Meet Julie An American girl

READING American Girl's line of books about Julie, a girl growing up in the 1970s, makes me feel as old as Betsy Ross. Apparently someone thought that today's girls would like to read about parallel fictional ones who lived just over 30 years ago, and because these novels are a piece of the American Girl books-dolls-accessories juggernaut, that today's girls would also like to act out key moments from those fictional girls' lives, using dolls. But wait! I want to cry. Was the era of my childhood really so compelling? Watergate, mood rings, "Jaws," Whip Inflation Now? Do these details collectively take on the stirring qualities of, say, the Revolutionary War or the Civil War, both of which have previously been covered by American Girl? It's easy to see these books' allure. The "Felicity" series took place in colonial times and included plenty of action, some of it involving horses, not to mention a "cruel tanner" named Jiggy Nye. The "Addy" series was about a slave girl whose family planned a secret escape in 1864. Both those sets of books were, in their own way, reminiscent of the paperback biographies I read by the dozen as a girl, which detailed the lives of Young Dolley Madison, Young Harriet Tubman or Young Annie Sullivan, the teacher of Hellen Keller. Yet the 1970s seem a less than obvious setting for a series of children's books. Watergate, the most "exciting" event of that time, gets summed up dutifully in "Julie Tells Her Story": "'Mom, what's Watergate?' Julie gives a speech: "Pizza's great! I just think there are more important things, like changing the detention system." "'A few years ago, President Nixon hired people to spy on his political opponents. When he got caught, he lied and tried to cover it up. But some secret tapes revealed that he was lying, so he resigned from being president. That's why Gerald Ford is our president now.'" All the American Girl series mix modest history lessons with fashion trends and fairly eventful if low-key plotlines. In a nod to the problems that emerged more openly in '70s family life - not to mention in '70s Judy Blume novels - Julie's parents are divorced. Appropriately, this is a source of pain for Julie, though her life remains secure, and mostly as soothing as milk (or perhaps Tang, Funny Face or Bosco). Her escapades with her friends are recounted in a good-natured, easygoing way, with liberal use of the exclamation point. Given the fact that the Julie books are a piece of a larger commercial whole, Megan McDonald, who wrote the popular "Judy Moody" series, often does very well with the material. Over six books that chronicle Julie's move to a new neighborhood; her relationship with her best friend, Ivy Ling; her growing activism at school; and her Earth Day crusade to save some local baby eagles, McDonald engagingly describes a mid-'70s childhood. I was actually absorbed in the story presented in the first volume of the series, "Meet Julie," which involves Julie wanting to play basketball at her new school and being prevented from doing so - because she's a girl - by Coach Manley, whose name cracked me up, and surely cracked up Megan McDonald too. As I read about Julie's frustration and call to action, I was reminded of the fifth-grade petition that my friends and I drafted to be allowed to wear pants to school. We marched into the principal's office and handed him our sheet of signatures. The next day, I came to school in corduroys. Julie, like me in that long-ago time, is a real innocent, and while today's far cooler girls may or may not relate to her, their mothers certainly will. Which, of course, is part of the whole American Girl phenomenon. Surely American Girl imagines that the reader's mother will be hovering over her daughter, gazing down with demented nostalgia at the tiny illustrations of the Fonz and the "Hang in there, baby" poster. The company has created a brand so pervasive and desirable that all the items sort of flow together in a swirling narrative of girllonging. Basically, if you give a girl an American Girl book, she'll probably want the book-related doll. And then she's probably going to want the doll's era-related accessories, which in the case of Julie include a pretend bicentennial quarter and a fuzzy throw rug in the shape of a footprint, like the one I owned once long ago in the life-size version. The easy time travel, as well as the catalog of things that dotted the landscape back then, can make the experience of reading the "Julie" books feel like a game of Trivial Pursuit: The '70s Edition. But the seductions of these novels are real, too, from the bright paintings of Julie on their covers to the simple plotlines and cheerful if predictable characters. With their limited scope and reassuring tone, the "Julie" books have a certain specific appeal. If dolls could write books, these are the ones they would write. Meg Wolitzer's new novel, "The Ten-Year Nap," will be published in March.

The American Girl franchise adds a new character to its list. In'70s California, Julie Albright and best friend Ivy navigate the pitfalls of growing up as well as the major social changes of the era in seven books, all penned by Megan McDonald and illusrated by Robert Hunt. Meet Julie introduces the new American Girl; Julie Tells Her Story finds Julie dealing with the repercussions of her parents' divorce; in Happy New Year, Julie, Ivy's family invites the Albrights over for the Chinese New Year; Julie and the Eagles centers around the best friends' efforts to raise money to care for two injured bald eagles; Julie's Journey centers on the celebration surrounding America's Bicentennial; and Changes for Julie sees the fifth-grade girl running for class president. A seventh title, Good Luck, Ivy, focuses on Julie's best friend, who uses gymnastics to cope with stress. (American Girl, $6.95 each paper ages 8-up Meet 104p ISBN 9781-59369-257-5; Her Story 104p ISBN 9781-59369-288-9; New Year 88p ISBN 9781-59369-291-9; Eagles 88p ISBN 9781-59369-350-3; Journey 88p ISBN 9781-59369-352-7; Changes 104p ISBN 9781-59369-354-1; Ivy 96p ISBN 9781-59369-356-5; Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Gr 2-5-Julie's parents have recently divorced and the girl and her sister have moved into an apartment with their mom across town in San Francisco. She starts fourth grade at a new school and visits her father on the weekends. In Meet Julie, she learns that the coach is less than thrilled about a girl trying out for the basketball team. Julie hopes that a petition and hard work will get her on the team. In Julie Tells Her Story, the protagonist has to interview her family for a school project, and she worries that she won't be able to talk about the worst thing that happened-the divorce. In Happy New Year, the holidays arrive, and she wonders if her family will get along well enough for the Chinese New Year celebration with her friend Ivy Ling's family. Each book shows how difficult change can be. Following the traditional "American Girl" style with short chapters and a "looking back" section at the end, the stories are easy to read, have likable characters, and feature situations many kids will relate to. The full-color illustrations and memorabilia in the end sections enhance the realistic feel. Fans of the series will empathize with Julie's desire to create a new family dynamic.-Krista Tokarz, Cuyahoga County Public Library, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.