ROYAL DIARIES: ELIZABETH

This was the first of the Royal Diaries, out in 1999. It was also one of the earliest I read. Kathryn Lasky is one of the more well-known Royal Diaries and Dear America authors. She did five Royals (Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots, Marie-Antoinette, Jahanara of India and Kazunomiya of Japan), four Dear Americas (including one of the famous ones and one of my favorites), a My America trilogy for younger readers, and one of the male-fronted My Name Is America series. (You may also know her as the Guardians of Ga'hoole author.)

This is one of the main RDs I would recommend to new readers. You can't help but fall in love with Lasky's Elizabeth. She's bursting with character and her diary melds daily life activities with royal intrigue and historical details. It feels like a real diary, because it's very personal, but it also educates like historical fiction. And it takes place during her younger years, which is good for the target audience. For the continuation of her story, try Beware, Princess Elizabeth from Carolyn Meyer's Young Royals series.

I actually don't have much to say about it, because like Josefina's AG books, I love it and there's not much to talk about other than repetitive praise.