AMERICAN GIRL: Courtney

 

I'm not sure how, but I really thought I'd reviewed Courtney's first book and I never did! Agh. I read it back in November, so my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I can say for sure that the book and the cute art and the nostalgia all combined to make me want the doll. I haven't gotten her yet, but I certainly intend to. 

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!

AMERICAN GIRL: Tenney

 
So here's Tenney, who we talked about in Z's entry. 

I'm sorry, but you can't convince me this girl wasn't supposed to be GotY. FOUR BOOKS? FOUR? 

So Tenney is from Nashville. Her full name is Tennyson Evangeline Grant, which is pretty awesome. Her entire family is musical. Dad owns a music store. Mom runs a hot chicken food truck. Dad, Tenney and her brother are a band, though you don't hear much about them after the beginning of the first book. Tenney is a singer/songwriter who wants a career in music. 

Book 1 is her struggling with her parents not wanting her to start her music career yet, despite her getting a really good opportunity. 

Book 2 has Tenney struggling with handling critique and dealing with a drummer/musical collaborator who she doesn't get along with. She's also got friend drama, because she's supposed to be helping best friend Jaya (on the cover there) with a fundraising effort for Jaya's cousin in Bangladesh whose school got damaged by a tropical storm. Jaya is getting more help from Holliday, a girl Tenney doesn't trust because Holliday is frequently mean to her. 

Book 3 is pretty much Tenney vs. Logan. Now that they've signed a contract together to play as a duo, they've got to start really collaborating on original songs. Logan tends to not look very dedicated though and it's getting to Tenney. Turns out Logan has a lot of family drama going on. 

Book 4 is Tenney vs. Logan Round 2: This Time It's Christmas. 

All their problems get ironed out. The entire cast is honestly likeable, though the little sister gets annoying and Logan makes you grit your teeth constantly. They're decently written books, but they're just not very interesting. I'm not musical. I don't care about the songwriting process or performing or recording or any of that jazz. 

I don't feel that Tenney deserved four books. She's not that fascinating. I was more interested in Jaya and even Holliday. Tenney's books focus solidly on Tenney and put the friend characters almost entirely in the background. I would have liked a book that wasn't centered around music and instead actually added character development to the cast. 

With these books, a good writer combined with good characters and good development can make them work for me, even if the girl's chosen theme is something I'm not interested in. I know practically nothing about ballet, but I loved Isabelle. However, a lot of these more recent offerings have been failing at firmly keeping my interest.

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.