ABSTRACT
An interesting development in the resurgence of historical fi ction for children is the historical journal series created by Scholastic Press. The journals are published as a separate culturally specifi c series in America, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. My discussion of the historicity of national identities in settler cultures will concentrate on the American My Name Is America, the Canadian Dear Canada, and the Australian My Story and New Zealand My Story series. In the fever of the genre’s revival a critical evaluation of the historical nature of the Scholastic series is important because of the propensity for the journals to be considered by their readership as truthful historical texts. Certainly, the series is highly regarded by local and school librarians, parents and teachers. In 1996 the Dear America series (a precursor to the My Name Is America series) was awarded the Jefferson
Cup Award from the Virginia Library Association, and since then individual examples in the series, in America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, have appeared in award lists.2 Given the number of second and third print runs, the series obviously has wide circulation and an active readership. Furthermore, the series-again in America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia-can boast of the high quality of their authors, many of whom are well established and already award winners in the fi eld of children’s literature (Ann Rinaldi, for example, has been the subject of a monograph).3 Scholastic Press has targeted these authors; using them helps to establish the reliability and authenticity of individual texts and the series as a whole.
