American Girl of Today Writing Books

The American Girl of Today Writing Books are a six-book set of blank books that came with the first American Girl of Today dolls for purchasers to create their own parallel story for their doll.

A set could also be purchased separately for a retail cost of $9.95.

Overview

With the launch of the American Girl of Today line, the intention was to show purchasers how history included current events, and that modern children were themselves part of history too. In order to tie the modern dolls to the Historical Characters, the six-book set was designed to imitate the patterns in the six-book Central Series, encouraging the purchaser to create their own "modern" character. The books also included a Looking Back section titled "Looking at Today" to encourage discussing historical themes and current events of the writer's present day.

In 1998, when the modern line was slightly renamed to "American Girl Today" and the meet outfit was changed to the First Day Outfit, only one blank book--the family or "meet" book--and its writing guide were included; this was also included with the Red Vinyl Jumper Outfit.

By 2000 with the launch of the Urban Outfit, no writing books were included with dolls and the set was retired.

Contents

Packaging Cover

The books as a set came bundled with a cover with the American Girl of Today logo, and the obverse explaining the six blank books and how to create the stories.

Books

The books are white, blank, semi-lined staple-bound books, loosely modeled after the Central Series covers of the time. Each book has thirty-two internal pages.

The covers have an American Girl of Today Color scheme and the American Girl Library logo at the top, with blue, green, yellow, and red outer lines and a purple dividing line. The front has a blank space for an illustration and place to write the character's name in the themed title, The top reads "Book [number]" and the bottom reads "An American Girl's Story". Subtitles for the books are the same as the pattern of the Central Series, with the exception of the Meet book being changed to "A Family Story".

The internal title page includes space for the author to write their name, with the back giving space for a dedication. The Table of Contents page lists four internal chapters, with space to title and number the pages. A dramatis personae -- character list -- for family and friends offers space for up to eight characters to be listed. Twenty story writing pages are open and lined, followed by five "Looking at Today" pages. The back internal cover has space for the author to list themselves, with the back cover having space for summarizing the story.

Writing Guides

Each book came with an inserted, removable, staple-bound writer's guide, "How to Write an American Girl's Story"; the guide was related to each book's theme. These were all written by Valerie Tripp and intended to guide a new writer through writing their own six-book series, using themes that parallel the Central Series and referencing specific book plots for inspiration for how to plot.

The meet/family story guide with the first book contained the full range of tips for creation and writing, with additional guides for other books discussing planning and plotting the specific story of that type and referring back to the first guide for additional tips.

Guides also encouraged writers to purchase a slipcover for the book from Pleasant Company for $5.95.

Stencil

Blue plastic stencil. Includes capital and lowercase letters, numbers, a flower, heart, and star; and the American Girl of Today "Electric Girl" logo. Measures 7 5/8" by 4 3/4".

The stencil could be matte or gloss.

See Also

• Central Series, what the writing books were intended to resemble
• Central Series Story Patterns, patterns and parallels in the Central Series for the first seven Historical Characters used as guides for the book plotting.