Reminiscing About Dear America: Titanic (with Ella Dawson)

About this episode

Emily Hessney Lynch and guest Ella Dawson reminisce about the Dear America book series, focusing on the Titanic installment and its historical context.

If you read and loved the Dear America books as a tween in the late 90s/early 2000s, then this episode is for you! Author Ella Dawson joins host Emily Hessney Lynch for a fun conversation about everyone's favorite Dear America book, Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady , by Ellen Emerson White, which came out in 1998. We discuss what held up well in our reread, whether or not the book is historically accurate, how little details bring a story to life, publishers' depressing cost-cutting measures, how Dear America compares to the I Survived series, how much a first-class Titanic ticket would cost in 2026, and what current events would make great Dear America books today. You'll even learn where the idea of a passenger surviving the Titanic on a floating door comes from (spoiler alert: it wasn't a white person floating on the door!). Links: We discuss several book covers in the episode. Here are the images for each of the Dear America: Titanic versions: 1998 original cover ; 2010 reissue cover ; 2026 reissue cover. We also discuss the I Survived covers, including the novel version and the graphic novel adaptation . Titanic Sinks Tonight is the BBC mini…

People in this episode

Host: Emily Hessney Lynch

Guest: Ella Dawson

Topics covered

• Dear America books
• Titanic
• historical accuracy
• children's literature
• book covers
• current events

Keywords

• Dear America
• Titanic
• Ella Dawson
• historical fiction
• children's books
• book discussion
• literary analysis

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Instagram, Patreon, Rebel Ever After

Books & works: Dear America: Titanic, Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, I Survived, Titanic Sinks Tonight, But How Are You, Really

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