American Girl of the Year: Isabelle

You'd never think a fashion designer ballerina would be one of my favorite GotYs, but Isabelle is up there with Mia, Jess and Lindsey for me. I think that's the magic of Laurence Yep, who also wrote Mia's books.

Isabelle is a dancer from Washington DC, who attends an arts school with her older sister Jade.

Isabelle's first three books run together quite well and with just a little padding material could make one whole book easily.

Her books have a fine cast of characters. Everyone in her family is likeable, as are her best friend Luisa and another friend Gabriel. Luisa is another dancer, while Gabriel is an actor/magician.

Renate is the only character that remains unlikeable through the entire trilogy. She's the mean girl, of course. While she does have a tiny bonding moment with Isabelle near the end of the third book, it's not enough to redeem her snide comments.

Isabelle's books tend to have her practicing for some dance performance. The first is an autumn festival, then The Nutcracker, then a travelling show based on the autumn festival. These are set during fall, around the holidays and then spring break.

She's not confident in her dancing, having an older sister that's very skilled, but she gets past her issues with the help of others, like her sister or their ballet idol, Jackie Sanchez, who plays a large role in the third book.

Isabelle is also a clothing designer and I like how that's worked into the stories. Her mother works in textiles at a museum and does textile art herself, which is really unique.

There's usually something going on with her sister Jade, too. In the first couple books, she struggled with a grown spurt, and in the third, she was jealous of Jackie, who Isabelle spent a lot of time with.

My only struggle with the books was picturing a lot of the dance moves. Yep is very descriptive and likes to describe people, which I enjoy, but also dance moves and I only have a basic knowledge of ballet. The books weren't less because of this. Still very well-written, but the dance scenes weren't as interesting as others for me.

Isabelle was the final GotY to get illustrated books in the larger format. She was also the first to get an ebook! I only just finished reading it for the first time a few minutes ago.

Isabelle in the City is the only story not set in DC. It's in New York. She and Jade are doing a summer program at a dance school there. So there's the fun of the characters, along with newbies from all over the world, and a NYC setting. You got me. Loved it.

This is also the only story that doesn't have a dance worry at its center. Isabelle is concerned with making friends with her Japanese roommate and then with winning the door decorating contest and getting a trip to go see the New York City Ballet perform in Saratoga.

Thankfully, the roommate issue is pretty quickly solved, once Isabelle learns that Miki is not ignoring her to play a handheld video game, but using an electronic translator. She took English in school, but she's not good at the intense level of slang English has.

This one does have a little Jade problem for Isabelle to help solve. It turns out Isabelle is actually better at making friends than Jade is, so she's the one to help her sister get included in the group of girls on their floor.

Definitely not a favorite I would have predicted, but yes, I do love me some Isabelle!