‘Freedom Writers’ a good book, too

By Nicholas Rader
Richwood High School

The movie “Freedom Writers” is great, but did you know that there is also a book by the students and teacher that the movie is based on? “The Freedom Writers Diary” by the Freedom Writers and Erin Gruwell is wonderful.

Though the movie only covers two years, this book has entries from four years. It includes entries by Gruwell and many of the 150 Freedom Writers she taught.

Gruwell writes about school, summer vacation, teaching and other things. She writes about Miep Gies, now 98, coming to school to talk to the students about hiding Anne Frank. She recalls going to Miep’s house in Amsterdam.

Gruwell also talks about the Freedom Writers being featured on “Primetime Live” and winning the Spirit of Anne Frank Award, which they had to accept in person in New York. She discusses the difference between where her students lived and where she lived; her students couldn’t leave home without fear of being shot - she never even locked her doors.

The entries from the Freedom Writers themselves cover everything from the field trips they took to their home lives. The writers are anonymous in order to protect their identities.

I enjoyed reading about their field trip to Washington, D.C., which included stops at the Holocaust Museum and the Lincoln Memorial, because I have been to both places, so I can relate to what they felt when they were there.

Three journal entries really stood out to me. One was from a girl whose uncle molested her. She had loved him, but after he did this, he acted like he hadn’t done anything wrong, and she hated him from then on.

Another story that stuck with me was from a girl whose parents stole from her. They stole her belongings little by little, and she said she felt like the tree in Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree” — sooner or later, she would have nothing left to give.

Another journal entry was from the group’s only white student, who didn’t have any friends and was hated by many of the students because he was white. He talked about how scared he was to go into Gruwell’s class. When I read this, I thought of the two black students at my school and how hard things must be for them.

The only thing that I didn’t like about the book was I wanted more from Gruwell. Otherwise, it’s a great book, and whether you’ve seen the movie or not, you should read it.