I noticed this big series in the children's room at the library. Has anyone read the books? Is it any good or is it inaccurate/fluffy/not worth it? We haven't started American history yet but I love the idea of reading through a bunch of historical fiction to learn about it.
My dd loves those books. They are an excellent series and she gets a good sense of what it was like living during those time periods. I highly recommend them.
I used a few with Garrett and will use them with the littles. You have to keep in mind they are historical fiction. The person is not real, but they are well researched and quite accurate on historical facts. It's a great way for kids to really get what it was like to live back then.
I read the whole collection when I was in Middle school, and ended up buying my favorites when I exited school. I think they are very worth while, especially for a middle school student. They put the reader in the position of the main character. It has enough descriptive power to put the reader in the situation (without getting very graphic) and plenty of historical accuracies to get a sense of what the times were like in the particular time period the story was written in. Very interesting and, IMO, a great addition to any history lesson.
Haha, how about that?! I didn't even realize that "Dear America" was for girls. I didn't examine the series closely, but come to think of it, the books I did pull off the shelf were about girls. Thanks for letting me know.
While like was said they are not true, for fiction I think they are really good. I wouldn't exactly use them as a history lesson type book, but for recreational reading they are wonderful. They came out while I was in high school. And while I believe I was NOT the target age for them (I think the target age is around upper elementary and middle school). I loved them. I am a christian and it's hard to find "clean" recreational books. There's nothing offensive in them at all-no foul language, sexual context, no magic, etc etc. So pretty clean and acceptable I would think for even the most conservative christians. My little sister is 13 years younger then me, and she also loved them. She likes to read, but is very intelligent (she'll be finishing law school next year), but also likes good clean reads. It's right up there. As for the series being for girls, yes, I would say it's targeted for girls as they all have a girl main character. When I got married and moved to NYC I was very very ill-had just been diagnosed with type one diabetes, and because of the VERY late diagnosis I almost died from it. Any way, there wasn't much for me to do I was so sick, but we lived down the way from a library. Being in inner city NYC it was a small library with out much books. Especially "clean" good adult books. So I ventured into the young teen books and discovered the boy series. I decided to read a few and I really liked them as well. I think the boy ones, girls or boys would enjoy. But, doubt that many boys would be too interested in the Dear America girl ones. I was 25-27 years old when I read the boy ones. Again they were for younger readers, but they were still a interesting, fast, clean read. There is a tv series Dear America on Netflix right now. I watched a few episodes. I would approve of them for my children. But, they are for sure again kind of targeted at younger viewers. And I think the books were much better written then is the TV series, but isn't that the way for all books/tv series? lol My girls though did set and watch a few episodes of the Dear America series on Netflix and they are pretty young-6 and 3!
