Customer Reviews

Julie Boxed Set (American Girls Collection)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Author Megan McDonald and illustrator Robert Hunt have created a memorable character in Julie Albright, a considerate, passionate young girl who is ready to make changes and take changes as they come.

Julie is one of the American Girls, books which offer realistic glimpses into America's past through the eyes of young girls. The Julie books begin in 1974, when Julie is nine years old, and end in 1976. There are six Julie books in all.

The first book, Meet Julie, begins shortly after her parents get divorced. Julie moves to another part of San Francisco with her older sister Tracy and her artsy mom, who opens up a shop called Gladrags below their apartment. Although Julie gets to see her father (and her rabbit Nutmeg, and her best friend Ivy) every other weekend at her old house, things just aren't the same.

By the end of the first book, Julie is a little more confident and a little more content. Though still sad about the divorce, she settles nicely into a pattern with her parents, and she enjoys her new home and her school.

Throughout the course of the series, Julie grows more optimistic and thoughtful. In the second book, Julie Tells Her Story, she is assigned a "Story of My Life" project in class and conducts tape-recorded interviews with her family and friends. Happy New Year, Julie shows how she always finds things to celebrate and appreciate, while Julie and the Eagles finds Julie raising awareness and money for injured feathered friends. Julie's Journey follows her on the wagon train that celebrated America's bicentennial. The sixth and final book in the series, Changes for Julie, considers communication and politics when Julie befriends a hearing-impaired classmate and runs for student body president.

Now I'm happily picturing a grown-up Julie working in politics or education, and wishing there were more books in this delightful series. Like the other American Girls books, each of the Julie books includes vignettes explaining and depicting real-life events that happened in that girl's time period. The vignettes in the Julie books were written and compiled by historians and writers such as Susan McAliley and Nika Korniyenko. With Julie's books taking place in our recent past, parents can easily bring up their own childhoods while discussing these books with their kids.

I bought the new American Girl series "Julie" for my daughter, who has all the other American Girl books. Molly is still her favorite, but Julie moved past Kit into second place. We both read the Julie books and loved them. The books take place in the mid 1970's and deal with issues such as divorce, friendship, Title IX, and the Bicentennial. If you buy these books, be prepared to explain to your daughter the meaning of the words "groovy" and "far out".

Great books for instilling positive role modeling for any girl. My 6 year old loved these books and the messages of self-sufficiency and ambition were great.

It is an excellent soure of information for childern and adults.
The amoount of History and everyday likfe experience is wonderful.

My 7 year old is a big fan of AG books. So far we read Felicity, Kirsten, Kaya, half of Josefina (my daughter didn't like it) sets, and now we're finishing Julie series. Out of the sets Julie is the easiest one to read, understand, explain and connect to. I think it's because it is set in "almost" present. The adventures that "real" historical characters like Felicity, Kirsten and Kaya have are true adventures (falling into the river, being kidnapped, being chased by a bear in the woods) where Julie's adventures are modern day adventures like setting up a petition to play basketball or being lost in the city.
Just in case you are wondering which set you should pick up, I will give you a quick comparison of sets.

Felicity (four stars for boring parts)
Set in the Revolutionary War time when women had to be proper, she rebels and helps an abused horse that belongs to a scary old drunk. There is a lot of Patriots-Loyalist talk in this book, and younger kids tend to get bored with it. The positive is that Felicity has a strong family structure (mom, dad, grandpa, siblings). Although her best friend Elizabeth is British, there is very little talk about diversity or any learning about other cultures. By the way the movie is great, possibly better than the books. Pick it up if you are interested in learning about doll characters before spending $100 on the doll.

Kirsten (five stars)
A colonial girl who immigrates from Sweden. The series starts with her voyage to the US and rather realistic description of the life on the ship. Her best friend dies in the first book which can disturb little ones. If you survive the first book, the series gets better. There is a lot of value here from learning about Swedish customs, clothing and family values. It is our favorite series. Kirsten leans a lot of valuable lessons (to listen to her parents, to break a promise to keep a secret if someone's life is in danger, not to wander off etc). Kirsten's best friend is an Indian girl, so your child will get the exposure to that culture too. It was easy to read, with simple, flowing sentences.

Josefina (2 stars for the first two books only)
This Mexican family is in mourning since they lost the mother. We managed to read the first two books but the moping was too much for us. My daughter said that the book made her very sad and she didn't want to continue.
Kaya (five stars for exposing kids to "different way of thinking" but four stars for extensive and unnecessary descriptions)
I felt that this set is more suited for older kids. My daughter enjoyed it but I had to "abridge" a few description sections so I wouldn't lose her attention. First of all there is way too much description of the nature. I mean a two page description of the Salmon Valley, or mountain top. I was getting bored. The word choices were strange for a kids book - very advanced. I struggled reading these books out loud. Also this book has a lot of Indian spiritual believes. If religion is an important issue for you (whether because you're religious or because you are an atheist) you have to be prepared to talk about vayakins (spirits in animal bodies), good luck/bad luck superstitions, sacrefices left for stick people etc. White people are mentioned briefly (they brought chicken pox and traded nice glass beads). I think this is an important AG series since our kids need to learn about the history of the land and people that were here before us. I wish we waited to read it when my daughter was 10+.

Julie (five stars for exposing kids to Chinese culture, different holidays and divorce)
My daughter always gravitated towards Julie in the AG store. Long blond hair, funky clothing and bed were always appealing to her. So when she asked for Julie books I was reluctant. I knew that Julie's parents were divorced and I didn't know how tastefully it was done. I feared having to read about family fights, mom and dad screaming at each other and throwing things at each other. I shouldn't have worried. AG knows its craft. The books are perfect! The books start after the divorce is final (so decisions are made, there is no agony). They are written from Julie's point of view, so we only see what she is feeling. It doesn't dwell on parents' feelings, only Julie's and her sister's. The writter took an opportunity to educate girls about key political moments in history - Nixon's resignation and Watergate; ping-pong diplomacy, Title 9 (woman's sports revolution) etc. One of the most valuable AG books in my mind is Happy New Year Julie - in this book we're introduced to the Ling family's Chinese New Year traditions and folk tales. The descriptions of San Francisco Chinatown are wonderful and vivid. Another value of these books is that Julie learns that change isn't necessarily bad, and that good things can come out of bad things. Also Julie and her teen sister have a really nice close (yet realistic) relationship. Although her sister shows a lot of post-divorce anger, she's a fantastic big sister who takes care of Julie. I could see how these books would provide comfort to children of divorced parents. The main premise is that you are still a family even after the divorce and you need to learn to get along at family functions because it's your new reality. The writing, although certainly not simplistic is a lot different from Felicity and Kaya books, and the mood is lighter. I think it is because life was a lot easier in the 70's than in 1700's or 1800's - no worries about surviving winter, having enough to eat and being killed by a bear. The kids can relate better to Julie. So I finally understand why she's the best selling AG doll.

My 8-year-old daughter LOVED these books. All of the American GIrl Doll books are great! Good job AG!

My daughter loves all the American Girl series she's read... this one is different because it is more modern. Like all the others I think this is very educational. I imagine most little girls would enjoy this set!

I think her stories are good for a 70s historical. Although, I don't feel she's very historical and that she's very recent, I think I learned alot from the story. They connected to girls whose families have been torn apart by divorce. THey also mention good qualities that girls should have. But I feel she's too similar to other American Girls I've read in the past. They don't have an Asian American Girl doll, and it's irritating how they would have another blonde before they would have the first Asian Historical. To me, Ivy dosen't count because who knows how long the BFs will last? Plus they are not as noticeable as the MAIN character. Otherwise, most people who don't share this viewpoin might like her stories and feel it connects to them when they were little kids if they grew up in the 70s.

I dislike many elements of these book, particulary the divorce of Julie's parents. I know divorce is common, and was common back in the 1970's, but I still hate it. Okay, if one parent was extremely abusive, I see the good of divorce, you need it then. My problem though, is that Julie's parents seem like good people who equally love their girls, so I'm left wondering why they needed a divorce.

They attempt to send a message in these books that Julie finds a new way of being a family and it makes her stronger, but I hardly find that to happen in real life! Divorce shatters kids, it can ruin their lives, especially when their parents try to act as if the family can be normal again. I've known kids whose parents divorced, they did not end up "stronger" like Julie! It really hurt them to see their parents split and to have to split their time among each of them, always traveling from house to house. Really, if you think about that, its a sad thing that not much good comes from. Many of the drug users, and people with broken lives started down their road because of their divorced, broken famlies. It is linked, people. I've seen it.


Another thing I don't like is the sneaky Liberal feel to these books, like the environment. I'm all for the enviorment, but the Liberals tend to worship the it, and place it above human life.
They have a section all about enviorment in the back of the book, "Julie and the Eagles", and the author talked all the indangerment of the enviorment, yet failed to warn against putting it above people. Does this not ring alarm bells?

I'm a Conservative, so I wouldn't want my child getting brainwashed into this way of thinking. I feel like these books displace many values of America, and I don't want to read that. I like books with the values that America was founded on, ones that are written into our Constitution.
You all may like these books if you wish, but I'm a Christian who really belives in Conservative values, so I found these books disatisfying.

This gift was purchased for a child less fortunate than most. I am sure this collection brought a smile to the face of that very special child.