Felicity Learns A Lesson (American Girl Collection)

by Valerie Tripp

Paperback, 1991

Status

Available

Publication

American Girl (1991), Edition: 1st, 88 pages

Description

Shortly before the Revolutionary War, nine-year-old Felicity, who lives in Williamsburg, is torn between supporting the tariff-induced tea boycott and saving her friendship with Elizabeth, a young loyalist from England.

User reviews

LibraryThing member Hamburgerclan

This is the second book of the American Girls: Felicity series. It's a bit better than the first book, but still a fine example of waiting room material. In this tale, Felicity is sent over to a neighbors to get an education in being a "gentlewoman". Despite Felicity's "spunky" and independent

nature, she manages to do rather well and even enjoy the lessons. However the process is complicated by her two classmates: Elizabeth and Annabelle. They are recent arrivals from England. Elizabeth is eager to be Felicity's friend, but Annabelle is more interested in pointing out her own superiority as one raised in the mother country. Of course, the year is 1774, and people are starting to take sides over the issue of American independence. It's probably this plot thread that makes this book a bit better than Meet Felicity.
--J.

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5 more

LibraryThing member t1bclasslibrary

Felicity has started lessons with her new friend, Elizabeth. Everything is going wonderfully, until the division between colonists and loyalists begins to touch the girls. Felicity finds a way to politely refuse her tea and keep her friendship intact. She learns that you don’t throw things away

just because they’ve become more difficult. Includes “A Peek Into the Past.”

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LibraryThing member the1butterfly

This book is a double of one in my classroom library. Felicity has started lessons with her new friend, Elizabeth. Everything is going wonderfully, until the division between colonists and loyalists begins to touch the girls. Felicity finds a way to politely refuse her tea and keep her friendship

intact. She learns that you don’t throw things away just because they’ve become more difficult. Includes “A Peek Into the Past.”

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LibraryThing member AnnaLovesBooks

ISBN 0590459872 – I’ve put off reading any American Girls books because I’ve really disliked the entire AG phenomenon, with extraordinarily overpriced dolls and all the extras. Having finally read a pair of them, I consider myself ashamed of myself for judging a book by the product it

promotes.

Felicity is a young tomboy-ish girl in 1774, when her mother decides that it’s time for her to start learning the things she will need to know as an adult – and those things don’t include the education Felicity is interested in. She begins to take lessons from Miss Manderly, along with sisters Elizabeth and Annabelle Cole. Elizabeth and Felicity become friends, but Annabelle is a snobby Loyalist and when Felicity’s father shows himself to be a Patriot, Felicity finds she has to decide for herself what she believes in.

When an unmarried woman, an old maid in her time, is the person who teaches young girls what they’ll need to know in order to be good wives, the world is off-track, I think. I found it mildly offensive that the reader is supposed to believe that Felicity just accepted the role she obviously didn’t look forward to. Even if that’s an accurate reflection of the time, the author could have done better. The information casually sprinkled throughout is nice (“a pomade of hog’s fat and cinnamon” ought to get them asking questions!). The educational materials at the back of the book are a fantastic addition to a pretty good book and the illustrations are awesome, with a resemblance to the illustrations in older editions of Little Women, a rare occurrence in books for older children. But I still don’t like the dolls, et al.

- AnnaLovesBooks

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LibraryThing member KaleyHarper

Summary:

Felicity, a young girl growing up in the colonial days, would rather spend all her free time being a kid, than learning how to be a lady from her mother. Unfortunately, she grows up pretty fast when she has to decide what is best for her: her friendship with her closest friend, or

supporting the boycott of tea.

Personal:

I love all of the American Girl books. I think that they give the reader an insight to what their lives could have been if they were living in that time period. Even though they are fiction, they are well-written and make the reader actually want to believe this really happened to the girls.

Classroom Extension

1. I would have the class write a paragraph about what they would be feeling if they were in Felicity's shoes.

2. I would read this book when we were going over a history lesson about colonial days, and the Boston Tea Massacre and explain that children their age had to go through everyday life like we do.

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LibraryThing member SoulFlower1981

I was really pleased with this book and overall the series of "American Girls" that I have acquired recently. I had wanted to read them for some time to see the quality of them for young children and found that they are something I would definitely want to share with them. This book focuses on

Felecity going to learn some lessons that would have been suitable for the time period right before the Civil War. It is interesting to see how much care went into making these almost historically accurate as possible. The author, Valerie Tripp, spent great care in making sure that every single moment felt like something that could have really happened to this fictional character. I commend her for this aspect to her writing. The book is truly a gem that will teach great morals to your children and also help them to understand a vastly different way of living than what they are used to today.

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