AMERICAN GIRL OF THE YEAR: Lea

American Girl of the Year 2016 Lea spends two of her books in Brazil. 

Lea's special for me. I remember seeing her at Kohl's and pointing her out to my mom. I hadn't read her books yet. 

Not too long after, my aunt passed away rather unexpectedly. My mom surprised me with Lea, saying she was a gift from my aunt, since I wouldn't be getting one that year obviously. When I started reading her books, I learned that Lea was from St. Louis...the city my aunt spent most of her life in. 

Lea's first book chronicles the first half of her Brazilian adventure. she and her parents are visiting Zac, Lea's much older brother, who's doing his senior year in undergrad as a study abroad. 

Lea and Zac have issues reconnecting, which stem from Lea's being a bit oversensitive when it comes to him and him being...well, an oblivious dumbass. 

Lea meets a girl her age, Camila, and Camila's older cousin Paloma, who Zac develops a crush on. Both girls and Lea's dad help Lea conquer her fear of swimming in the ocean, which she's never even seen before. 

Lea lost her adventurous, world-travelling grandmother not long before and her connections with Ama throughout the entire trilogy are nice. 

The second book finds Lea and Zac in the rainforest outside Manaus, staying with Zac's host family. After an accident in their previous location, Lea's dad is recovering from a broken leg and her mom stays with him, but everyone agrees Lea is capable of joining Zac for this next planned leg of their trip. 

Lea struggles with facing new fears. She wants to see Amazon wildlife, but is afraid of a nasty rooster belonging to Zac's host family and is even more afraid after an accidental spill off the side of a boat into the Amazon. 

Then Lea and Zac find a baby sloth in the rainforest. She's clearly injured and there's no sign of her mother. They rescue the sloth, Zac having emailed a professor who knows a wildlife sanctuary. But when Lea posts pictures of the sloth and tells the story, her best friend is angry that she interfered with wildlife. They work things out online, but Abby's another idiot. Her whole reason for being angry was that she thought Lea just took a baby sloth, not that there was no sign of the little animal's mother. Lea blames herself for not telling the story better, but shouldn't her best friend know her well enough to know she wouldn't do that? 

The third book is set back in St. Louis. Lea is excited that Camila is coming for a visit. The girls and Lea's best friend Abby are taking a children's photography course. Lea wants to become a better photographer, while the other two are beginners. 

When visiting a century-old house Lea's mother is resorting, Lea and Camila find an old photo of a girl wearing the same compass necklace Lea's "Ama" wore. This sets Lea off on a search to find out how this girl was connected to her grandmother. Sadly, she neglects Camila and Abby steps in to spend time with the Brazilian girl. I liked her a little better in this book, but she still makes Lea cry when she says Lea will never solve the mystery. Pretty nasty thing to say to your best friend who's still missing her grandmother. Why do these girls tend to have such terrible friends? Predictably, everyone makes up, Lea's photography is excellent, and they find the girl in the photo who tells them more about her past and her friendship with Lea's Ama.

I enjoyed Lea's books a lot, though they're far from perfect. The cast of characters is mostly solid and at least she does something different. Her rainforest experience is also very different from Jess's, which helps differentiate the two.