Books like Dear America by Marion Dane Bauer
"Dear America" is Polly Rodgers’ diary chronicling her family's journey from England to the Minnesota prairie in the late 1850s. As a young Baptist girl, Polly observes the hardships and hopes of her pioneer community, exploring themes of faith, family, and the challenges of frontier life. The narrative offers a vivid, compassionate look at the realities of migrating settlers seeking religious freedom and fertile land.
Marion Dane Bauer’s portrayal gives voice to a ten-year-old’s perspective, blending personal reflection with broader historical context. The book is a valuable resource for understanding 19th‑century pioneer experiences, religious motivations, and the complexities of settling the American Midwest.
First publish date: 2003
Genre: Children's Fiction/Children's Adventure
Authors: Marion Dane Bauer
★
★
★
★
★
2.0 (1 community ratings)
How are these books recommended?
The books recommended for Dear America by Marion Dane Bauer are shaped by reader interaction. Votes on how closely books relate, user ratings, and community comments all help refine these recommendations and highlight books readers genuinely find similar in theme, ideas, and overall reading experience.
Have you read any of these books?
Your votes, ratings, and comments help improve recommendations and make it easier
for other readers to discover books they’ll enjoy.
Books similar to Dear America (31 similar books)
In 1943 Copenhagen, ten‑year‑old Annemarie Johansen helps her Jewish friend Ellen Rosen escape Nazi persecution, learning courage and resilience while navigating war‑time hardships.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
When ten‑year‑old Opal arrives in Naomi, Florida, she discovers friendship, community, and the healing power of a big ugly dog named Winn‑Dixie during her first summer in town.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Three teenagers from different eras and continents embark on perilous journeys to escape war, persecution, and tyranny, each facing drowning, bombings and betrayal, yet their stories converge, showing that hope endures across time and borders.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A nine‑year‑old girl named Ada escapes her abusive home amid World War II, joining her brother in London’s evacuation; she learns to ride a pony, reads, and finds a new family with Susan Smith while watching for German spies.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Ella Enchanted follows a Cinderella‑inspired girl who must defy a childhood curse that compels her to obey every command, while learning friendship, courage, and the power of choice.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
After an October blizzard, Laura's family retreats from their claim shanty to the nearby town, confronting a harsh winter that a Sioux Indian prophesied will last seven months of relentless bad weather.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
The Ingalls family leaves debt‑ridden Minnesota, with Mary now blind, to seek new opportunities. Pa works for a railroad in Dakota Territory, then brings his wife and children to become pioneers in the nascent town of De Smet.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Laura and her family settle in Minnesota, living first in a dugout before a new house is built, while enduring floods, blizzards, and grasshopper infestations.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Craig of the Mohicans, a frontier scout turns away from civilization, forming a bond with a Mohican warrior as they escort two sisters across the perilous wilderness of America's frontier.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
When Laura Ingalls and her family leave Wisconsin, they trek west to Kansas Territory, settle on the prairie, and begin a new life—only to be drawn into a dangerous conflict.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A 13‑year‑old girl aboard an 1832 transatlantic ship becomes the sole female passenger and faces a violent captain and a mutinous crew, challenging her self‑perception and sense of adventure.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A young diarist chronicles the hardships of an overland journey across the American West toward Oregon, describing the dry air, chapped lips, and the weary trek that feels only half over.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Teenage slave Isabel navigates the American Revolution in New York, using her wit and the help of a Patriot spy to fight for her and her sister’s freedom.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Florrie Ryder’s diary chronicles her family’s courageous journey from Missouri to New Mexico along the Santa Fe Trail, filled with hardships, discoveries, and the promise of a new life.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A first‑person diary of fourteen‑year‑old Dawn Rae Johnson as she confronts racism while attending the first integrated school in her Virginia town after Brown v. Board.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A first‑person diary of Deliverance Trembley, a Salem Village girl who cares for her sister and faces a cruel uncle, finds herself embroiled in the hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials after local girls make accusations against nearby women.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
After a sledding accident leaves Bess blind, she learns to read braille and rebuild her life at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts, with help from her twin sister Elin during America’s Great Depression.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Anetka’s diary traces her journey from 13‑year‑old life in 1896 Poland to immigrant, coal‑miner wife, widow, and finally true love in America.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
In "Dear America," Quaker Catharine Carey Logan and her family face a fragile peace with the Delaware Indians shattered by violence, leading to her captivity by the Lenape and a journey that reveals shared hopes and fears.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A young boy’s quest to find his missing uncle turns into a perilous journey across the American West, where danger lurks in every frontier town and the lure of gold threatens every soul.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Piper Davis chronicles the impact of Pearl Harbor and WWII on her life as a Japanese-American girl, detailing her family's shift from peace to incarceration at Minidoka.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Young Minnie Swift chronicles a Christmas season in the Great Depression, exposing Midwestern family struggles and resilience through her diary entries.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
In 1856, Meg McMullan chronicles her family's reunion and the trials of frontier life in Kansas—fires, homestead struggles, and pro‑slavery ruffians—through a vivid diary diary entry.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A young freed slave girl’s diary chronicles life in the American South during Reconstruction, blending history and personal hope into a moving coming‑of‑age story.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Fourteen‑year‑old Teresa records her family’s 1883 journey from New York to a utopian community in Idaho, blending diary entries, sisterly humor, and the everyday trials of Italian‑American pioneers.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A thirteen‑year‑old French girl’s 1666 diary records her voyage to Montreal and life as a "fille à marier" in New France.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A lively diary of nine‑year‑old Joshua Martin McCullough as he and his family trek from Missouri to Oregon in 1848 aboard a covered wagon.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
In 1774 Greenmarsh, Massachusetts, thirteen‑year‑old Prudence documents the tension of living as a Tory surrounded by American patriots at the onset of the Revolution.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A thirteen‑year‑old orphan’s diary chronicles his perilous 1845 wagon journey on the Oregon Trail, detailing rivers, plains, wildlife and the camaraderie of fellow pioneers.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Nine‑year‑old Joshua McCullough begins a second diary in 1848, documenting life in the Willamette Valley as his family and fellow pioneers settle the Oregon Territory.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
In an 1880s California gold‑mining town, Angeline suspects her famous criminal lawyer father was murdered and sets out to prove he is alive.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Some Other Similar Books
Leader of the Pack by David A. AdlerThe Birchbark House by Elizabeth George Speare
Have a similar book in mind? Let others know!
Please login to submit books!