Dear America

Dear America

I think many of us, adult and child alike, have an affinity for
fiction in a diary format. Somehow it seems more real, more personal,
and more intimate. Scholastic's Dear America series is a gold mine
for young lovers of historical fiction. One night, casing the Veazie
Community School library before a school board meeting, I was lucky
enough to find two new offerings.
Lois Lowry's Like The Willow Tree was a real eye opener for me.
That is not an easy feat. I've been a historical fiction fan since my
own childhood days. Before I opened this book I knew three things
about the Shakers:
1. They made furniture.
2. They practiced celibacy.
3. They were dying out which probably had a lot to do with 2.
After I read it I had a vivid picture of a nonsexist community of
faith who exercised their values and beliefs in every aspect of living.
Lydia (11) and her brother, Daniel, lose their parents to
influenza in 1918. (This is one Dear America book I would not
recommend for more sensitive kids.) They are taken from the only home
they have ever known in Portland, Maine to a Shaker colony at Sabbathy
Lake. Everything is done differently. Possessions are held in
common. Meals are eaten in silence. Girls and boys live in different
buildings and must be separate at meals snd school. (Can you imagine
not being able to talk to the only other family member still alive?)
Lydia adapts but worries about Daniel. He seems restless. Will he
too disappear from her life forever?
Andrea Davis Pinkney's With the Might of Angels is set in
Virginia in 1954. Dawnie Rae wants to become a doctor. She isn't
sure how to go about doing that. She is sure she won't get the needed
knowledge in her separate and far from equal school with its torn up
books and run down facilities. When she gets the chance she becomes
the only black student to integrate Prettyman Coburn, the formerly
whites only school. There are shiny new books, a cafeteria, even a
science lab. But she isn't exactly wanted at her new school. Her
family is bullied. At one point a dead raccoon is left on their
porch. Her father loses his job. In the meantime, old friends are
abandoning her, thinking she's becoming too uppity and asking for
trouble.
Either of these books or the others in the series would make the
past comer vividly alive for a young fan of historical fiction.
On a personal note, I've gotten up to 1998 in my rereading of my
diaries. They evoke such precious memories. I am very lucky to have
them.
A great big shout out goes out to the people mentioned in them who
were or continue to be important in my family's life.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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