Dear Ms.Gruwell,

Hi, how are you? My name is Cam Tu, I'm 13 years old and I'm from FACT Charter school in Philadelphia. Well, my reading teacher encouraged our class to write a letter to you, we're actually reading "Freedom writer diary". Although we did not finished reading the book but we're already watched the movie. The book was amazing! I enjoy every single pages that I've read. Some entries that your students wrote inspired me. From what I've read and heard about you, I think you're an amazing teacher, you're someone who are not afraid to go for what you wanted and yet you never failed. My favorite event of the book is when you tried to bring Zlata Filipovic to meet your student, it tells me how determend you are and how much you care for your students. I was never an out going person, so never have I experienced something like in the book would happen. I wondered if that's what the real world is like. Even though those entries are from 7 years ago, it seem like what I see on the news it's still happening today. All the racism, judism, stereotype and wars over powers, history is repeating itself.

When I was 11, I was still learning English someone gave me a copy of Anne Frank. To be honest I didn't understand what was going on, all I know is she is in hiding and she wrotes diaries entries. Anne inspired me to write, and that's when I knew that I wanted to become a writer. In reading class, our reading teacher told us to make connection from the Freedom writer diaries to ourself. One connection that I made was that I've been through stereotype and racial insults, I remember when I first step in America and there's eyes that tells me that I didn't belong here, that said "Go back where you came from". Other time people would label me as a "Chinese girl" the minute they saw me, but I really wasn't. I wanted to screamed out that what they're saying it's wrong, but their insults put me down so much that couldn't find courage to speaked. My parent was the worst many time I would listen to their conversation about race and stereotype that Asian people have used on others. They told me who I should hang out with and who I shouldn't, it gets me angry.

I remember the part when your student, a guy name Tommy Jefferson wrote a letter to Zlata. How he introduced and talks about his personal matters to someone he doesn't even know. I want to make my letter like his, it's better than write a letter like any other letter about how good of a teacher you are. I wonder if my letter will get into you hand, please excuse my grammar I still needs alot to improve.