinking of the Titanic, and most major wars.
Nine books from the series were adapted into half-hour episodes for HBO in 1999 and 2000, followed by three volumes of the spin-off series “The Royal Diaries”.
In total, there are thirty-six books in the original “Dear America” series, published between 1996 and 2004.
From the exhibition we mention a few titles:
- Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie: The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell, 1847
- I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl, Mars Bluff, South Carolina, 1865
- Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, RMS Titanic, 1912
- Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North, Chicago, Illinois, 1919
- Seeds of Hope: The Gold Rush Diary of Susanna Fairchild, California Territory, 1849