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A review by llama_lord
Very Funny, Elizabeth by Valerie Tripp
3.0
I am continuing my re-read of Felicity's books, one of my favorite series from childhood, while I listen to the American Girls podcast. In the mid-2000s, American Girl released movie adaptions of some of their more popular historical characters (Samantha, Felicity, Kit, and Molly). To coincide with each character's movie release, American Girl released "Best Friend" dolls for those characters, with each best friend doll coming with their own book and small collection. Hence how we ended up with Very Funny, Elizabeth.
This story is told entirely from the perspective of Felicity's best friend, Elizabeth Cole. Elizabeth's snobby older sister Annabelle becomes engaged to a wealthy English lord, Harry Lacey. Elizabeth and Felicity have evidently been on a pranking crusade against Annabelle, and Elizabeth decides to continue to mess with Annabelle by trying to embarrass her in front of Lord Lacey's extremely stuck up sister, Miss Priscilla. However, this backfires when Priscilla decides that because Elizabeth is so well behaved compared to "clumsy" Annabelle, when Annabelle and Harry get married, Priscilla wants to make Elizabeth her ward and take her back to England as well.
I think that this is a really weak entry in the Felicity stories. It definitely feels like it was written 10+ years after the core books and misses the tone and characterization of the original books. Elizabeth goes from being the shy and level-headed counterpart to brave and brash Felicity, to being sassy and impish. Elizabeth and Felicity are obsessed with playing pranks on Annabelle in this story - and while I don't find it hard to believe that two 10 year olds would be mischievous partners in crime if given the chance - I don't buy the narrative in this story that pranks are Felicity and Elizabeth's *thing* because it was not present in the previous stories.
I do remember reading this story as a tween and thinking that it was fun and light-hearted, so while the jokes might not have been landing for me as an adult reader, they certainly were landing when I was in the target audience for this book. So I won't be too hard on the humor in this book. Although I disagree with the story telling us that the pranks Elizabeth and Felicity pull are all in good fun and done only to help Annabelle realize she is being a snob - I thought some of the pranks crossed over into mean-spiritedness and by no stretch of the imagination are they done to "help" Annabelle.
I liked the plot of this story regarding Annabelle's engagement. I'm a sucker for anything marriage and courtship themed, and I enjoyed the "Looking Back" section. I also really liked that the story is told from Elizabeth's point of view. It was interesting to read the story's from more of a "Loyalist perspective", although I thought that some of the dialogue implied that Elizabeth might end up turning Patriot as she grows up. That said, I thought that this book missed a huge opportunity to be a redemption story for Annabelle, but rather than have any significant development for Annabelle, it seems they simply added a character much worse than her (Priscilla) to make Annabelle look better by comparison.
In terms of the ending of the book
As I said earlier, overall I think this book might be the lowest point in the Felicity series. There are some parts that are funny and I think it is interesting to get a story from Elizabeth's perspective, but in the end it is an entirely skippable entry in the Felicity books.
This story is told entirely from the perspective of Felicity's best friend, Elizabeth Cole. Elizabeth's snobby older sister Annabelle becomes engaged to a wealthy English lord, Harry Lacey. Elizabeth and Felicity have evidently been on a pranking crusade against Annabelle, and Elizabeth decides to continue to mess with Annabelle by trying to embarrass her in front of Lord Lacey's extremely stuck up sister, Miss Priscilla. However, this backfires when Priscilla decides that because Elizabeth is so well behaved compared to "clumsy" Annabelle, when Annabelle and Harry get married, Priscilla wants to make Elizabeth her ward and take her back to England as well.
I think that this is a really weak entry in the Felicity stories. It definitely feels like it was written 10+ years after the core books and misses the tone and characterization of the original books. Elizabeth goes from being the shy and level-headed counterpart to brave and brash Felicity, to being sassy and impish. Elizabeth and Felicity are obsessed with playing pranks on Annabelle in this story - and while I don't find it hard to believe that two 10 year olds would be mischievous partners in crime if given the chance - I don't buy the narrative in this story that pranks are Felicity and Elizabeth's *thing* because it was not present in the previous stories.
I do remember reading this story as a tween and thinking that it was fun and light-hearted, so while the jokes might not have been landing for me as an adult reader, they certainly were landing when I was in the target audience for this book. So I won't be too hard on the humor in this book. Although I disagree with the story telling us that the pranks Elizabeth and Felicity pull are all in good fun and done only to help Annabelle realize she is being a snob - I thought some of the pranks crossed over into mean-spiritedness and by no stretch of the imagination are they done to "help" Annabelle.
I liked the plot of this story regarding Annabelle's engagement. I'm a sucker for anything marriage and courtship themed, and I enjoyed the "Looking Back" section. I also really liked that the story is told from Elizabeth's point of view. It was interesting to read the story's from more of a "Loyalist perspective", although I thought that some of the dialogue implied that Elizabeth might end up turning Patriot as she grows up. That said, I thought that this book missed a huge opportunity to be a redemption story for Annabelle, but rather than have any significant development for Annabelle, it seems they simply added a character much worse than her (Priscilla) to make Annabelle look better by comparison.
In terms of the ending of the book
Spoiler
I was disappointed that in the end everything "works itself out" and basically resets to end up exactly as it was when the book started. They decided to place this book in between Felicity Saves the Day and Changes for Felicity, so I suppose they didn't want to do anything drastic that would have contradicted the events in Changes for Felicity. But I found myself wishing that Annabelle and Harry Lacey did stay engaged and the book ended with Annabelle leaving for England. If they had set this book just a few months later - after the conclusion of Felicity's core books - it would have been possible to end this story however they wanted. I feel like having Annabelle actually follow through with returning to England as Lady Lacey would have been completely natural for her character (I don't buy Annabelle's sudden affection for the colonies at the end of this story) and I think it would have also added some weight to Mr. and Mrs. Cole's concern about their daughters' safety and future in the colonies as Loyalists. Furthermore I just think that would add more scope for imagination for all of the characters involved in terms of the trajectory of their lives beyond the Felicity stories. Would Elizabeth return to England to visit her sister if she were Lady Annabelle Lacey? Would she take Felicity along? Would Mr. and Mrs. Cole move back to England? Would Elizabeth stay in the colonies if they did?As I said earlier, overall I think this book might be the lowest point in the Felicity series. There are some parts that are funny and I think it is interesting to get a story from Elizabeth's perspective, but in the end it is an entirely skippable entry in the Felicity books.