American Girl books

[Anonymous]

We were at the American Girl store at Tysons today. My daughter was begging for the books. She's in 2nd grade, reading on grade level. At what age did your daughters read these books and enjoy them?

[Anonymous]

1st grade, but I have a really precocious reader. If your child can handle a little bit of "realism" (depending on the book, characters work in brutal factories, escape from slavery, are harassed for being pro-Revolution, and drop into poverty), then I think 2nd grade is just about right. Give it a shot, and if it's too hard, give it a year. But she's right about in the sweet spot.

[Anonymous]

Why not take them out at the library and see how much they capture her interest?

[Anonymous]

2nd grade should be fine. My daughter was in 2nd last year and she checked them out of the school library almost every single week.

She seemed to like the older historical characters like Molly, Felicity, Kirsten, etc better than the modern Girl of the Year stories, but I don't know if it was because they were slightly easier to read or if they were more interesting story lines for her.

Some of the older ones seemed much shorter in length than the more recent books, though, and the print was larger. It almost seems like their target reading level has increased over time.

I second the idea to try a few of them from the library before purchasing.

[Anonymous]

I read them when I was in second grade! Can't speak to the newer ones but Felicity, Kirsten, Addy, Samantha, and Molly all have subject matter that can be a little scary. I remember being horrified about slavery in Addy's books, and so sad that Kirsten's best friend died of cholera.
They were also a great gateway for me into the Little House books, and Anne of Green Gables.

[Anonymous]

I tried the new American girl books (Beforever or something) with my daughter, but in first and second grade she has much preferred the older boxed sets, the ones I remember reading as a girl. We got them on Amazon used for a very reasonable price and she has been really into them for both independent reading and being read to. In my opinion, it is unfortunate that American Girl has switched to this new type of book, which I don't think can be read easily by a child younger than 4-5 grade (whereas many younger girls are really into the dolls' stories). Luckily it is easy to get the older boxed sets online, and I really recommend trying that. We went through Kirsten, Felicity, and are reading Molly now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I tried the new American girl books (Beforever or something) with my daughter, but in first and second grade she has much preferred the older boxed sets, the ones I remember reading as a girl. We got them on Amazon used for a very reasonable price and she has been really into them for both independent reading and being read to. In my opinion, it is unfortunate that American Girl has switched to this new type of book, which I don't think can be read easily by a child younger than 4-5 grade (whereas many younger girls are really into the dolls' stories). Luckily it is easy to get the older boxed sets online, and I really recommend trying that. We went through Kirsten, Felicity, and are reading Molly now.

Just to add that the "new" books are not just for new characters, even the old characters had a different type of longer chapter book now.