Healing my inner child one feminist girlhood story at a time

I decided to "Meet Julie" when my daughter, who is rapidly approaching her eighth birthday, scanned through the "Historical Character" section of the American Girl website and got all excited about this character and the year 1974 . . . the year I was born. Well. That's enough to plunge anyone into a midlife crisis: I mean, seriously, "historical"? Looking at Julie, I noticed that she comes wearing a turtleneck I used to actually own, has the same hair I had, and is living in San Francisco, just a few hundred miles north of where I was living at that age, San Diego. It's probably (wait, who am I kidding -- I've lived my life -- it's DEFINITELY) the closest I'll ever get to seeing myself in a wax museum and it was creepy. Anyway, having all my dreams of stitching samplers (Felicity) or learning Spanish (Josefina) with my daughter shattered, I got the book to see what might be in store. Here is a sample:

"Class," said Ms. Hunter. "President Ford is about to sign a bill that will soon have the whole country using the metric system. It's what the rest of the world uses. Australia and New Zealand have converted. The metric system is taking over the world, and we Americans don't want to be left behind."
Julie sighed. Millimeters? Decimeters? What's wrong with good old inches? she wondered as she picked up T.J.'s ruler. She felt just inches away from throwing up her hands in frustration. Or was it centimeters?

Not that Julie doesn't have bigger problems: her parents have recently divorced, she's the new girl in town, and she's going to need Title Nine to help her achieve her basketball dreams. But reading Megan McDonald's (of Judy Moody fame) version of my childhood to my daughter is -- well, it's weird, not to mention bland, by-the-numbers writing. Maybe the problem of my whole American Doll idea was that I was going to carefully worm an Educational Experience into my child's life. Now that it's both trite and personal, I can't bring myself to do it.
For my eighth birthday, I went to the zoo (that's what we used to do back then); I remember it because we went to the San Diego Zoo and I got to go on an elephant ride. If my daughter wants to have a similar experience, we'll do it -- and if she wants me to show her how to macrame a plant holder or make a friendship bracelet, we can do that too -- no book necessary. No need to "Meet Julie."

My first American Girl book, read so I could present Erin's American Girl book club! I actually really liked it! This one was written by Megan McDonald of Judy Moody fame, and though its simple, optimistic writing is appropriate for its audience, this introduction to Julie of 1974 still deals with divorce, a new school, gender bias, and Title Nine (detailed in the "Looking Back" note at the end). The oil paintings and full-color spot illustrations (most of which visually explain an of-the-time detail, such as an apple-seed bracelet or doing your hair with orange-juice cans) are especially nice.

[after digging through the school trash] "When Julie looked up at T.J., his face was smudged with purple from all the ditto sheets."

julie is so fun!! grass roots organizing queen! also, ivy is so cute, love their friendship. excited to read the rest again, i remember so little about these ones from when i was a kid!

Maybe I don't like this as much because it's an American Girl I'm reading while I'm older? Whatever the reason, this book seemed a little boring to me. It had some interesting points, but mostly it's just her running around trying to be on the basketball team. It wasn't exciting at all. The big climax wasn't very engaging. Mostly when I was reading I was thinking, "Huh, that stinks. Well, I guess that's cool. When does this chapter end? I want to get back to my Star Wars book."

The writing itself was a little bland. Not many creative synonyms were used and it was rather dull.

I suppose if this had been a longer book, say 200-300 pages, I wouldn't have liked it at all. But it being only about 100 pages, I think it was a nice quick read, but nothing more.