Books You Might Like:

 

Diaries, Letters & Email

(Stories told in epistolary fashion)

 

The princess diaries by Meg Cabot.

Fourteen-year-old Mia, who is trying to lead a normal life as a teenage girl in New York City, is shocked to learn that her father is the Prince of Genovia, a small European principality, and that she is a princess and the heir to the throne.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.7

 

Feeling sorry for Celia by Jaclyn Moriarty.

An epistolary novel about a teenager named Elizabeth, made up of notes and letters from her best friend, a runaway named Celia; Christina, the new pen pal Elizabeth reluctantly takes on for a school assignment; her busy mother; and Elizabeth's own angst-ridden mind.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.7

 

Walk softly, Rachel by Kate Banks.

When fourteen-year-old Rachel reads the journal of her brother, who died when she was seven, she learns secrets that help her understand her parents and herself.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 3.7

 

Tangerine by Edward Bloor.

Paul Fisher, a stellar soccer player despite being legally blind, finally comes into his own when his family moves to the strange town of Tangerine, Florida.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 4.3

 

And in the morning by John Wilson.

Canadian Jim Hay joins the army in World War I and is sent to France where he meets a tragic end.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 6.1

 

Angus, thongs and full-frontal snogging : confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison.

Presents the humorous journal of a year in the life of a fourteen-year-old British girl who tries to reduce the size of her nose, stop her mad cat from terrorizing the neighborhood animals, and win the love of handsome hunk Robbie.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.1 

 

On the bright side, I'm now the girlfriend of a sex god : further confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison.

Fourteen-year-old Georgia continues her diary in which she records her misadventures trying to reclaim the attention of seventeen-year-old Robbie, while coping with her friends, family, and dog-like cat Angus at the same time.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 4.7

 

Aimee : a novel by Mary Beth Miller.

Zoe, a high school senior, struggles to survive the aftermath of the suicide of her best friend Aimee, and her own murder trial for her role in the incident, by writing about her feelings in a journal.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 4.9 

 

Witch child by Celia Rees.

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.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 6.0

 

Go ask Alice  Author anonymous.

Fifteen-year-old drug user chronicles her daily struggle to escape the pull of the drug world.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.6

 

Kim : empty inside : the diary of an anonymous teenager by Beatrice Sparks.

Seventeen-year-old Kim, feeling the pressure of maintaining an A average to stay on her college gymnastics team, becomes obsessive about her weight and develops anorexia.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.5

 

Heart on my sleeve by Ellen Wittlinger.

From the end of high school to the beginning of college, Chloe and Julian deal with major changes in their families and friendships and explore their feelings for each other through emails, letters, and a visit.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.5

 

Don't you dare read this, Mrs. Dunphrey by Margaret           Peterson Haddix.

In the journal she is keeping for English class, sixteen-year-old Tish chronicles the changes in her life when her abusive father abandons her and her brother, and her mother follows him.

 

P.S. longer letter later by Paula Danziger & Ann M. Martin.

Twelve-year-old best friends Elizabeth and Tara-Starr continue their friendship through letter-writing after Tara-Starr's family moves to another state.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 4.5

 

The Grand Tour, or, The purloined coronation regalia : being a revelation of matters of high confidentiality and greatest importance, including extracts from the intimate diary of a noblewoman and the sworn testimony of a lady of quality by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer.

In 1817, two English cousins take a honeymoon "Grand Tour of the Continent" with their new husbands and become entangled in a mysterious plot to create a magical Emperor of Europe.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 6.2

 

Seek by Paul Fleischman.

Rob becomes obsessed with searching the airwaves for his long-gone father, a radio announcer.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 4.7

 

Breathing underwater by Alex Flinn.

Sent to counseling for hitting his girlfriend, Caitlin, and ordered to keep a journal, sixteen-year-old Nick recounts his relationship with Caitlin, examines his controlling behavior and anger, and describes living with his abusive father.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 3.9

 

Where have all the flowers gone? : the diary of Molly Mackenzie Flaherty by Ellen Emerson White.

n 1968 Massachusetts, after her brother Patrick goes to fight in Vietnam, fifteen-year-old Molly records in her diary how she misses her brother, volunteers at a Veterans' Administration Hospital, and tries to make sense of the war in Vietnam and the tumultuous events in the United States.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.8

 

A time for courage : the suffragette diary of Kathleen Bowen  by Kathryn Lasky.

A diary account of thirteen-year-old Kathleen Bowen's life in Washington, D.C. in 1917, as she juggles concerns about the national battle for women's suffrage, the war in Europe, and her own school work and family.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.9

 

A fine start  by Kate McMullan.

Meg continues to write in her diary about her family's adventures in the Kansas prairie in 1856 as they try to return to a more normal life after surviving a cholera epidemic, separation, and invading Border Ruffians.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 3.4

 

Race for the sky : the Kitty Hawk diaries of Johnny Moore by Dan Gutman.

Ordered to practice his writing skills in the blank book his mother gave him, fourteen-year-old Johnny would rather go fishing near his home on North Carolina's Outer Banks and cannot think of anything important to write until two "dingbatters" from Ohio arrive in 1900 and try to build a flying machine.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.4

 

The journal of Scott Pendleton Collins : a World War II soldier  by Walter Dean Myers.

A seventeen-year-old soldier from central Virginia records his experiences in a journal as his regiment takes part in the D-Day invasion of Normandy and subsequent battles to liberate France.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.0

 

 

Nonfiction

 

Annie's baby : the diary of Anonymous, a pregnant teenager  edited by Beatrice Sparks.

A day-by-day account of the life of an unnamed, pregnant, teenaged girl.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.7

 

It happened to Nancy / by an anonymous teenager edited

by Beatrice Sparks.

This is Nancy's own story, taken from her diary. It reveals her personal feelings--from the wonderful romantic fantasies of first love to the nightmare of AIDS.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.4

 

Jay's journal by Anonymous. Edited by Beatrice Sparks.

Jay's journal reveals his growing involvement with witchcraft before his suicide at age 16.

 

Anne Frank : the diary of a young girl translated from the Dutch by B.M. Mooyaart-Doubleday ; with an introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt.

A precocious young girl is obliged by encroaching Nazi regime to live in enforced seclusion with family and friends.

Accelerated Reader--Level 6.5