Pleasant Company

This book is part of the Pleasant Company's nonfiction supplement to their fictional American Girls series. The book does a great job of teaching history and keeping it girl-focused, which is such a boon of the American Girls books in general. It keeps the history interesting while offering both a look at the day-to-day aspects of life in Colonial times and the big issues that would have impacted Felicity. The entire series is worth reading.

This book is the nonfiction companion to the American Girl stories; it focuses on Felicity's world in 1774. The facts and visuals in this thick picture book are sophisticated (just enough), clearly presented, and very accurate. Young historians will delight in reading and viewing this-- even if they are not into American Girl.

QNPoohBear said, in Children's Books:

"I need to mention a book that's no longer in print but worth tracking down if you love art. Imagine the Girl in the Painting:... This was once a regular feature in American Girl Magazine, before it became a tween version of a teen magazine. The editors choose a famous painting featuring a young girl. They ask you to imagine you're the girl in the painting. Who are you? Why are you posing for this picture? Who is the painter? What's going through your show more mind? How do you feel? They answer those questions from the perspective of the girls in the paintings. It was a really fun concept and I loved the magazine feature when I was younger." show less

DNF- it was sad to see letters from girls who couldn’t/wouldn’t/or didn’t want to talk with a parent about their growing up needs.

I feel like I have a relationship with my daughter that allows us to talk openly.

I feel like a parent who chooses to read this book is already being attentive enough to their daughter to be there for her when she needs without reading a lot of “what if” scenarios in this book.

Also, the tone in which some of these letters is written almost leads me to show more believe they either aren’t authentic or are rewritten for the adult reader’s benefit which really put me off.

As my daughter gets older I may refer back to this book if I think it would be useful but for now I don’t and I’m not going to make myself read the whole thing. show less