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A review by llama_lord
Happy Birthday, Felicity! A Springtime Story by Valerie Tripp
4.0
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. When I think about the structure of the classic American Girl series (ie how the books always follow the order of Meet, Learns A Lesson, Surprise, etc.) for some reason the Happy Birthday books always strike me as the most forgettable. So I'm not entirely surprised that this is my least favorite installment of Felicity's stories so far.
In this book, Felicity is enjoying the seasonal change to spring after her family's stressful winter. She is looking forward to a visit from her beloved maternal grandfather and her birthday. When Grandfather arrives, he gives Felicity a beautiful guitar that belonged to her grandmother. Felicity is (according to social custom) not allowed to learn how to play guitar for a couple more years, so her mother makes the rule that the guitar must stay in the parlor to keep it safe. Felicity, who has recently been envious of Annabelle's new guitar, immediately decides to shirk this rule to show off her new guitar and make Annabelle jealous. Felicity then forgets the guitar at Annabelle and Elizabeth's house and damages it. While at Annabelle and Elizabeth's house, Felicity overhears Elizabeth's father talking to a British soldier and learns that the governor is planning to have British soldiers sneak into the Magazine and steal all of the colonist's gunpowder that night. Felicity tries to warn her parents and grandfather, but they don't believe her due to her damaging the guitar. So Felicity must sneak out again with Ben to warn the colonists about the governor's plan.
I felt that this story was a little too disjointed and did not flow as well as the previous Felicity stories. I think that might be because there were a lot of big plot elements (Grandfather's visit/Felicity's birthday, the entire guitar scenario, ramped up Patriot vs Loyalist conflict, the attack on the Magazine) and there really wasn't room for all of them in so short of a story. Not to mention there was a lot of unnecessary and obvious toy marketing crammed into an already busy story (cough cough, Posie the lamb).
As another reviewer said, it doesn't make sense that the adults in Felicity's life believe she is lying about the British attack on the magazine, as she has never been shown to be dishonest before. I felt like that entire conflict could have been written better. Another tiny thing I would have changed was to introduce Felicity's interest in learning the guitar and envy in Annabelle's ability to learn music while Felicity and Elizabeth are still too young in an earlier book (maybe in Felicity's Surprise) so that Felicity's interest in music doesn't just come out of nowhere and her acquisition of a guitar doesn't come off as so convenient. Also, the story almost gave me whiplash with how quickly Felicity goes from being in trouble, to sneaking out and basically inciting an angry mob, to being back at home again and not being in trouble just in time for her birthday party. Similarly to Meet Felicity I felt that the messaging from the adults in Felicity's life on what is right or wrong in this situation is unclear in this story.
I also felt that Felicity herself took a bit of a back-step in this story compared to the Felicity we saw in Felicity's Surprise. She is still just a kid and I don't expect her to be perfect just because she had some character development, but I felt that her choices in regards to the guitar were particularly self-centered and immature - especially for her character considering we are over half way through the series. I was also surprised by Felicity's lack of empathy towards Elizabeth. In one scene, Elizabeth and Felicity's grandfather share a moment discussing how much they miss England, and Felicity is surprised to hear Elizabeth say this because it never occurred to her that Elizabeth (who has only been in Virginia for a few months) would be homesick for England. In another scene Felicity drags Elizabeth to watch the Williamsburg militia practice, and is surprised that Elizabeth - a loyalist - is frightened by the Patriot soldiers rather than just finding them exciting as Felicity does.
One thing that I really liked about this book was how much they incorporated spring and the changing of the seasons in the story. It reminds you of how much more connected to the seasons people in Felicity's day were, and it made me feel like I was enjoying a beautiful spring day despite reading this on a cloudy February day. I thought it was clever how the plot incorporated an actual historic event (the theft of the gunpowder from the Magazine) into the story. I appreciate that conflicts between the Loyalists and the Patriots have been slowly building up over the course of Felicity's series, rather than just being a huge plot point from the start or introduced suddenly into one book. It feels like they are starting to come to a head now and things are becoming more serious. Even Felicity comes to the realization in this book that war is a frightening inevitability. I can't help but feel empathy for Felicity and the stress she feels being surrounded loved ones on the opposite sides of the political spectrum and being constantly worried that one will say something to upset another. Also, although it was kind of a disjointed end to the story, I really enjoyed Felicity's birthday party scene and thought that the kind words her grandfather said about her were super heartfelt and sweet.
Overall I am kind of bummed that I didn't like this one as much as Felicity's other stories, but I'm hopeful that the next two will be better.
In this book, Felicity is enjoying the seasonal change to spring after her family's stressful winter. She is looking forward to a visit from her beloved maternal grandfather and her birthday. When Grandfather arrives, he gives Felicity a beautiful guitar that belonged to her grandmother. Felicity is (according to social custom) not allowed to learn how to play guitar for a couple more years, so her mother makes the rule that the guitar must stay in the parlor to keep it safe. Felicity, who has recently been envious of Annabelle's new guitar, immediately decides to shirk this rule to show off her new guitar and make Annabelle jealous. Felicity then forgets the guitar at Annabelle and Elizabeth's house and damages it. While at Annabelle and Elizabeth's house, Felicity overhears Elizabeth's father talking to a British soldier and learns that the governor is planning to have British soldiers sneak into the Magazine and steal all of the colonist's gunpowder that night. Felicity tries to warn her parents and grandfather, but they don't believe her due to her damaging the guitar. So Felicity must sneak out again with Ben to warn the colonists about the governor's plan.
I felt that this story was a little too disjointed and did not flow as well as the previous Felicity stories. I think that might be because there were a lot of big plot elements (Grandfather's visit/Felicity's birthday, the entire guitar scenario, ramped up Patriot vs Loyalist conflict, the attack on the Magazine) and there really wasn't room for all of them in so short of a story. Not to mention there was a lot of unnecessary and obvious toy marketing crammed into an already busy story (cough cough, Posie the lamb).
As another reviewer said, it doesn't make sense that the adults in Felicity's life believe she is lying about the British attack on the magazine, as she has never been shown to be dishonest before. I felt like that entire conflict could have been written better. Another tiny thing I would have changed was to introduce Felicity's interest in learning the guitar and envy in Annabelle's ability to learn music while Felicity and Elizabeth are still too young in an earlier book (maybe in Felicity's Surprise) so that Felicity's interest in music doesn't just come out of nowhere and her acquisition of a guitar doesn't come off as so convenient. Also, the story almost gave me whiplash with how quickly Felicity goes from being in trouble, to sneaking out and basically inciting an angry mob, to being back at home again and not being in trouble just in time for her birthday party. Similarly to Meet Felicity I felt that the messaging from the adults in Felicity's life on what is right or wrong in this situation is unclear in this story.
I also felt that Felicity herself took a bit of a back-step in this story compared to the Felicity we saw in Felicity's Surprise. She is still just a kid and I don't expect her to be perfect just because she had some character development, but I felt that her choices in regards to the guitar were particularly self-centered and immature - especially for her character considering we are over half way through the series. I was also surprised by Felicity's lack of empathy towards Elizabeth. In one scene, Elizabeth and Felicity's grandfather share a moment discussing how much they miss England, and Felicity is surprised to hear Elizabeth say this because it never occurred to her that Elizabeth (who has only been in Virginia for a few months) would be homesick for England. In another scene Felicity drags Elizabeth to watch the Williamsburg militia practice, and is surprised that Elizabeth - a loyalist - is frightened by the Patriot soldiers rather than just finding them exciting as Felicity does.
One thing that I really liked about this book was how much they incorporated spring and the changing of the seasons in the story. It reminds you of how much more connected to the seasons people in Felicity's day were, and it made me feel like I was enjoying a beautiful spring day despite reading this on a cloudy February day. I thought it was clever how the plot incorporated an actual historic event (the theft of the gunpowder from the Magazine) into the story. I appreciate that conflicts between the Loyalists and the Patriots have been slowly building up over the course of Felicity's series, rather than just being a huge plot point from the start or introduced suddenly into one book. It feels like they are starting to come to a head now and things are becoming more serious. Even Felicity comes to the realization in this book that war is a frightening inevitability. I can't help but feel empathy for Felicity and the stress she feels being surrounded loved ones on the opposite sides of the political spectrum and being constantly worried that one will say something to upset another. Also, although it was kind of a disjointed end to the story, I really enjoyed Felicity's birthday party scene and thought that the kind words her grandfather said about her were super heartfelt and sweet.
Overall I am kind of bummed that I didn't like this one as much as Felicity's other stories, but I'm hopeful that the next two will be better.