Changes for Julie (American Girl Collection, 6)

Julie gets stuck in detention just for helping her new friend, Joy, who is deaf and misunderstood the lesson. Detention, to Julie, seems a complete waste of time- how is writing 150 sentences going to improve her behavior? She thinks that the class president should change things, but the boy running is running on a platform of pizza and popularity. Julie decides to run with her friend, Joy, to make a change for the better. It isn't easy for them to get around all the prejudice against Joy's deafness, but Julie makes her points and wins.

Ivywatch: minimally here, helps Julie with her campaign posters. :(

After getting detention for note passing and mouthing off to a teacher (Julie was trying to help out her new pal Joy, who is deaf and missed what the teacher said), Julie decides to run for student body president. After all, there's no rule restricting it to sixth grade so why not, especially when the shoo-in candidate is running on promises he probably can't keep, like Pizza Fridays and a pool? A bit of civics, some empathy lessons for people with disabilities, and it all turns out in the end. Though this takes places 43 years ago, there's still echoes to today- who could imagine a candidate that makes fun of the way someone talks? /s

Markers of the era: Ford vs Carter show more (consistent with the other books placing this firmly in fall of '76), Little House and Happy Days running on air. Kids on the bus singing the theme song to Flipper feels a decade too late unless it ran in syndication? show less

Julie is in school detention for passing a note to Joy, a deaf student who has trouble understanding what their teacher is saying. Indignant, Julie decides to run for student-body president so she can make changes to the detention system. But the other students are put off by Joy, her choice for vice president, and Julie worries that she ll have little chance of winning if she partners with someone who seems so different. With persistence and creative campaigning, Julie wins over the students--and wins the election without compromising her principles. The "Looking Back" section discusses the 1976 presidential election.

The last book in the Julie series from American Girl, this wraps things up rather tidily. Neither this book nor the 5th one had any divorce issues at all which seems rather unrealistic and there are some choices rather obviously made to allow for marketing tie-ins of crafts and doll accessories.