DEAR AMERICA: I WALK IN DREAD

This is the second last Dear America and the only one from any of the series by this author. Unfortunately, I can't judge her writing skills based on this book because I am both angered and bored to tears by anything involving the horrific fucking joke that was these witch trials.

This book lacks the ribbon bookmark that I always loved from earlier DAs. I'll have to try to figure out which one was the first book that lost it. But I'm obsessed with bookmarks and I love the colors on some of those ribbons (like the deep blue one from my previous reviewed book).

This diary is like bits of the trials tucked into dull accounts of two orphaned girls who have been abandoned by their abusive asshole uncle. The older sister is a romance-obsessed lazyass who uses her health issues as an excuse to make her little sister do more of the work. The younger sister is too superstitious, paranoid and holier than thou to be likeable.

To be completely honest, I read this thing to halfway through, which is about when the trial stuff starts, although you're viewing it almost as an extreme outsider. Then I just skimmed the rest. It gets better toward the end when the brother comes home and the older sister grows up a bit.

Overall though, this is one of the weakest and most dull of the entire series. I just could not care about any character presented. They're all fucking boring or irritating or a blend of both. And yet, this is one of the handful that made the cut for the reboot. The cover to the right here is the reissue. Deliverance looks pretty damn bitchy in that cover art, doesn't she? And also WAY older than 13. I mean, seriously, she looks like 25.

Skip this book. Unless you're some diehard witch trials fan (ew) or you're a completist who has to read it all (which I understand, but I apologize for some of these that you'll have to endure).

DEAR CANADA: ALONE IN AN UNTAMED LAND

Well, we have finally made it to our first foray into the Dear Canada series. This series has some great writers. Maxine Trottier unfortunately only did this, one other DC and one I Am Canada, the boy-fronted equivalent series. But this is one of my top Dear Canadas for sure. I haven't reread them all recently, though obviously, I'll be doing so as we go along, but I can only think of maybe 3 other contenders for favorite.

Hélène and her older sister Catherine are French orphans. Catherine agrees to be one of the Filles du Roi, who are girls willing to travel to the New World and become wives for the large number of unmarried men in New France. Unfortunately, Catherine dies on the journey over and by the end of the sea voyage, Hélène has agreed to take her place, even though she's only 13.

I'm not going to tell the entire story here, because I urge all of you with an interest in historical fiction to track this book down. This is a little known group of very, very brave girls and I had no idea they existed before I read this. That's one thing I really enjoy about the Dear Canada series. I don't know much about Canadian history, so I learned a lot by reading these. Dear America are educational, too, of course, but we learn at least a little about a lot of those times during our school years. We don't learn Canadian history, not being Canadian.

All of the main characters are great: Hélène, Jean Aubry and his daughter Kateri, Hélène's feisty Tante Barbe, and even her cat Minette has a big personality. I'm fairly sure you'll love them as I do once you've finished the story.

My only criticism is that the book could have been a bit more educational by including not just the French glossary, but also pronunciations for those words and names. There is a LOT of French speckled throughout the diary entries, but if you're like me and you have no background in French aside from hearing people in TV shows and movies pronouncing things, you're guessing at pronunciations and that can get frustrating.

Dear Canada took things one step farther than Dear America and actually continued these girls' stories. There are currently three anthologies of Christmas stories, one for each of the girls who have gotten a diary so far. (I'm guessing. If anyone is missing, we'll know by the end of these reviews.) Hélène's story is in A Season for Miracles, the first of these anthologies. I can't say much about it without giving away key details of the plot of the main book, but it is as good as the original story. Although I was a bit annoyed that one of the characters is misnamed in the short. SeraphiN was in the book, but SeraphiM is in the short story. Not quite right! Not sure if that's author or editor, but someone made an error.

Ugh, next up is the Salem witch trials Dear America. I HATE the Salem witch trials. But in the upcoming batch of books, I've got 3 more Dear Canadas, Royal Diaries for Marie-Antoinette and Catherine, one I Am Canada that I haven't read yet, and one of my favorite Dear Americas. Just need to make it through the damn witch trials. Maybe I can knock it out today and then move on to something I like better tomorrow.

ROYAL DIARIES: WEETAMOO

Sadly, the late Patricia Clark Smith contributed only one book to the Dear America family and that's this one. I really enjoyed the book based on the quality of the writing, but even moreso, the quality of the research.

Smith had Micmac roots and was very interested in Native American studies. You can tell these people truly meant something to her and she says that Weetamoo was one of her heroes. She did exhaustive research and when she didn't know something, she found someone who could help her. That is how you write a book properly, unlike other books we've already discussed, and that is how you write real people respectfully, unlike Ann Rinaldi. (We'll get to that eventually.)

Weetamoo is a bit different though, because she didn't know how to read and write. Her entries are presented in the form of her having thinking times and remembering. They're her private thoughts and memories, just as any diary would be, except they were never written down. It doesn't take away from the story at all, because it still reads like any other RD or DA book does, and I think Smith came up with a clever way of making this work for a character that wouldn't have kept a diary.

This book captures both the daily life of Weetamoo's Pocassets and other neighboring groups, but also covers interaction with and concerns about the "Coat-men" and how they might change Native American cultures.

I enjoyed reading this because I felt safe in Smith's hands, like she had done the people who populate this story justice and truly cared about their history.

ROYAL DIARIES:KRISTINA

Kristina of Sweden received the 14th Royal Diary, the third written by Carolyn Meyer after Isabel and Anastasia. Kristina is a very interesting character, because she's an intellectual rather like Elizabeth I, but unlike Elizabeth, she is raised to be king, not queen. She learns masculine things like fencing and warfare, and once she tries it, she won't stop riding astride instead of sidesaddle.

Kristina's book and character are both quite interesting and I recommend giving this a read.

I don't have any talking points about the book itself, but rather about a comment Meyer makes in the epilogue. She says "Historians argue that, although she is the most discussed of all queens in history, second only to Cleopatra, Kristina actually achieved very little during her brief reign." There are three major problems I have with this. First, the entire point of the book was that Kristina was not a queen, but a king. Second, Cleopatra was not a queen either. She was Pharaoh. Third, I find it hard to believe that Kristina, no matter how interesting she actually was, is more discussed than everyone but Cleopatra. Um, Elizabeth I, anyone? I have had an interest in history since I was young and I had never heard of Kristina until I read this book. Granted, I aimed more at ancient history, but still, you come across plenty of big names even in basic studies and hers was not one of them. Very interesting woman, yes, but more discussed than everyone but Cleopatra? I think not.

ROYAL DIARIES: JAHANARA

After a brief foray with the pilgrims, we go back into the world of the Royal Diaries. Jahanara takes us to the Mughal Empire in India. Jahanara is the eldest daughter of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, the famous love that built the Taj Mahal.

Jahanara's life is full of court intrigue and that takes up the majority of her diary. At the beginning, her father isn't emperor, but he eventually takes over and the two sons being held captive by the now Dowager Empress are returned to the family. The youngest had greatly changed and will grow into a nasty puritanical ruler who killed his brothers to take the throne. It's another of those tough books to read because you know what this bratty kid will do to his awesome older brother in the future.

The end of the diary feels very rushed, jumping periods of months and even over a year between entries. I think Lasky ran out of steam and just wanted to make it to Mumtaz Mahal's death at the end and didn't know what to say in between. Lasky gave us Mem, Elizabeth, Marie-Antoinette and Zipporah, some of my favorite voices from these series, so to see her drop the ball with Jahanara is frustrating. Also, based on skimming the reviews on Amazon, she got some things wrong research-wise. I wish they'd gotten an Indian historian to write this, instead of someone who had never even heard of Jahanara before visiting India. There are loads of books about the European royalty in this series, but they only did one about India, so why not make sure it's done right? Sigh. I definitely still like Lasky as an author, but she loses some respect for not doing enough research on this and not putting as much effort into Jahanara as she did her other books.

GODDESS GIRLS 19

Gah, I have mixed feelings about this one.

The first thing that needs mentioning is that the blurb on Amazon is not the plot AT ALL. That makes Echo sound like a new student at MOA who makes everyone dislike her by copying them. That didn't happen whatsoever.

A ton of characters are introduced, so I'll make a quick list:

-Echo (obviously): an Oread (mountain nymph) who lives in the forest and is the guardian of FirHeart, a fir tree

-Daphne: Echo's friend who guards LaurelRing, a laurel tree. Daphne used to be a Naiad, a river nymph, but changed herself into an Oread. Apparently, this is a thing Naiads can do. Having Daphne protect a laurel is an amusing, child-friendly way to include her in the story, because the Daphne and Apollo myth doesn't work for that.

-Pan: The godboy of shepherding, who's part goat. He attends the same Nature School as the girls.

-Syrinx: A Naiad who's visiting her old friend Daphne. She's an asshole and remains one the entire story. She picks on Echo a lot for her copying.

-The Treechers: The eight teachers of the Nature School are actual trees. These Hamadryads are so old that they've melded permanently with their trees and are basically trees with faces. They are: Karya (hazelnut), Ptelea (elm), Balanos (oak), Morea (olive), Ampelos (a grapevine), Aigeiros (poplar), Kraneia (cherry), and Syke (fig).

-Narcissus: A vain mortal who wants to be a fashion model and often tells lies.

-Tiresias: Narcissus' stylist and agent.

-Anaxandra: Narcissus' artist. She's only in it for a couple brief scenes. She was an actual female Greek artist around 228 BCE.

-Amalthea: One of Zeus's nannies. She has both goat and human forms.

-Melissa: The other of Zeus's nannies. She has both bee and human forms.

-Ide: Melissa's daughter, who has bee wings. Her marriage is to be celebrated soon. The groom remains unnamed through the entire book.

-Moda: A mortal fashion designer.

I think that's everyone.

Echo lives in a treehouse in her tree, FirHeart, and attends Nature School with the other local nymphs and a few boys (one of which is Pan). She copies things she likes, sometimes in a flattering way and sometimes it seems an unconscious thing, like when she can't help but mimic someone's gesture. She likes the design of Persephone's chiton in the newest Teen Scrollazine, so she sews leaves and flowers onto the hem of her own, which I know is not how Persephone's was and seems like something a forest-dwelling nymph would like, so I really didn't like it when Syrinx mocked her for it. Syrinx is visiting her old friend Daphne and has turned a lot of the other nymphs against Echo by mocking her copying ways. Sadly, there is never a true comeuppance for her bitchery nor does she turn over a new leaf or explain why she's the way she is. She's just a nasty bitch for no good reason and remains that way the entire book. It's like in Persephone the Daring when there's no comeuppance for Eurydice and Atë. I hated that.

Anyway, Echo's out in the forest doing a school assignment when she sees some lightning and has a bad feeling. You see, instead of doing her own daily protective spell for FirHeart, she mimicked one of Syrinx's many river spells and then forgot to add her own regular spell on. So poor FirHeart gets hit by lightning. A heartbroken Echo makes a small hut beside his stump with some help from her only true friends, Daphne and Pan, after Syrinx is a bitch to her again and the other girls blame her for what she's done and turn away. (She blames herself, too, but come on. These nymphs suck.) She consults the Treechers and they mention that Zeus is the only one who can do anything. Echo thinks about it and begins to get angry with Zeus for zapping her tree for no good reason. She leaves the forest and heads to MOA to confront him.

In the Forest of Beasts, she runs into three mortals. Narcissus, the preening egotistical wannabe model, his agent/stylist Tiresias and his artist Anaxandra. Echo saves them from a beast, but it turns out the mortals, who by the way are not supposed to be in the forest, have been using the malfunctioning dragon as a prop. They're not interested in Echo until she mentions her interest in fashion design. They hide when they hear some immortals coming, as it's Friday, the day they have class. Fearing for Artemis' safety, Echo warns her of the nearby dragon, but Narcissus manages to take the credit and Echo, having a crush on him, lets the lie go. Narcissus asks what Artemis will do for him, a sure sign that he's a complete ass, but Echo's too enamored to notice. Artemis takes Echo, Narcissus and Tiresias back to MOA with her and the other goddessgirls.

Zeus is out, but Echo is determined to see him, so she sneaks off to the Immortal Marketplace, helps distract Hera so Zeus can eat a ton of cupcakes and finally gets to talk to him. He says she can switch to another type of nymph, so the goddessgirls, who followed her to make sure she stayed safe, offer to take her around to various groups. They try some meadow nymphs who just dance a lot, cloud nymphs who are a bit airheaded, and river nymphs who are too daredevillish for Echo.

Back at MOA, the girls leave Narcissus and Echo alone in the cafeteria and he tells her he's gotten permission to be on the bridal float in the next day's IM parade. He talks Echo into sneaking into Hera's shop to alter a couple outfits for the pair of them so they can star on the float. Echo does this and while there, eats a lemon cupcake. The next day, they sneak onto the float and pop out of the fake cake onboard, much to the dismay of the others on the float. Zeus is pissed, Hera is pissed, Ide is furious because she thinks Echo is in her bridal chiton (she isn't, as Echo embellished the chiton on her own), and Echo? Well, she can't explain a thing, because all she can do is repeat the last few words of what was said to her and asshole Narcissus is quick to shift all blame to her. Hera later tells her that the cupcake she ate was a trap for Zeus, so in a very amusing way, the authors have integrated Echo distracting Hera and getting spelled for it, although at least this spell is temporary.

A sad Echo leaves the IM with Pan, who she'd invited there to meet Apollo. Pan's dream is to play with Heavens Above, Apollo's band, but Apollo tells him that while he's very talented, he needs to find a unique instrument to play. On their way back to the forest, Echo spots some of the crazy lightning that hit FirHeart. It turns out the lightning was not caused by Zeus. It was Narcissus and his jerkass modelling team fucking around with the beast dragon. Syrinx is now with them and she's got a crush on Narcissus, too. Sigh. Sadly, Echo is still stuck under the copycake's spell so she never gets to tell Narcissus exactly what he's done, which I hate. It's so unsatisfying! Syrinx mocks her and Echo realizes the Naiad is wearing one of her old outfits. Syrinx says she's going to replace Echo, but then Daphne runs in and bitches her out. Pan messes with asshole Narcissus, who stares at himself in a pool. You see, there was this prophecy I didn't mention before because these characters are such assholes that I so don't give a shit, but blah blah if Narcissus sees his reflection, he'll lose his heart. They're all afraid that means he'll die. No, it just means that he falls for himself and will never love anyone else. Just as the jerk mortals leave, Echo's spell wears off and sadly, she does not run after them and tell them what they did. Argh. The beasts in the forest got messed up by Narcissus falling in the pool, so they start running around and Syrinx lies down in the pool with a reed to breathe through. The others do the same and this eventually leads Pan to create his pipes, which he uses to calm the beasts. Syrinx declares the forest too dangerous and returns to the river. Echo is glad she's gone and I am, too, but I wish someone had told her off better. Daphne just kinda stood up to her instead of letting her have it. But at least Narcissus didn't return her feelings, so she's not totally unscathed. Bitch.

Echo gets the idea to redesign Ide's wedding chiton and she and Pan return to the now very busy IM. Turns out the publicity from her and Narcissus's stunt actually worked in favor of the IM and everyone who was scared to shop there after the Typhon incident is now back in force. Echo brings her design to Hera and the bridal party, while Pan goes with the godboys to see Zeus about the malfunctioning forest beasts. Hera and Amalthea both like the design and when she finally looks at it, so does Ide. Echo is finally able to properly apologize and Hera says she knows that Echo didn't take Ide's chiton, having found it where she left it, and she knows Narcissus is a big fat liar. Everyone works to make the new chiton. Narcissus gets a little setback when both photos of him don't even show his face and everyone thinks his name is actually the name of the white flowers Anaxandra drew by the pool. So the narcissus flower still gets its name.

The wedding is a success. Echo convinced Ide to allow Pan to play at it, so he's discovered by Apollo. And with Hera's help, Moda the mortal designer accepts Echo as an apprentice, to work out of her forest, because her nature-themed designs will be her "brand." Best of all, a little sapling is growing out of FirHeart's stump, so Echo will have a new tree after all.

I loved many of the new characters and the world-building in this one and Echo is really likeable, but I hate it so much when negative characters don't get what's coming to them. It's okay to punish bad characters, authors. It's totally okay. If you're creative enough to figure out how to make Greek myths kid-friendly, then you are creative enough to come up with better treatments of the bad characters. Narcissus really needed to know what he'd done, just like Eurydice needed some punishment for what she did several books ago. I am looking forward to getting back to MOA next time. Calliope is up next in August! And then Pallas in December. More newbies, but newbies that interact more with the usual cast. I hope anyway! I missed them this book, even though meeting all the new ones was interesting and learning about nymph life.

MY NAME IS AMERICA: JASPER JONATHAN PIERCE

Here we are on our first My Name Is America. I tend to get slightly bored by the "boy" books in these series, because so many of them are war stories. Jasper's isn't though, being about the Pilgrims set at the same time as Mem's book, so it's really enjoyable.

Ann Rinaldi is the author on this one and one of only five female authors to tackle a MNIA book. She is a prolific historical fiction author, but only contributed this book and Dear America's most controversial book, My Heart Is on the Ground, to these series. I have read a good portion of her body of work and...it's spotty at best. She writes horrible, depressing things a lot of the time and when I get to My Heart Is on the Ground, I'm not even going to reread it or review it. I'm going to link to a review that anyone who's read the book needs to read. I used to enjoy that book until I read this review and realized just how many wrong things are in it. But I digress.

Jasper's journal is actually mostly positive, which is a far cry from the usual Rinaldi fare. It's interesting to read after Mem's because there is an overlap in characters and different events are handled different ways and from very different perspectives. I recommend reading the pair together. I favor Mem's voice a bit more, but Jasper is a good character, too.

DEAR AMERICA: A JOURNEY TO THE NEW WORLD

Now I feel like my journey back through these series has truly begun, because I just finished rereading my first actual Dear America book! It's been all Royal Diaries and the one My America trilogy until now.

Mem. What can I say about Mem? She's one of the most well-known DA characters, having one of the first three books, which were all released on September 1, 1996. I'll talk about the book itself first. I don't think I've ever read it right after Elizabeth's before, because I don't remember noticing the similarities in their stories before. Maybe I did and just don't remember. It's been a few years since my last reread. Mem comes over many years after Elizabeth as one of the pilgrims that will eventually make it to Plimoth. But both girls' mothers die of sickness, both their fathers remarry taciturn women who have lost their husbands similarly and who watch over the girls' young sisters and get to know their families that way, and both lose their best friends when those girls return to England, their fathers having lost their wives. The book is well-written and Mem is a very likeable character. She's more of a good girl, whereas Elizabeth was sassier. Mem's book feels a bit more realistic than Elizabeth's. Elizabeth is always doing some big adventurous thing.

Kathryn Lasky wrote four of the original DA series, one My Name Is America, one of the My America trilogies, and five Royal Diaries. (We've come across her before not long ago with Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots.)

Some of the Dear America and Royal Diaries books were included in the My Story line, which is basically the UK's version of DA. I may tackle those books as a reread after DA.

Mem has had several different looks, as you can see. Dear America used details from paintings for their character images. I believe My Story does the same, but I feel their Mem looks more like she does in the book. Her hair is described as "bright," so she must be blonde. I can't recall if she says for sure, because I know Elizabeth does and there's a chance I may be thinking of what she said and putting it on Mem. But Mem does describe people with red hair and I would think she would note if she had that, which leaves her as blonde.

Mem was the subject of one of the live action retellings of the books, and she was one of the four girls made into a Madame Alexander doll. The doll seems mostly based on the movie actress. I used to have Mem and she was pretty awesome, but her outfit stained her. I actually had all four of the DA dolls, but now I only have Catharine Carey Logan left. (She's the real proof the dolls were based on the actresses, because on the book, Caty's blonde, but the actress and doll have red hair.)

Her book was also included in the recent reissue of several DA books, but I'm not sure the artist was actually told the time period, because her hair should not be loose and blowing in the wind. A lot of the reissue girls got gorgeous new art, but Mem's just does not fit her character at all.

So that's our first DA girl. Not much of a book review, I know, but when I like a book, I don't have much to say about it other than recommending everyone read it!

MY AMERICA: ELIZABETH

The My America series was written for younger readers. According to Amazon, it's for ages 7-9, as opposed to Dear America's 9-12. That makes them fun, quick reads. There are 7 characters in the series with 3 books apiece. Patricia Hermes wrote both Elizabeth's and Joshua's, but contributed nothing else to any DA-related series.

I debated on how to tackle these next few books, because they're all about the New World. Elizabeth's comes in a lot earlier at 1609. The next is Mem's well-known DA at 1620. I was considering doing all of them in one big entry, but opted to do separate reviews instead, in case I get side-tracked.

Elizabeth arrives in Jamestown, having gone through a hurricane and lost several of their ships, including the one bearing the majority of the food. She sees a lot of hard times. People are dying left and right, both from disease and from starvation. There are conflicts with the Indians, although Pocahontas is a positive presence. The little town is run by a string of selfish incompetents and people often get away with not doing their fair share of the work.

Elizabeth is a fun character, being "a little bit mean" as she describes herself. Her friend in the first book is a mostly good girl, but her friend in the second and third books is more like herself. They can be sassy and stick up for themselves in a way that almost feels too modern, but then considering what they're going through, they've earned the right to respect. The books blend realistic conflicts between mostly realistic characters into a historically trying time with ease. I wish Hermes would have tackled a full-length DA book or a Royal Diary. I think she would have done an excellent job.

ROYAL DIARIES: NZINGHA

I love this book. This is definitely one of my fave RDs. Literally, my only criticism is that it's far too short! It's only 85 pages. It's short, but it's also well-written and gets the entire story across in just these few pages. All the characters are pretty awesome, except the ones you're supposed to dislike.

McKissack wrote a few of the Dear America series: A Picture of Freedom (one of the more well-known DAs) in 1997, Color Me Dark in 2000, and Look to the Hills in 2004. I don't remember the latter two well enough to say right now, but I know I enjoyed A Picture of Freedom.

Really nothing much else to say other than read this! Nzingha is a badass. I love her.

ROYAL DIARIES: MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS

The author of this RD is the same that wrote Elizabeth's diary, Kathryn Lasky. The same praise I gave Elizabeth's can be applied here.

Mary is written as a very approachable character and you want to know what's going to happen to her. I love her little band of four Marys, the girls from Scotland that accompanied her to France, where she's grown up. There are a lot of interesting characters running around, too, like Catherine de Medici, Diane de Poitiers and Nostradamus.

My only criticism is that the book hides her fate. It ends when she's still young, of course, before she even marries Francis. But the epilogue is coy and only hints at bad things. Only in tiny print in the family tree section does it say she was beheaded for treason. Be honest about what she did! Don't try to hide it from readers. Let them decide for themselves how they feel about her knowing the full facts. That sneakiness gives the book a bit of a dishonest feel, which I don't care for. But that doesn't take anything away from the main narrative, the diary itself.

ROYAL DIARIES: ELIZABETH

This was the first of the Royal Diaries, out in 1999. It was also one of the earliest I read. Kathryn Lasky is one of the more well-known Royal Diaries and Dear America authors. She did five Royals (Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots, Marie-Antoinette, Jahanara of India and Kazunomiya of Japan), four Dear Americas (including one of the famous ones and one of my favorites), a My America trilogy for younger readers, and one of the male-fronted My Name Is America series. (You may also know her as the Guardians of Ga'hoole author.)

This is one of the main RDs I would recommend to new readers. You can't help but fall in love with Lasky's Elizabeth. She's bursting with character and her diary melds daily life activities with royal intrigue and historical details. It feels like a real diary, because it's very personal, but it also educates like historical fiction. And it takes place during her younger years, which is good for the target audience. For the continuation of her story, try Beware, Princess Elizabeth from Carolyn Meyer's Young Royals series.

I actually don't have much to say about it, because like Josefina's AG books, I love it and there's not much to talk about other than repetitive praise.

TWILIGHT ZONE Anthologies

Thanks to Paperback Swap, I discovered that 1993, 1994 and 1995 gave us three anthologies inspired by The Twilight Zone. I love me some twist endings and most of these stories were awesome. I'm going to list off my faves from each book and not go into detail, because I'm not spoiling anything.

Journeys to the Twilight Zone (1993): Good Boy (my fave), Another Kind of Enchanted Cottage, Outside the Windows (this one is sad but good), Coming of Age

Return to the Twilight Zone (1994): Night of the Living Bra (hilarious), The Kaleidoscope, The Midnight El, Maybe Tomorrow, Gordie's Pets, Lady in Cream-Colored Chiffon, The Duke of Demolition Goes to Hell (interesting idea here that I haven't seen before), The Sole Survivor

Adventures in the Twilight Zone (1995): The Repossessed, Ballad of the Outer Life, The Sacrifice of Shadows, Dead and Naked, My Mother and I Go Shopping, Peace on Earth, My Wiccan, Wiccan Ways, Marticora, Mittens and Hotfoot.  

AMERICAN GIRL: New JOSEFINA Mystery

Well, new-ish. I've had this a couple months, I think, and only just got around to reading it.

I adore Josefina and all her family members. This book has everything I loved about her other books, so it's another great one. And Francisca is full of her usual sass. She's my favorite sister. I think it used to be Clara, but now it's totally Francisca. I'm so her, except with the beauty-obsessed stuff. I don't wanna weave. Ugh. Guests make extra work. Ooh, dancing is fun! Yeah, that's me.

There are a few mysteries going on at the same time. One of them, involving Tia Dolores, is really obvious. Although back in Josefina's time, it probably would have been less obvious to a child her age in her situation. She's not a one-room cabin girl where things are a little harder to hide. The other two are a bit less obvious, but I still had them figured out pretty quickly. It doesn't take away any enjoyment of the book though.

I just love Josefina. I feel like I never say much about her, because all I'm really capable of is love. She makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

AMERICAN GIRL: Marie-Grace and Cécile

The true testament to the lack of popularity these two have is how damn hard it is to find good images online. Loads of the dolls, but barely anything about the books.

AG tried something new with Marie-Grace and Cécile, but I wouldn't consider it a success. This is the first (and hopefully only) time two characters shared the spotlight. This isn't one main character and then her best friend doll comes along later (or with her, in Ivy's case). Both dolls were released together and both girls shared the 6-book series.

The first two books are basically the same story told from two different perspectives. Marie-Grace Gardner was born in New Orleans, but left after her mother and younger brother died to travel with her doctor father for several years before returning finally to New Orleans. Cécile Rey is a free girl of color who comes from a rather affluent family. Cécile switches between French and English frequently, as do many of the other characters, so there's a glossary and pronunciation guide in the back of each book, which I always find helpful. While I like both girls, I didn't think the switch back and forth for the same time period aspect of these two books was necessary. I wish they'd just made this Marie-Grace's meet book, then continued on with their story for Cécile's meet, instead of starting all over again. You're rather cheated out of a book by the method they chose.

The series is different from the previous AG books, because those are far more episodic, while this series runs together. It's like one continuous story broken up into several books. It feels to me now like the precursor to the BeForever books and how they run all together now. (I haven't read any of the tweaked versions, so I don't know how they flow, but this flows more like Maryellen's book than Kirsten or Felicity's original 6-book sets.) The main plotline is the yellow fever epidemic and how it affects both families. The story is good and the characters are strong. I love both girls and their families, although I really wish we'd gotten to know them a bit better.

The only other books the girls have are three mysteries. The Hidden Gold is Marie-Grace's and Cécile's is The Cameo Necklace. Both are excellent, but I wish the girls hadn't been separated. They spend so much of their 6-book series separated that I wish they could have been together more for the mysteries. I think that's one of the reasons this series ultimately failed. It was harder for people to connect to both characters, because they're not given enough screentime both singly and as a best friend set. I love them, but I want to love them even more, because they're nowhere near the level of Felicity, Josefina, Julie and such. The Haunted Opera is the third mystery and that one finally stars both, although it is more Marie-Grace's than Cécile's.

My biggest problem with these books is the art. This is hands down the worst AG art ever. If you look at the three Marie-Grace covers in the first image up there, you can see that poor girl is not drawn flatteringly whatsoever. Only the three mystery covers depict her nicely, but they don't quite capture the character. The doll is one of my favorites and so exquisitely beautiful. On the other hand, Cécile is much more well-favored by the art, but I don't care for her doll. (I don't like the Sonali mold. I just don't.)

AG Best to Least Best (they're too good to be called "Worst") Historical Ranking:
-Josefina
-Felicity
-Kaya
-Marie-Grace and Cécile
-Caroline
-Maryellen

I think these two are underrated, especially compared to later characters like Caroline and Maryellen.

Next up is the Josefina mystery that came out in February and then we'll be moving on to Kirsten and Addy.

STAR DARLINGS 8

Ah, it's the beginning of the month and time for a new Star Darlings book! Last month's Piper book was my favorite of the series, but this one is actually a close second.

I'm just going to hit a few high points, not go chapter by chapter.

Astra and Piper seem like a mismatched pair of friends and they're extremely different, but somehow they still get each other. I love their friendship more than any other in this series so far.

Both girls removed their spelled nail polish last book, so they're trying to get the others to see that they're all acting bizarrely. They finally use Vega's habit of constantly filming everything to show the girls how they've been acting, but they still don't know what's causing it, so for awhile, they're acting funny and it's driving them nuts because they can't stop it. Then Astra figures out it's the nail polish and they try everything to remove it, but realize only Earth nail polish remover will do it. Astra brings some back from her mission and at the end of the book, everyone is finally back to normal. I'm hoping this is the last personality-altering thing we deal with.

Then we've got the Ophelia mystery. Astra overhears Lady Stella talking to a hooded woman and after that woman leaves, she confronts Lady Stella about it. Lady Stella fakes an answer and Astra goes on to ask about Ophelia. Lady Cordial appears and says that the orphanage Ophelia came from found a family willing to adopt her, so she got pulled from school to handle the details. Neither adult can come up with the proper name for Ophelia's orphanage and Astra remembers both. After dealing with another power outage of sorts, Astra makes it to SD class, only to learn the class is cancelled because the prof is stuck in their version of an elevator. The girls discuss Ophelia, but get distracted handling the personality alteration thing, but later Astra tries calling one of the orphanages and they say they can only give info out in person. Field trip for Astra and Piper! They go to that orphanage and Ophelia is not a student there...or rather, she is, but it's not their Ophelia. They also meet a nice boy named Leebeau, who's a fan of Astra and Astra quite possibly ends up with a crush on him. I think this is the first mention of boys in the book series, unlike Libby's obsessive boy talk in the webisodes. Astra and Piper have to rush back to school, because it's time for the next wish mission.

Astra is chosen, of course, and Piper says she'll keep looking for Ophelia while Astra is gone. She's going to ask Leona for help, since Leona was so close to Ophelia. Astra's mission is pretty fun, although I prefer Piper's. Astra gets a bit too distracted by sports, but her take on things is fun and her power is teleporting, which is awesome. She identifies her wisher pretty quickly and almost gets the wish right, but it takes a visit from Libby to put her in the right direction. There's an interesting bit where the girls are being kept from opening the auditorium doors. A "strange sickly gray mist" is around the door handle and Libby gets the brilliant idea to use her power crystal. It dissolves the mist, Astra successfully completes her mission, gets her power crystal, and brings back nail polish remover for everyone.

Then Piper and Leona announce that they found Ophelia. She's a student at a school, not an orphanage, and she really wanted to go to Starling Academy, but she bombed everything. Then she received a holotext saying she could attend if she pretended to be someone else. Cassie asks who the holotexts came from and Ophelia responds, "Lady Stella, of course."

So now we've solved the current personality alteration problem and the mystery of Ophelia only to have Lady Stella fall under suspicion. The first chapter of Tessa's book, in which she's already annoying me with her easily distracted, stubborn, food is more important than actual important things ways, has the SD girls discussing Lady Stella. Scarlet is convinced she's behind it and she makes good points, because it has to be someone in power to have done the Scarlet/Ophelia flip. Tessa is convinced it's not her, so it will be interesting to see which girls fall on which side. Cassie seems to be with Scarlet and Sage with Tessa. Leona also seems to be with Cassie and Scarlet, which is a switch.

Things are getting good!