Why I Love American Girl Books

I grew up reading American Girl books from a young age. The historical fiction stories were my favorites (and what I’m going to be focusing on today), and I remember they were the reason I ventured to the chapter book side of the library from the first time when I was only eight or nine. Even after I outgrew the books I continued to love them, and now have a very long collection of the books on my shelf.

As I’ve become a more careful (fine, a more picky) reader, a part of me has wondered if these are books I think can truly bring value to the reader, or if I only am a fan of them because I grew up reading them. This has been a post I’ve been looking forward to for a long time and I’m excited to share my answer and thoughts to that question.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I decided to continue liking American Girl books, and there are a number of reasons for that. In this post I’ll go over why I think these books are a good choice for young girls and also share some fun pictures of my collection (I collect the older editions of the books that are no longer for sale, because they are the ones I used to read and make me the most happy 🙂 ).

Quality Stories

Now, this was a little bit hard for me to come to a conclusion about. When I asked myself if the American Girl stories were timeless, the big thing that kept bothering me was that they are not the kind of story every age will enjoy. I’m being perfectly honest when I say that very few teenagers will pick up one of these books like they might pick up Charlotte’s Web (which is also intended for children, not teens). I am a big advocate of ageless stories, books that literally anyone will enjoy at any stage of life.

It was a little discouraging, and made me wonder if American Girl books really fit in that category. But then I remembered that they aren’t necessarily aimed for that type of audience. I soon realized that it wasn’t fair to judge books meant for one age by the books written for an older one. So I began to compare them with other early reader books (that is the age I would recommend American Girl books for), such as Magic Tree House, or the Rainbow Magic books.

Thinking about it this way made me feel a lot more reassured in my love for these books. The point of this type of book is to make a child fall in love with reading, and often the only thing that interests a child is a less than desirable bit of work. They have to be plainly written and on an easy level for the young readers to understand, and I have seen many books at this level that think this is a reason to hardly write an actual book at all. I’ve found that many of these books tend to gravitate towards exciting fantasy adventures which might be good, but they also might be totally flat and lacking in any form of a good story. The American Girl books are fun and sweet stories that remain simply written without feeling like they were written in half an hour.

Historical Background

One wonderful thing about the American Girl historical books is the knowledge they hold about history. In case you’re unaware of the books’ theme, the books all follow different girls’ from different time periods. For example, Felicity is from the Revolutionary War, Caroline is from the War of 1812, and Molly is from WWII. Through the books almost all of the major events in American history is covered, making each one more familiar to the reader.

For a young girl reading the books, this may be one of her first exposures to a lot of this, which I think makes a special beginning to her history studies ( I still think fondly of the characters when I reference back to certain time periods). But also, reading these books is a great way to give you a mental timeline. I learned the order of many historical time periods by reading the books and it helped me keep track of things later on.

My Favorite Editions

The books in the pictures on this post are the old editions of the American Girl books, and what I read. I loved the length of the historical books (this was back when each series came in a set of six short books with six chapters apiece). In fact, I distinctly remember the pride I felt when I was able to read a full book in a day and how amazing it made me feel.

There’s something so perfectly charming about the length of these books. They’re just long enough for a young reader to make it through on their own, and they also have some of the most delightful covers. I collect them at used book stores since you can’t buy them anymore because I just love the older editions best! 🙂

Final Thoughts

This post has been such a pleasure to write! If you read American Girl books growing up I’d love to hear about it below! Did you have a favorite character?