American Girl Summer Stories
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The Central Series
Each American Girl character’s story is presented in the form of books. Called the Central Series, they are the core main stories about each Historical Character, covering the full initial story of each character over a span of approximately two years.
Summer Stories
The fourth book in each Central Series for the Historical Character is their summer story. Each summer story was titled "Historical Character Saves the Day: A Summer Story." These books are set in the summer, generally outside of any formal schooling time for characters who would be enrolled in traditional education.
Many of the Historical Characters go on a trip or vacation to a new location not seen before in the series. However, notable exceptions are Kit Kittredge, Addy Walker and Kirsten Larson, who, while she does not travel to an all-new location, does travel considerably to a nearby town which is not an everyday occurrence.
The Characters show fear or worries about their lives and curiosity about other people or situations. There is often internal conflict the Historical Character is dealing with personally. For example, Josefina's conflict with White Americans arriving in large numbers to New Mexico and trusting the promises of the American Patrick O'Toole. Or Kristen's desire to prove she can help provide for her family and be brave and helpful by harvesting the honey she and Peter have discovered herself without any adult assistance.
At some point, there is a more significant problem to be solved that leads to each Historical Character "saving the day" for herself and possibly others. The event may be the book's focus, such as for Molly, whose plot is centered around teams against each other in the camp Color War. Or an accessory might be the focus of the plot. A notable example is when Addy "saves the day" by chasing down and catching the church fair thief, but the main theme was Addy resolving some of her interpersonal conflict with Harriet, which allows them to work together to catch the thief.
Variations from the Initial Central Series
Kaya: Kaya's stories do not follow the traditional patterns or titles set by the first seven historical characters, as Kaya's Indigenous culture is unique from the dominant American cultural pattern. Her storyline is written so that she does have several parallel events, such as a winter festival and a summer "trip" to a new location not seen before in the books; however, she does not have the lifestyle or culture of the prior characters and so for example, does not celebrate holidays or her own birthday.
Julie: Julie's stories do not follow the set title pattern given by previous characters, same as Kaya before her. The title changes did not confirm that the original pattern was being discarded or due to the varying events present in Julie's series until Rebecca's release. However, the main stories are loosely equivalent and are not titled in the same format.
Rebecca: Rebecca's series does not follow the traditional titles and was confirmation that the traditional titles and patterns that had been in place for the first seven characters would most likely no longer be used. The main stories still are loosely equivalent to the original series and keep to the same pattern, and like Julie's series, do not have the subtitles except for the first book.
Cécile and Marie-Grace: Cécile and Marie-Grace's series do not follow the traditional titles or styles. Instead of covering two or so years, the Central Series only covers approximately one year in the two girls' connected lives.
Caroline: Caroline's series loosely follows the pattern seen in previous Historical Characters' series in terms of seasonal setting. However, they do not align to events in the same order as the others, except for the Meet Book.
Maryellen: Maryellen was the first character launched wholly within BeForever, so she was never given a separate six-book format and was released with the two-book "classic" volumes that lacked all illustrations. However, her books can be loosely sectioned off internally into the first style of a six-book format, as seen with earlier characters. This includes a summer trip to a different location where she "saves the day."
Melody: Unlike Maryellen, Melody's classic-volume books are not as easily sectioned off internally or tied tightly to the original six-book format. While stories can be divided into vaguely defined sections, there is no tightly-knit six-book structure, unlike those connected to many prior characters. In this, her volumes read a lot more like a single book each rather than three books combined into one volume. She does take a summer trip to a different location, and there is a partial saving of the day.
Nanea: Like Melody before her, Nanea's classic-volume books are not sectioned off internally into the six-book format. Each volume is written as a fully flowing story with multiple chapters from the start of the volume to the end. Her books start in Fall 1941. While this is rather late compared to earlier series, which tended to start in either summer or early fall, this was done so that the book directly covers the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the after-effects of the attack on their family, and extended family, and Hawaii as a territory.
Courtney: Like Nanea before her, Courtney's books are not sectioned off internally into the six-book format and each volume is written as a fully flowing story with multiple chapters from start to end. Like Melody and Nanea, her first volume is a complete story, not written in sections.