Books like Dear America by Sherry Garland

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.

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.

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.

A young orphan, Pinky Pinkerton, inherits a valuable deed in 1862 Nevada Territory and must evade dangerous outlaws led by Whittlin Walt and his gang.

After the 1918 influenza epidemic, eleven‑year‑old Lydia Pierce and her fourteen‑year‑old brother are sent by their uncle to grow up in the Shaker community at Sabbathday Lake in Maine.

Young Minnie Swift chronicles a Christmas season in the Great Depression, exposing Midwestern family struggles and resilience through her diary entries.

A teenage girl with Down syndrome seeks safety in Chicago during the Great Fire of 1871.

A young girl is forced to become a maid in San Francisco after her family's tavern is destroyed by the 1906 earthquake.

"The movement of people--what Americans call 'immigration' and the rest of the world calls 'migration'--is among the defining issues of our time. Technology and information crosses countries and continents at blistering speed. Corporations thrive on being multinational and polyglot. Yet the world's estimated 244 million total migrant population, particularly those deemed 'illegal' by countries and societies, are locked in a chaotic and circular debate about borders and documents, assimilation and identity. An issue about movement seems immovable: politically, culturally and personally. Dear America: Notes Of An Undocumented Citizen is an urgent, provocative and deeply personal account from Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who happens to be the most well-known undocumented immigrant in the United States. Born in the Philippines and brought to the U.S. illegally as a 12-year-old, Vargas hid in plain-sight for years, writing for some of the most prestigious news organizations in the country (The Washington Post, The New Yorker) while lying about where he came from and how he got here. After publicly admitting his undocumented status--risking his career and personal safety--Vargas has challenged the definition of what it means to be an American, and has advocated for the human rights of immigrants and migrants during the largest global movement of people in modern history. Both a letter to America and a window into Vargas's America, this book is a transformative argument about migration and citizenship, and an intimate, searing exploration on what it means to be home when the country you call your home doesn't consider you one of its own"--

Two biracial girls, Susanna and Pina, grow up in an Italian orphanage after World War II and dream of adoption while fearing separation.

A sixteen‑year‑old orphan's wartime diary chronicles the experiences of his Union Army unit during the American Civil War.

Teenaged Sarah Jane, orphaned in 1881 Nebraska by a deadly disease, takes up teaching to survive and chronicles her early school years in a diary.

A twelve‑year‑old orphan, William Thomas Emerson, chronicles his adventures in pre‑Revolutionary Boston as he joins the patriots fighting British rule.

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.

A young detective from the palace must navigate London's underworld and royal intrigue to solve a murder mystery involving a Chinese sailor in Buckingham Palace.