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Like the Willow Tree: The Diary of Lydia Amelia Pierce, Portland, Maine, 1918

Lois Lowry · back to the book

What’s in it

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24 books with the same feel

Include books by the same author
❤️

If I Die Before I Wake: The Flu Epidemic Diary of Fiona Macgregor

Jean Little · 243 pages

A girl named Fiona Macgregor experiences the 1918 flu epidemic firsthand.

Diary FormatPlagueWorld War IChild Narrator
❤️

They Came Like Swallows

William Maxwell · 174 pages

First published in 1937, They Came LIKE Swallows was William Maxwell's second novel. It tells of an ordinary American family overtaken by the devastating epidemic of the Spanish influenza of 1918. The book begins on the day before the armistice in a small midwestern town, and the events are seen from the perspective, in turn, of eight-year-old Peter Morison--called Bunny; of his older brother, Rob

PlagueDeath of a ParentWorld War IChild Narrator
❤️

Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, the Great Migration North

Patricia C. McKissack · 220 pages

An ordinary girl living extraordinary events. Her family, Love, characterizes her comfortable, secure world in Bradford Corners, TN. Until Uncle Pace is murdered by the KKK. The Author gradually exposes the prejudice & segregation existing even though slavery has been abolished over 50 years. All discover, how whites live on one side of the only road, & Colored live on the other. We recognize t

Diary FormatChild NarratorWorld War IMiddle Grade
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The Great Plague: The Diary of Alice Paynton, London, 1665-1666

Pamela Oldfield · 192 pages

A time of horror has come to London. In one terrible summer, more than 15% of its population will perish. As the bubonic plague ravages London's streets, mercilessly plucking up victims and filling the plague pits with corpses, 13-year-old Alice Paynton records the outbreak in her diary. "It seems that in the past week 700 people have died of the plague. So the plague has well and truly come to Lo

Diary FormatPlagueChild NarratorMiddle Grade
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Out of the Dust

Karen Hesse · 235 pages

"Dust piles up like snow across the prairie. . . ." A terrible accident has transformed Billie Jo's life, scarring her inside and out. Her mother is gone. Her father can't talk about it. And the one thing that might make her feel better -- playing the piano -- is impossible with her wounded hands. To make matters worse, dust storms are devastating the family farm and all the farms nearby. Wh

Diary FormatDeath of a ParentGrief and MourningReligious Identity
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Diary FormatChild NarratorMiddle GradeReligious Identity
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This Journal Belongs to Ratchet

Nancy J. Cavanaugh · 307 pages

Homeschooled by her mechanic-environmentalist father, eleven-year-old Rachel "Ratchet" Vance records her efforts to make friends, save a park, remember her mother, and find her own definition of "normal."

Diary FormatChild NarratorDeath of a ParentMiddle Grade
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Millions

Frank Cottrell Boyce · 250 pages

After their mother dies, two brothers find a huge amount of money which they must spend quickly before England switches to the new European currency, but they disagree on what to do with it.

Death of a ParentChild NarratorReligious IdentityGrief and Mourning
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Bud, Not Buddy

Christopher Paul Curtis · 249 pages

It's 1936, in Flint, Michigan. Times may be hard, and ten-year-old Bud may be a motherless boy on the run, but Bud's got a few things going for him: 1. He has his own suitcase filled with his own important, secret things. 2. He's the author of Bud Caldwell's Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself. 3. His momma never told him who his father was, but

OrphansDeath of a ParentChild NarratorMiddle Grade
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The Secret Garden

Frances Hodgson Burnett · 256 pages

A ten-year-old orphan comes to live in a lonely house on the Yorkshire moors where she discovers an invalid cousin and the mysteries of a locked garden.

OrphansDeath of a ParentMiddle GradeGrief and Mourning
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With the Might of Angels: The Diary of Dawnie Rae Johnson, Hadley, Virginia, 1954

Andrea Davis Pinkney

Coretta Scott King winner Andrea Davis Pinkney brings her talents to a brand-new Dear America diary about the Civil Rights Movement. In the fall of 1955, twelve-year-old Dawn Rae Johnson's life turns upside down. After the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, Dawnie learns she will be attending a previously all-white school. She's the only one of her friends to go to this new sc

Diary FormatChild NarratorMiddle GradeHistorical Fiction
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My Heart is on the Ground: the Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl, Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania, 1880

Ann Rinaldi · 205 pages

In the diary account of her life at a government-run Pennsylvania boarding school in 1880, a twelve-year-old Sioux Indian girl reveals a great need to find a way to help her people.

Diary FormatChild NarratorMiddle GradeHistorical Fiction
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Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, R.M.S. Titanic, 1912

Ellen Emerson White · 197 pages

Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, R.M.S. Titanic 1912 (Dear America Series)

Diary FormatOrphansMiddle GradeHistorical Fiction
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Counting by 7s

Holly Goldberg Sloan · 380 pages

OrphansChild NarratorGrief and MourningMiddle Grade
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Our Strange New Land

Patricia Hermes · 109 pages

Nine-year-old Elizabeth keeps a journal of her experiences in the New World as she encounters Indians, suffers hunger and the death of friends, and helps her father build their first home.

Diary FormatChild NarratorMiddle GradeHistorical Fiction
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The Heaven Shop

Deborah Ellis · 192 pages

Compelling and uplifting, this powerful new work by the author of The Breadwinner trilogy is a contemporary novel that puts a very real face on the African AIDS epidemic, which to date has orphaned more than 11 million children. All royalties for this book will be donated to UNICEF.

OrphansDeath of a ParentGrief and MourningMiddle Grade
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Witch Child

Celia Rees · 261 pages

In 1659, fourteen-year-old Mary Newbury keeps a journal of her voyage from England to the New World and her experiences living as a witch in a community of Puritans near Salem, Massachusetts.

Diary FormatOrphansReligious IdentityHistorical Fiction
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The Secret Hum of a Daisy

Tracy Holczer · 316 pages

"After 12-year-old Grace's mother's sudden death, Grace is forced to live with a grandmother she's never met. Then she discovers clues in a mysterious treasure hunt--one that will help her find her true home"-- After the sudden death of her mother, twelve-year-old Grace is forced to live with a grandmother she's never met. Then she discovers clues in a mysterious treasure hunt, one that will help

Death of a ParentChild NarratorGrief and MourningMiddle Grade
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Listening for Lions

Gloria Whelan · 194 pages

Historical fiction with a wicked twist.Listening for Lions is a breathtaking story of tragedy, deception, and triumph against all odds. National Book Award–winning author Gloria Whelan sets this richly historical coming–of–age adventure in British East Africa in the year 1918. This irresistible novel entangles an orphaned girl in a deceit filled plot. Young Rachel Sheridan is made to leave her bel

OrphansDeath of a ParentMiddle GradeHistorical Fiction
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Eight Keys

Suzanne LaFleur · 216 pages

When twelve-year-old Elise, orphaned since age three, becomes disheartened by middle school, with its bullies, changing relationships, and higher expectations, keys to long-locked rooms and messages from her late father help her cope.

OrphansChild NarratorDeath of a ParentMiddle Grade
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Diary FormatWorld War IMiddle GradeHistorical Fiction
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Diary FormatWorld War IMiddle GradeHistorical Fiction
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Anne of Green Gables

L.M. Montgomery · 308 pages

Anne, an eleven-year-old orphan, is sent by mistake to live with a lonely, middle-aged brother and sister on a Prince Edward Island farm and proceeds to make an indelible impression on everyone around her.

OrphansMiddle GradeDeath of a ParentGrief and Mourning
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Year of Wonders

Geraldine Brooks · 310 pages

This is the story of a young woman's struggle to save her family and her soul during the year of 1666, when plague suddenly visits her small Derbyshire village and the villagers, inspired by a charismatic preacher, elect to quarantine themselves.

PlagueReligious IdentityGrief and MourningHistorical Fiction

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