Growing up, I was definitely a diary kind of girl. From the hardcover journals with the little gold locks to the electronic Dear Diary toy of the mid-90s (#throwbackthursday, anyone?), I absolutely loved having a secret place to store my thoughts. Some call blogging the modern-day equivalent of diary-keeping, but something tells me the Internet will never be able to replicate the sense of ownership and privacy that comes will keeping a private journal.
September 22 marked Dear Diary Day, so we decided to take to OOM to share our favorite diary-like books. Whether it's a classic like The Diary of Anne Frank or a modern-day favorite like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, there are a ton of awesome options. Below, a round-up of some of our top picks:
- Alex, ever interested in education and teaching, recommendsThe Freedom Writers Diary. "You may remember it from the movie Freedom Writers (starring Hilary Swank)," she says. "Erin Gruwell, an incredible teacher, inspired a class of 'unteachable, at-risk' students raised in a world of poverty and street violence to write about their lives and publish their stories."
- "I'd go with the Anastasia Krupnik series," says Megan. "The books aren't technically written like diary entries, but they're in little episodic narratives and each ends with a list by Anastasia. The lists are so cute and are comprised of what she likes and dislikes. How those lists evolve kind of represent the growth of her character throughout each book."
- "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a modern classic," Tyler explains. "It's an inspiring story about a boy growing up on an Indian reservation who attended an off-reservation school. It’s about bullying, and a teenager seeking to find an identity all his own, and about a Native American teenager trying to forge his own identity too."
- Brittany loves Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. "This book was so creepy and thrilling. I loved it. The dual diary format kept the reader guessing, making the plot more mysterious than if it was written without the diary format," she says.
- "P.S. Longer Letter Later, written by Paula Danziger and Ann M. Martin, is my absolute favorite!!!!!!" Emma writes. (Gotta love her use of exclamation points!)
- "Do the Club diaries in The Baby-sitters Club series count?" asks Morgan, our resident BSC guru. Yup, they sure do. Her second favorite? "Dear Dumb Diary. It's hilarious."
- And my personal favorite? The Dear America series. I love historical fiction and found that reading diary entries was a great way for me to contextualize and better understand what was happening in any given era.
What are your favorite diary-esque books? Share 'em on Twitter using #deardiary!
