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Title: Josefina an American Girl (The American Girls Collection) by Valerie Tripp, Jean-Paul Tibbles, Susan McAliley ISBN: 1-56247-675-0 Publisher: Pleasant Company Publications Pub. Date: September, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: These are great books
Comment: I've read all the Josefina books! They are great! If you have a daugter who is 6 and up and interested in different cultures Buy her Josefina books. They are a little over priced.
Rating: 5
Summary: Change and Tradition
Comment: Josefina (pronounced "ho-sa-FEE-nah") is a nine year old Hispanic girl growing up on a large rancho in New Mexico in 1824. The first story opens up with Josefina and her three older sisters finding comfort in daily chores while thinking about Mama, who had died a year before. Then, Abuelo (Grandfather) returns from a trip to Mexico City, bringing with him Tia (Aunt) Dolores. From then on, Tia Dolores is the catalyst for change. The educated, independent young aunt brings new beliefs about a woman's role and challenges the more tradional role that Mama had played in the family. Fortunately, Tia Dolores is a wise and gentle teacher who teaches Josefina that learning new things or doing things differently does not mean forgetting the old. Memories of Mama can be found in learning to read and write, repairing her embroidered altar cloth, celebrating Christmas, and in learning to care for the family and household. Josefina learns that her heart can embrace her cultural traditions while her spirit flies free on the wind of personal, family, and cultural changes.
New Mexico Hispanic traditions and the historical lifestyle are accurately portrayed through Josefina's daily routines. The focus on Josefina and her world makes the stories relevant and interesting to the readers. Readers learn about laundry, cooking and baking, food choices, gardens, trips to the river for water, friendships, family roles, manners and codes of conduct, and celebrations. Josefina's family faces tragedy in a flood, hard work to recover losses and maintain daily existance, the emotional conflict of change, and other choices appropriate to the world they live in. Additional historical information for each story is at the back of each book, making this a history lesson that goes down with a spoonful of sugar and much enjoyment.
Each book is only 4 chapters long, and if all you want out of it is a nice story, then this series will deliver it in a historical setting that is new to many readers. Because of the excellent research that was done, this series can be used for new students (children and adults) of Southwest history. However, those who want to look deeper will find that the themes of the stories work well with New Mexico history of the time. In 1821, the Santa Fe Trail opened up, bringing Americans to Santa Fe. They brought new goods, created a merchant class, and brought values that were more materialistic than either the Hispanic or Pueblo people had lived by. Josefina, like other members of the younger generation, would spend a lifetime learning about choices, change, and deciding what traditions to hang onto. The Hispanic culture did change, and the wealthy merchants adapted to an Americanized world while rural communities sought to continue to live by their cultural traditions. Either way, the world that Josefina and her sisters inherited would not hold for them the same roles, expectations, and choices that their grandmother had. It is a credit to the Hispanic people that they held onto so much because they did it against discrimination, and in the face of change. To this extent, Tia Dolores is the symbol of this coming change, and Mama is the traditions that they must choose to remember and honor. I reread this series occationally, and it still brings much to my life. Although the brevity of the books is deceptive, I would stick with the publishers recommended reading age of 8-12 (about second through sixth grades) because there is so much that can be learned and enjoyed in these books that a younger child may miss.
Rating: 5
Summary: These books hit the mark!
Comment: As a grown up, hispanic woman who grew up in New Mexico (whose grandmother's name was actually Josefina), I must say that these books are very factual and well written. Hispanic culture does not change much from generation to generation, and the depictions of the culturally rich traditions of a hispanic family from that area of the country are perfect. These books are a joy to read!
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Title: Felicity: An American Girl (The American Girls Collection) by Valerie Tripp ISBN: 1562470442 Publisher: Pleasant Company Publications Pub. Date: July, 1992 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: Addy: An American Girl/Boxed Set (American Girls Collection) by Connie Rose Porter, Melodye Benson Rosales, Bradford Brown ISBN: 1562470876 Publisher: Pleasant Company Publications Pub. Date: November, 1994 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: Samantha: An American Girl (The American Girls Collection/Boxed Set) by Susan S. Adler, Valerie Tripp, R. Grace ISBN: 0937295779 Publisher: Pleasant Company Publications Pub. Date: September, 1990 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: Kirsten: An American Girl: 1854 (The American Girls Collection/Boxed Set) by Janet Shaw, Paul Lackner, Renee Graef ISBN: 0937295760 Publisher: Pleasant Company Publications Pub. Date: September, 1990 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: Kaya: An American Girl: 1764 by Janet Beeler Shaw, Bill Farnsworth, Susan McAliley ISBN: 1584855118 Publisher: Pleasant Company Publications Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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