In the diary account of her journey from Ireland in 1847 and of her work in a mill in Lowell, Massachusetts, fourteen-year-old Mary reveals a great longing for her family.

Other reviews have skillfully pointed out the writing problems this book has, and its departure from the usual Dear America format,. especially with the epilogue. I read this book when I was ten or so, and it may have been the first Dear America book I read. I read part of it on Amazon and found the metaphors super odd, the writing cheesy, and I reminded myself that Irish people may well have spoken like that back then and I needed to quiet myself. I liked the book because I saw it as an unflinching portrayal of this point in history, along with creepy lessons: if you don't tie your hair back because you like to show off, or even if you tie it poorly accidentally, you can die horribly. You can save up money to try and get your parents out of a place affected by famine, but they can die anyway. Both these parts of the fictional diary have always, always stuck with me. I think they always will. That, and when Mary goes to a rich person's house for the first time and wonders at class differences present. My heart ached when I read that the first time, and I always nod solemnly.

This is also a book that, when I revisited it a week ago, made me realize I may finally have outgrown the series. This saddens me, as I was delighted by it for so long. I'll look for other books that examine this period of history--there's a few memoirs that people have written based on their grandparents' experiences. ( )

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This entire series is a wonderful way to learn history or teach it to adolescents. I find today's generations seem to recall more when they learn through other people (pop songs, celebrity gossip, etc.), so what better way to teach history than through someone else's perspective? Yes, "authentic" diaries would be "better", but would the language really hold the modern student's attention? Did the diary writer know what WOULD be important in the context of history? Probably not. ( )