The GLOBAL FRIENDS Series

The Global Friends series accompanied an American Girl-esque line of dolls. The dolls were smaller, cheaper and from around the world, representing girls that all were Global Friends, a type of pen pal that exchanged letters and emails. (They all spoke English, no matter where they were from, which is pretty convenient, but I suppose it could be a requirement for the program or there were other girls paired up who shared a non-English language.)

The books require a typical amount of suspension of disbelief. These girls are pretty young, mostly around 12ish, I think. I don't recall exactly. They do a ridiculous amount of traveling for children that age. Sometimes parents are along, but most of the time, these kids are left on their own in foreign countries with only a single child guide of the same age to accompany them. For some reason, this type of book tends to go for a mystery theme, like Karito Kids and the American Girl mysteries, and Global Friends is no different. The books can be read in any order. A few of the later ones have reference to past adventures, but it's along the lines of "I went to Japan last year!" and not important to the plot.

Educationally, they're okay. The visiting character learns a lot about the country in question from the resident character. There are frequent inserts of the native languages of the featured countries, but to my annoyance, no pronunciation guides. At most, there's a list of vocabulary words at the back, but how useful is it going to be if the reader or parent/teacher reading the book can't pronounce those words? Most people are not going to get Spielwarengeschäft or pretty much anything Mei Ling says without some help.

I'm not going to do separate reviews of each, but I am going to provide a quick blurb.

The Mystery of the Russian Circus School: This came out in September 1996 and was the first book. The setting is Moscow, where American Global Friends Jody (a Native American from New Mexico) and Marissa (possibly from California) are visiting their friend Katrina, who attends a circus school. The art in this one is great, but it barely focuses on the characters, which is a little annoying.

The Secret Egyptian Code: These next three are all from October 1996. This one features Marissa again, this time in Giza, visiting Aziza, who lives there. The art this time is a better blend of character-centric and educational/scenic. It's got some nice Egyptian facts included.

The Haunted English Riding Stable: This time we've got American Emily visiting Elizabeth in ruralish England. The artists of the first two books worked together on this one, but the Egyptian book artist did a much better job, simply because her characters actually are identifiable. The Russian book artist does great scenery, but I'm not sure in this one if the people in the illustrations are the characters or more of her scenic stuff.

The Lost Treasure of the Rainforest: I got this one only a few months ago. It was the hardest to find for me, although it's on Amazon right now for pretty cheap. This book has Bethany from Chicago visiting Camina in Brazil. The problem is that there is no Global Friends doll named Bethany, so I had no idea who she was until she shows up on page 40. And the artists are a mixed bag again and the Russian book artist likes to put so many random people in that you have no clue who the characters are. The Egyptian book artist is the one who drew Camina, her cousin and Bethany. Bethany apparently was the original name for Briana, the African-American doll from the Midwest.

Those first four books all have the characters reach out to other Global Friends on the internet for help in solving their mysteries. This sadly stops for most of the remaining five books, which all came out in October 1997. What begins is that the characters become more easily identifiable, because they're often pictured wearing their doll outfits. Although sometimes it's a bit strange, because I'm not sure Mariko would wear a kimono to hike to a German castle or that Jody would spend her trip to Japan in her cowgirl outfit.

The Missing Japanese Festival Dolls: This is the only book to still use the Global Friends connection in solving the mystery, so I consider it the first of the last five books. This is one of my two favorites. It's the least far-fetched when it comes to the mystery, and I love Mariko and Jody. Jody is back again and this time she's in Japan, visiting Mariko.

Discovery in a French Garden: Emily visits Clio in France.

Rescue in Kenya: Marissa is traveling again and this time she's with Briana (no longer Bethany) to visit Kenya and their Global Friend Akua.

The Ghostly German Castle: This is my other favorite of the series. The Russian book artist does the entire book and that includes gorgeous illustrations of the characters. I also love it because both Jody AND Mariko are visiting Gretchen in Germany. The travelers have always been American before, so it's nice to see Mariko out and about. I've also been to Munich, so I can enjoy the book a lot more because of that.

The Chinese New Year Dragon: This one has Emily again, but also Clio visiting Mei Ling in China. It's good because the girls visit a lot of places, but the mystery is by far the weakest.

There is another book, Secrets at California Beach Boardwalk, dated August 1997 on Amazon, but it doesn't appear to have ever been released. I find that a shame, because it likely would have had non-American Global Friends traveling to California to meet Marissa.

I enjoyed reading these the first time and they hold up to a good reread. They're fun, because the art is mostly pretty and the characters are sweet. They're not as in depth as other world series or AG, but they're still just plain fun.