Courtney is something that's been a long time coming: a historical girl from the 1980s. This made less sense in, say, the 90s, but now that we're in 2021, an 80s girl definitely qualifies as historical.
Courtney's first book introduces us to her world. She comes from a "blended family" (as it's called on American Girl's item page for the book). Only child Courtney's mother married a man with an older daughter, and then together they had a son. So both Courtney and 13-year-old Tina have a 2-year-old half-brother named Rafi. Courtney struggles with sharing a room with Tina, who's a typical bratty 13-year-old. She's really quite mean, though a lot of her pain comes from seeing Courtney with her mother. Tina's mom died when she was quite young, so she sees all these mother-daughter moments she'll never get. She's still not a likeable character, but you understand why. Mostly.
Courtney likes to play video games in the arcade, as shown on the book's cover. Her best friend is named Sarah and they have another friend, a boy called Kip.
One of the plotlines is that Courtney's mom is running for mayor. Not the most interesting thing, but definitely different.
Another is that Courtney is working on a big project for school. She sees hardly any female characters in video games, so she plots her own game with her main character being a friendship space superhero named Crystal Starshooter.
And then we've got Courtney's dad moving 3 hours away for work, so she won't see him as often. She struggles with that, but I liked the close relationship she and her father have.
The Challenger disaster is also covered in the book.
Courtney's second book only recently came out (like I just got it yesterday) and it's far heavier than the first one.
After taking part in Hands Across America, Courtney wants to spend her summer doing big things that will inspire the continuation of Crystal Starshooter's adventures. She goes on vacation with her father and then when she's home again, she meets a new friend named Isaac. He's a video game whiz and he quickly fits right into Courtney's friend group. When school starts, Isaac and Courtney are in the same class, while Sarah and Kip are in another.
There's only one major issue in this book: Isaac has HIV. He's got hemophilia and ended up getting infected during a large blood transfusion. These were the early days of AIDS when it was more hysteria and misinformation than fact, something Courtney fights against during the rest of the book. She sees Isaac forced out of school, though that's illegal in California and his family fights it. She sees other kids being taken out of school and people who don't think he should attend, including Sarah. Courtney is appalled by Sarah's behavior and they stop talking. Parents begin protesting. Courtney herself is victimized for being Isaac's most visible friend. The entire situation is really traumatic from her point of view, but she realizes how much worse it must be for Isaac and keeps on being his friend. She spends a weekend with her dad and they research HIV/AIDS together. Courtney decides to do her upcoming class current events presentation on it and comes armed with a flyer full of facts for each person in her class. But despite her particular class's improved understanding, the situation keeps escalating until an assembly is called. Courtney's teacher asks her to do her presentation for the class and she breaks down from all the stress and fear. After more time with her dad, she returns and ends up doing the presentation...sort of. She combines forces with her friends and they make a video of Isaac talking about himself and his experiences and that's what Courtney shares with the whole school, along with copies of her flyer. In the end, Isaac comes back to school and is mostly welcomed. I'm sure there are still dissenters, but they're no longer mentioned. It's a heavy topic and I thought they handled it well.
The secondary storyline is Courtney's fight with Sarah. They originally stop talking over Isaac, then make up, but then Courtney forgets a choir performance because she and Kip decide to take Isaac to the arcade. Courtney doesn't tell Sarah because she still wants nothing to do with Isaac. So Sarah's pissed because she sees it as Courtney choosing Isaac over her. Courtney eventually explains that Isaac needs her more, but admits she also was a bad friend to Sarah. Yeah, no. I think she apologized too much and Sarah not enough. Ugh. Not a fan of Sarah.
The highlight of the book for me was Courtney getting a Pleasant Company catalogue in the mail. She becomes obsessed with Molly because she relates to her instantly. A dad 3 hours away isn't the same as a dad at war, but for a kid, even small similarities can be relatable. (I related to Molly because I also wore glasses and I didn't see a lot of dolls or characters with glasses.) She shows the catalogue to her mom, who says Courtney is more of a stuffed animal girl and then pretty much says no to Courtney asking for Molly for Christmas after seeing the $75 price. Courtney shows the catalogue to Sarah (this is before the HIV storyline begins) and Sarah falls for Kirsten. Clearly here we have the most unrealistic thing in the book. Neither girl is into Samantha, who was decidedly the fan favorite from the start. I remember. I was there. I turned 8 in 1986, so Courtney is only 2 years older than me. Courtney goes to the mall on one of her visits to her dad's and she buys Meet Molly. The Molly storyline disappears into the background, but resurfaces when Courtney is really upset over the Isaac situation. Her dad surprises her with Molly and she's thrilled. Then later after making up, she shows her to Sarah. I'll admit this is self-indulgent of the company, but they do have a long history and I don't mind them inserting themselves into the 80s books because it's not like it wouldn't be relevant.
So yeah, Courtney is a blend of 80s fun and seriousness. I really loved both books and I hope they do more with her. I plan on getting her doll, the splatter-print dress, the cardigan, maybe the suspender skirt, and definitely mini Molly with that tiny replica catalogue!
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