The Freedom Writers Diary

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Featuring updates on the children' life, new journal entries, and an introduction by Erin Gruwell, this 20th anniversary version of the beloved tale of an amazing group of students and the teacher who inspired them

Now a documentary on public television, Freedom Writers: Heartfelt Narratives

Erin Gruwell, an optimistic first-year teacher in Long Beach, California, faced a group of "unteachable, at-risk" pupils in 1994. She had furiously claimed that this was exactly the kind of stuff that precipitated the Holocaust after intercepting a message with an ugly racial caricature. Uncomprehending eyes greeted her—none of her pupils had heard of one of the twentieth century's pivotal events. In order to fight hatred and misunderstanding, she decided to completely revamp her curriculum and used priceless texts like Anne Frank's diary as a guide. Her pupils started keeping journals in which they wrote down their emotions and ideas; ultimately, they became known as the "Freedom Writers."

The Freedom Writers Diary, which combines narrative prose by Erin Gruwell with poignant entries from the students' diaries, is an enduring account of how a teacher's bravery, perseverance, and hard work transformed the lives of both her pupils and herself. Over a million copies of the book have been sold in the twenty years after it was first published, and it served as the inspiration for the successful film Freedom Writers. Now, with this twentieth-anniversary edition, readers are brought up to speed on the lives of the Freedom Writers, who witness their own children follow in their footsteps and combine inspirational college experiences with essential viewpoints on social concerns. For those who think that there are always second chances, reading The Freedom Writers Diary is still essential.