Well, I did it. Finished the 43 book series, and didn’t give myself eye strain this time. Yay! Anyway, I’ve already written my top five books so now I want to discuss the authors. Much like in Animal Farm, some authors are better than others.

My favorites tend to fall to Kristina Gregory or Patricia McKissack. Gregory is behind such titles as the Winter of Red Snow (arguably the face of the book series as they commissioned a sequel to it when they tried to revive it in 2012) which was made into an HBO movie, Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie, The Great Railroad Race, and Seeds of Hope. They nicely balance the historical struggles the protagonists would have faced at the time with distinct characterization and family dynamics. They felt like real girls, not only mouth pieces to impart historical facts.

McKissack’s work is much in the same vein, writing a majority of the African-American focused books like Color Me Dark, Look to the Hills, and A Picture of Freedom. Obviously, hers are a bit more dark because the treatment of African Americans in history is cruel and ugly. She manages to convey the seriousness and heinousness of the time without venturing too dark for the kids, and maintain strength and dignity for the characters.

I think the strength of their work is easily followed by Kathryn Lasky. Lasky wrote gems like Journey to the New World, Dreams in the Golden Country, A Time for Courage, and Christmas After All. Hers I would put third in strength because she tends to be keep things lighter. Her protagonists suffer death and sometimes prejudice, but there are usually happy endings for them. The strongest would have to be A Time for Courage about the beginning of WW1 and the suffragists. She really makes one inspired by the determination of those early suffragists and why it was vital for women to stand up and show they have the same rights and qualities as men while proving how utterly inane it was to hold back those rights.

Barry Denenberg is the only other one (I think) who has multiple books in the series-Mirror, Mirror, So Far From Home, Early Sunday Morning, When Will This Cruel War Be Over, and One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping. I had enjoyed his entries more when I was a kid. His tend to be the shortest and I would breeze through them, but now I see some of their weak points. His epilogues are lacking and often sad, like after thoughts, and while they cover a long period of time, the protagonists feel like bystanders superficially touching on history. One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping is the exception as its clear that he put a lot of research into writing Julia’s experiences of the Nazi invasion. It might actually be the darkest too, and seeing how good it is, I wish that he wrote longer books because its clear when he has the material, he can write gripping stuff.

There’s a few I have to acknowledge as good even though they wrote two entries at most. Mary Pope Osbourne did Standing in the Light, and My Secret War. The latter being my favorite of her entries because of its portrayal of the home front, sweet romance and uplifting found family.

Susan Campbell Bartoletti wrote Down the Rabbit Hole, and A Coal Miner’s Bride. The former is okay, being part of the reboot that was more focused on adventure-mystery that daily diary. A Coal Miner’s Bride is a strong piece centering on a 14 year old’s struggles of an arranged marriage, becoming a wife and mother in a new country. You can see Anetka struggling, slowly hardening because of her experiences as she had no choice in her current fate, but growing stronger too in becoming a stepmom and starting her own business.

Jim Murphy’s entries were also okay (West to the Land of Plenty, and My Face to the Wind). He tends to focus on journeys which makes the pace plodding around the middle as you wait for something to happen.

Ellen Emerson White wrote Voyage on the Titanic, and Where Have All the Flowers Gone which are very strong character pieces. Both well done in research and distinctive characters that explore the various points of view of class, and the Vietnam War in their respective periods.

Sherry Garland’s books are worthwhile too as they focus on the American west history that tends is vaguely touched on in Eastern schools like the seizing of California in Valley of the Moon and the Texas Revolution in A Line in the Sand. Both exploring how these territories were Mexican first, and how the seizure by US forces changed the landscape and communities.

Now to the books that had authors featured only one time-Hear My Sorrow by Deborah Hopkins was a better, more thorough look into the exploitation of immigrants in mills and their fight to better working conditions compared to Denenberg’s attempt with So Far From Home. Hopkins was better able at portraying the toll on the mind and body as well as how different immigrants were pitted against one another with the uplifting hope that banding together they could rise to make a change.

I Walk in Dread by Lisa Rowe Fraustino is a compelling work that incorporates the multiple factors that led to the witchcraft hysteria

Survival in the Storm by Katelan Janke gets a honorable mention for being an immersive work to the dust bowl in Texas by a girl who was in high school, having won Scholastic’s contest to write an entry to the series.

Granted I was predisposed to enjoy Kirby Larson’s book sine I enjoyed her Hattie duology but I thought her Fences Between Us was a good examination of the anti-Japanese sentiment and internment in WW2, and the unfairness and hypocrisy behind it. Even more notable as its the first time they really show the Asian American side of history. Unfortunately still no Asian protagonist which would have made it stronger instead of the white ally.

Finally With the Might of Angels by Andrea Davis Pinkney gives an in-depth look to school integration in 1954 with the same frank reality and dignity McKissack shared in her novels.

So yeah, I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on the series, now onto the whole Dear Canada series for the first time!