Straight from the front line of urban America, the inspiring story of one fiercely determined teacher and her remarkable students.


As an idealistic twenty-three-year-old English teacher at Wilson High School in Long beach, California, Erin Gruwell confronted a room of “unteachable, at-risk” students. One day she intercepted a note with an ugly racial caricature, and angrily declared that this was precisely the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust—only to be met by uncomprehending looks. So she and her students, using the treasured books Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo as their guides, undertook a life-changing, eye-opening, spirit-raising odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding. They learned to see the parallels in these books to their own lives, recording their thoughts and feelings in diaries and dubbing themselves the “Freedom Writers” in homage to the civil rights activists “The Freedom Riders.”

With funds raised by a “Read-a-thon for Tolerance,” they arranged for Miep Gies, the courageous Dutch woman who sheltered the Frank family, to visit them in California, where she declared that Erin Gruwell’s students were “the real heroes.” Their efforts have paid off spectacularly, both in terms of recognition—appearances on “Prime Time Live” and “All Things Considered,” coverage in People magazine, a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley—and educationally. All 150 Freedom Writers have graduated from high school and are now attending college.

With powerful entries from the students’ own diaries and a narrative text by Erin Gruwell, The Freedom Writers Diary is an uplifting, unforgettable example of how hard work, courage, and the spirit of determination changed the lives of a teacher and her students.

The authors’ proceeds from this book will be donated to The Tolerance Education Foundation, an organization set up to pay for the Freedom Writers’ college tuition. Erin Gruwell is now a visiting professor at California State University, Long Beach, where some of her students are Freedom Writers.

The book is divided into a variety of topics where the students reflect on the assigned readings and make connections to their current realities. The parallels are often heart-wrenching and painful. These are their stories...

The Freedom Writers were students who were labelled as at-risk and unteachable until one remarkable person, Erin Gruwell entered their lives. Gruwell rejected the labels and saw the pontential that all young people possess, a lesson for us all.

The back cover of the book says it the best, through the use of literature and Erin Gruwell as the guide, the Freedom Writers, "undertook a life-changing, eye-opening, spirit-raising odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding."

Highly recommended, read this and you will surely expand your awareness.


POWERFUL   August 23, 2001
 48 out of 58 found this review helpful

I wish that everyone who doubts that one person could possibly make a difference in the world would read this book. Talk about inspiration! Erin Gruwell, as a beginning teacher who was "stuck" with the students that no one else wanted to teach, transformed those 150 students over the course of their four years in high school into a group of passionate, determined young men and women instead of the doomed nobodies that they originally saw themselves to be. These teens have lived terrible lives, survived situations that many people try to pretend don't even exist, and have come to adulthood believing in themselves for the first time. Many of the journal entries in this book actually made me cry.

I am a beginning teacher myself, and though my students are not the at-risk youth that Ms. Gruwell taught, I can strongly identify with her and with her accomplishments - giving me hope that someday I can make as significant a contribution to my community that she has to hers.


An inspiring, gut-wrenching account!   December 15, 1999
 41 out of 46 found this review helpful

Having spent an hour and a half with tears streaming down my face at an appearance by Erin Gruwell and four of her Freedowm Writers, I bought the book. That was Friday afternoon. It's now Wednesday night, and I can't stop telling people about this book. The kids' entries ring so true to anyone who's been around today's youth for any length of time (sorry, Erin Salona). The parallels that Erin helped the kids see between Anne Frank's and Zlata's lives and their own provided the inspiration for her students to pick up a pen rather than a gun. Their message of tolerance needs to be heard by everyone! I only wish I could afford to buy a case so that I could give copies to some of my former sixth grade students who remain "at-risk" students. A must-read for all teachers and parents!


Freedom Writers Rule!   January 6, 2000
 38 out of 41 found this review helpful

This inspirational book is a must read for teenagers, parents, teachers, and just folks. If i could, i'd buy a copy for everyone i know. In their own voices and in beautifully crafted prose, teenagers tell stories of their daily lives: the physical and emotional war zones they inhabit become real to the reader. With the help of an inspirational teacher, these students read other teenagers' stories and learn to see thier lives in historical context. They read diaries by two girls their own age: Anne Frank, who died in the Holocaust, and Zlata Filipovic, who lived through the war in Sarajevo. This is education with a capital E. Erin Gruwell empowers these young people to transform their realities through the power of the word. The spirit of Anne Frank and the original Freedom Riders lives on in these young heros from Long Beach.


I Don't Believe It   January 18, 2006
 37 out of 78 found this review helpful

I believe Erin Gruwell taught the classes. I believe she took the kids on great field trips and got them involved in great topics, with great speakers. I believe they achieved, and learned to express themselves.
I don't believe angry, academically behind ninth graders wrote three pages for their first journal entries of the year. I don't believe they were as analytical of their situations as she says. I certainly don't believe that was the grammar or spelling of an ESOL student, or a student reading on a third grade level.
If she really taught these kids - she should have put in what they really wrote.
I've taught kids for thirty years. Urban juvenile delinguents to priveleged suburban kids. Nobody is writing like that on the first day of school.
I'd like to hear from the teacher across the hall. I'd like to see copies of the actual jounal entries - I find it suspicious that these aren't included.
It's a shame that a good tale is marred by what appears to me to be fraud.