Freedom Writers Diary
by The Freedom Writers and Erin Gruwell
It is rare when a book moves me to tears. It’s not that I’m not sentimental about things that have meaning to me, but that I can generally separate myself from what I’m reading enough to retain necessary distance. So when I say that The Freedom Writers Diary, made me cry, that’s saying a lot.
If you’re one of the five people in the country who hasn’t seen the film, read the book first, then rent the DVD. The book has 150 or so diary entries, designated solely by number, by the students in Erin Gruwell’s English classes from Wilson High School in Long Beach, CA, during the late nineties. They are frank, often brutal, glimpses into the lives of real kids living in a city that MTV dubbed “the gangsta rap capital of the world,” and they will tear at your heart strings.
Bookending the kids’ diaries are journal entries from Erin herself, the young teacher who manages to turn a bunch of disenfranchised teenagers into first a class, and then a family, teaching them about tolerance by using the diaries of Anne Frank and Zlata Filipovic as well as other works she finds relevant to their lives.
It’s a moving book, made more so by the knowledge that these kids, now college graduates, have turned around and continued to teach the lessons Gruwell taught them.
Education, Erin Gruwell, Freedom Writers, Memoir | Melissa | Friday: 11 May 2007
By sophiesophie, Friday: 11 May 2007 @ 11:37 pm
That movie (along with a million others) was on my radar, but I didn’t see it. I’m glad to know there is a book I can read–and if you are not a crier and it made you cry–I better stock up on kleenex.
Michele says hello.
By Diana, Saturday: 12 May 2007 @ 2:57 am
Wow! I watched the movie last night. It was the best movie I had seen in a long time. I have to say that I did not grow up that way. My life was on the good side of the street. However, after I moved out and into a bigger city my eyes were opened to alot of different things. I see how Erin Gruwell struggled to make a conection with each and every student in her class. She made choises. She made a good one. The strength she had to stand up for what is right. To the other teachers and the school board, even to the one she married. That is hard. Sometime we have to make choices. Some we like and some we don’t. Hat’s off to her choices. Hat’s off to those students who gave her a chance.
By Erin, Saturday: 12 May 2007 @ 3:36 pm
I loved this book, too! It’s way better than the movie, though I did enjoy the movie as well.
By Princess Haiku, Tuesday: 15 May 2007 @ 9:59 pm
I didn’t know it was a book first and will definitely read it. Thanks for the review.
By Dauna, Thursday: 24 May 2007 @ 10:57 am
I’m definitely reading it. The only question is how long should I wait. Since I saw the movie first. Sigh.
By Bibliolatrist, Sunday: 3 June 2007 @ 7:26 pm
Hello…I found your site via various links on book blogs; great place you have here!