American Girl-ception

[osprey_archer]

As you may know, the latest American Girl series takes place in 1986. Now, most of the other American girl series begin in years ending in four - 1774 for Felicity, 1864 for Addy, 1944 for Molly, etc. - so I was wondering why they settled on 1986: the Challenger explosion? Hands Across America?

I’m sure that Mattel thought those were nice things to include, but I’m also 900% sure that the reason they picked 1986 was because that was the year American Girl released its first dolls, because there is ABSOLUTELY a lengthy sequence in this book where Courtney finds the American Girl catalog! And pours over it with her friend Sarah! (I was pouring over the catalogs a decade later, but the mood is absolutely the same. Like Courtney I usually wasn’t a big doll girl, but those early catalogs were FASCINATING. Soooo many pages of dolls and darling little doll toys.)

And begs for a Molly doll! And buys the first Molly book at the bookstore, even though the purchase uses up all her arcade money, and refuses her dad’s offer of more arcade money because she wants to go home and read about Molly! Because she and Molly are SO alike. She feels CONNECTED to Molly. Like, emotionally, not because Courtney knows deep in the bottom of her heart that SHE TOO is a doll, although that is definitely something that’s on MY mind. It’s like standing in between two mirrors that reflect each other endlessly back and back and back.

...Then the book takes a sharp left turn when it turns out that Courtney’s new friend Isaac has HIV, which he caught from a blood transfusion for his hemophilia, and I am the wrong person to review this story because I HATE illness stories in general and HIV/AIDS stories in particular. (When I was in third grade I was in a scarring performance of The Yellow Boat, which is about a character in the exact same tainted blood transfusion situation.)

Anyway, I kept waiting for the book to be about something else again, and eventually we DID get a scene where Courtney gets a Molly doll as an early Christmas present, which mostly served to remind me how in the old days all the American Girl series had an entire Christmas BOOK. Truly American Girl has come down in the world. (The illustrations in this book continue to be awful, by the way. I’m going to die salty about this.) But then it’s right back to more illness.

Comments

[troisoiseaux]

those early catalogs were FASCINATING. Soooo many pages of dolls and darling little doll toy

I literally learned to read from my older cousin's American Girl catalogs circa the late 90s. The dolls! The outfits! The accessories! The charming descriptions!!!

[osprey_archer]

The BEST way to learn to read?? Very possibly!

I got one of the more recent catalogs and the photographs are still charming, but because most of the stuff is now on the internet, the catalogs are really just a teaser rather than a full compendium of what they have. It doesn't make me mad the way the falling quality of the books does - I get that technology has moved on! But it did fill me with nostalgia.

[oracne]

SHE IS A DOLL AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[osprey_archer]

There's definitely a horror story that could be excavated from this novel. A horror story about generations upon generations of dolls...

[landofnowhere]

Those American Girl catalogs are works of art... at least as I remember them. (Loved to pore over the catalogs and read the books, did not get a doll although my younger sister did.)

[osprey_archer]

YES, they were a class act vision in miniatures. So many beautiful things!

[asakiyume]

Whoa, did she also read an American Doll book?

ARE YOU THE NEXT AMERICAN DOLL?

[osprey_archer]

A terrifying thought!!! MAYBE. Although I'm not sure there were any appropriately edifying moments in my childhood for an American Girl book? So perhaps I'm safe...

I'm assuming Courtney reads the Molly book she buys, but we don't actually get a blow-by-blow description as Courtney, idk, Bonds with Molly over their shared loathing of turnips, or what have you. She is inspired by Molly's homemade Halloween costumes and makes a costume for herself of a character from a videogame she made up, Crystal Sharpshooter.

[asakiyume]

Oh, I like that the book inspires her to make her own costume--that's great. And now the Courtney doll can have an outfit that's the Crystal Sharpshooter costume.

[asakiyume]

Amusingly, just this morning when I was talking to the ninja girl, she mentioned always loving looking at the American Girl catalogue--so I told her about American Girl-ception.

[osprey_archer]

That catalog was an inspiration to an entire generation!

[silverusagi]

Talk about product placement...

[osprey_archer]

I gasped at the sheer chutzpah. I have to hand it to them, though: if you're going to do it you've got to go all in, and they did indeed go ALL IN.

[sarajayechan]

The 80s and early 90s American Girl catalogs were an experience, I used to read them as religiously as I read the books. And tbh even if the product placement is so blatant it makes me smile because it shows AG hasn't forgotten their roots. (They retired so many historical dolls and changed up the look of the existing ones and it makes me sad even if some of the new outfits are pretty.)

[osprey_archer]

The product placement weirdly delighted me. If it had been less shameless it might have been more annoying, actually! But the fact that they just went for it, and gave Courtney the peak Obsessed with American Girl Catalogs experience, gave it a bizarre but real charm.

[sarajayechan]

I've gotta read Courtney's books at some point. I also hate how the book collections have been slimmed down to almost nothing, but hopefully the story makes up for it.

[osprey_archer]

To be honest I don't think that American Girl has managed a decent book collection since Caroline Abbott's books in 2012, which is not coincidentally, the last set with proper illustrations. However, the illustration issue may have biased me, so it is possible that you will find more to like in some of the later series than I did?

Courtney's books are at least stronger than, say, the 1950s series, which was clearly meant to be six books but then got crammed into two with no regard for transitions from story to story.

[sarajayechan]

The last set of books I read before I stopped being into AG was Addy's, and I recently read Josephina's and Rebecca's. I didn't know they'd stopped doing proper illustrations and that sucks, the artwork for the books was always gorgeous.

[osprey_archer]

Josefina was my final series while I was still really in the proper age group, although I think I went ahead and read Kit's when it came out, just because I loved the 1930s so much. But later on I read all the series then in existence (having cunningly figured out how to write a paper about American Girl), and I adored Rebecca's series - it's so All of a Kind Family.