Which book was the basis for the 2007 movie "Freedom Writers"?

The 2007 movie "Freedom Writers" was based on the book The Freedom Writers Diary.

The book collects diary entries written by students taught by Erin Gruwell at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. Gruwell encouraged teenagers from racially divided neighborhoods to write honestly about their lives, conflicts, fears, and hopes. The students became known as the "Freedom Writers," a name inspired by the civil-rights-era Freedom Riders.

Hilary Swank portrays Gruwell in the film, which was written and directed by Richard LaGravenese and released in 2007. The movie dramatizes the class's struggles with gang violence, prejudice, poverty, and an education system that often underestimated them. Although the film uses fictionalized scenes and composite storytelling, its foundation is the students' real writing and experiences.

A common mix-up is confusing the book with a conventional novel. The Freedom Writers Diary is primarily a collection of student journal entries, edited and introduced by Gruwell, rather than a fictional story created for the screen.