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The Freedom Writers Diary (Movie Tie-in Edition): How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them |  | Authors: The Freedom Writers, Erin Gruwell
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
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Rating:  174 reviews
Sales Rank: 137868
Media: Paperback
Edition: Mti
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0767924908
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.235
EAN: 9780767924900
ASIN: 0767924908
Publication Date: December 12, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Shocked by the teenage violence she witnessed during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, Erin Gruwell became a teacher at a high school rampant with hostility and racial intolerance. For many of these students–whose ranks included substance abusers, gang members, the homeless, and victims of abuse–Gruwell was the first person to treat them with dignity, to believe in their potential and help them see it themselves. Soon, their loyalty towards their teacher and burning enthusiasm to help end violence and intolerance became a force of its own. Inspired by reading The Diary of Anne Frank and meeting Zlata Filipovic (the eleven-year old girl who wrote of her life in Sarajevo during the civil war), the students began a joint diary of their inner-city upbringings. Told through anonymous entries to protect their identities and allow for complete candor, The Freedom Writers Diary is filled with astounding vignettes from 150 students who, like civil rights activist Rosa Parks and the Freedom Riders, heard society tell them where to go–and refused to listen.
Proceeds from this book benefit the Freedom Writers Foundation, an organization set up to provide scholarships for underprivieged youth and to train teachers
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 174
 An Easy Read About a Complex World February 16, 2010
Lacey Losh (Lincoln, NE)
I ordered this book immediately after watching the movie. I wanted to know about the real kids behind the characters in the movie. I found that the movie actually does an incredible job of giving you a real feel for the Freedom Writers by using actual quotes from the diaries in this written collection.
The book was more satisfying than the movie, in that it followed the Freedom Writers through all 4 years of High School, and through more tolerance-building experiences. The journal entries of these students are insightful, surprisingly honest and often heart-breaking.
I highly recommend this book.
 Love changes things August 24, 2009
Danielle Reed
This is an awesome book. I think that it really shows how love can truly change a person. These children had all experienced so much heartache and devastation. I really admire Mrs. Gruewell for her dedication and love she showed the teens. Her willingness to not give up enabled these children to shake loose the shackles of their past and became successful. I believe everyone should truly read this book. It gives people a better look at the lives of today's teens, especially the lives of those from "the hood". It also lets people know that they do have a chance to succeed and that they can overcome any obstacle placed in front of them no matter where they may be from.
A Must for Anyone Working With Teens August 11, 2009
Editor of Lillian's Diaries (Portage,MI)
As a retired teacher and social worker, who worked with at-risk preschoolers I found this book very moving. As I read the diary entries I could picture the diarists as children that I worked with who had grown to teenagers and had had no one to keep them following the path they started as a preschooler. I was moved by the changes these teens made after becoming a member of the Freedom Writers and by just the simple fact that they were still alive despite their family lives, their neighborhoods, drugs,alcohol,poverty and the lack of inspiration and encouragement offered by so many of their teachers throughout their school years. How different so many at-risk children's of United States lives would be if the Ms. Gruwells of the world was the norm for teachers instead of the exception! I remember being a first time teacher. I thought I had done a good job. Now I wish that I had done more with those children who needed more than a day at school but rather a "family-like" figure who would listen, challenge, inspire and find ways to really make a difference in their lives.
I really like how these teens looked outside themselves and could see the similarity between the pain and intolerance they faced and that of Anne Frank and Zlata Filipovie. To have such global insight at such a young age is remarkable.
I wish that the author of each entry could have some sort of identification so the reader could have followed the growth of the teen.....or maybe each entry was written by a separate teen?! [Although I think that several were written by the same person as the story line of some entries seemed to follow one person's life]. At times the comments of these teens were "So self-absorbed and teen-like". With the lives they were living what a joy it was to see that a little candle of just being a teenager was able to thrive.
Starts out fuzzy but wins you over July 28, 2009
Rac A. Powsky (Texas)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is one of those inspiring teacher books. And like most of these inspiring teacher books it's a little heavy on the moralizing and light on the actual hard work involved. The great teachers are like the great writers, painters and athletes because they have so much natural talent that they can't really explain how they do most of what they do. There's a lot of hard work but there's also natural ability.
And this one has a distinction of being the story of a teacher who is an unrepetant liberal. Most of these hardcore inspiring teacher books seem to have a rightwing bias in which the teacher is a Joe Clark like crazy DISCIPLINARIAN who makes them knuckle under like it's a boot camp before they can learn. She's more the kind of teacher that becomes an example of what not to do when teaching. As in the story of "that Americorp volunteer who stupidly gave his address to his students and two of them tried to rob him and killed him."
But there's a terrific earnestness going through this book that trumps one's natural cynicism. Erin Gruwell could be an idealist because she was new and she was also very stubborn in her idealism. And the fact of the matter is that she succeeds because she did respect her students and she cared about their welfare. Eventually she wore them down.
But the main thing that makes this book decent is that it's about the students. Yes, there is some definite editing in the book. The first editing process is choosing what to put in and what to keep out. The diary entries are put up against each other in order to tell a story. Obviously the early entries are a little too polished to be believable as 9th grade journal entries, but Jim Carroll edited The Basketball Diaries and that didn't make them any less "authentic". They were just polished up before publication.
The main point of the diaries is that there are a lot of intelligent articulate people in crappy situations who are marginalized by their situations. Some can overcome their social limitations but most can't - not on their own at least. To expand on that theme, these writers overcame their situations because they had someone who believed in them and respected them. Everyone needs that; but for some it's a very rare commodity.
 Lack of authenticity ruined it for me June 10, 2009
Christy (Chicago, IL)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Like many other reviewers, I was looking forward to this book as an inspirational read and was disillusioned on page one. The journal entries are clearly not written by youth, especially those with negative attitudes toward learning. I'm really sorry that people might believe such a polished journal entry would come from an angry teenager on the first day of school. I was further saddened to see that all the journal entries were written with the same voice. Finally, if you're going to edit the heck out of something, then leave out all of the "I love Ms. Gruwell". BS.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 174
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