The stunningly candid diary entries by students at Wilson High, in California--along with entries by their teacher, Erin Gruwell--are both inspiring and, at times, heart-breaking, as they present first-person accounts of difficult lives in the inner city. Starting in her first year as a teacher, and continuing over time, Gruwell made a difference in the lives of her "at-risk" students by tossing out the standard curriculum and insisting that they learn about others by reading the published diaries of young people such as Anne Frank and Zlata Filipovic, and about themselves by writing in diaries of their own. (This book is the basis of the 2006 motion picture THE FREEDOM WRITERS, starring Hilary Swank.)