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A review by piburnjones
Changes for Samantha: A Winter Story by Valerie Tripp, Dan Andreasen
4.0
Is it just me, or does this series go a little bit off the rails?
Let's back up.
Compared to some of the other early AG series, the original Samantha books feel unfocused:
- Felicity's arc is that she is growing more responsible while the revolution is brewing. Her progress isn't always linear - big step forward in Surprise as she nurses her mother, big step backward in Happy Birthday with "there was one rule about the guitar, Felicity." But overall each book charts her personal progress and the developing political situation. Oh, and Penny comes back, which only works through ten-year-old Horse Girl Logic, but okay, whatever.
- Kirsten's arc is about assimilating, and it effectively ends at the close of Happy Birthday - which I think is why the last two books are weaker than the first four. In those four books, Kirsten: travels to her new home, begins to learn English, finds ways to update old traditions, and finds that she has been embraced by her new community. After that, Saves the Day and Changes are both driven by concerns about money - legitimate for the family's situation, but they could just as easily be "further adventures of Kirsten Larson" rather than part of the main narrative. Janet Shaw makes "Changes" feel like a big ending because they get the house, but it comes out of nowhere.
- Addy's arc is also about mastering a new environment, coming to terms with what freedom does and doesn't do for her, while helping to reunite her family. By the end of Changes, everyone's accounted for and Addy has a home and a community in Philadelphia. It's beautifully constructed, and as an adult it might be my favorite series of the first five.
- I haven't finished re-reading Molly, so TBD, but I remember her books being pretty consistent in terms of characters, setting and themes. Saves the Day is at summer camp, but I think the best friends are still there. World War II is always there in the background. (I finished Molly; here are my thoughts on her.)
And then there's Samantha. Who I will always adore - that's the doll I got for Christmas, age 7, and she was the beloved toy that was basically a member of the family. But setting that aside, the books - considered together as a series - are kind of a mess.
Samantha's theme is... ??? Happy Birthday leans in to "sometimes change is good," a message that was deliberately undercut in Learns a Lesson. Saves the Day and "Happy Birthday" both require keeping your head in a (self-manufactured) crisis. The three with Nellie (Meet, "Learns a Lesson," and "Changes") are about using your privilege to help those who have less. Surprise is a cinnamon-flavored Christmas story about wishes coming true and Samantha finding a kindred spirit in Cornelia. "Saves the Day" memorializes Samantha's parents.
I don't even think there's a through-line of character development like you see with Felicity. Occasionally there are suggestions that she's working to live up to Grandmary's expectations of a young lady, but it doesn't build through the series. If anything, that's half the plot of "Meet," and then it just pokes its head out again in "Lesson" and (less successfully) in "Happy Birthday."
It seems relevant that while the Felicity, Kirsten, Addy and Molly series were each written by a single author, the Samantha books have a total of three. I don't know how that happened, and I'd love to know how what guidance each writer received. How much was mapped out from the beginning, and to what extent were scribes 2 and 3 left to pick up the threads and do their best?
I'd go out on a limb and say "not much" and "extensively."
With that, let's go back to the book at hand.
If you had told me that "Changes" was by a different author than all the rest of the Samantha books, I would have believed you. It's not true - Valerie Tripp wrote the last three - but it's so different from the others. Samantha has moved in with Gard and Cornelia so Grandmary can honeymoon with Admiral "No really, why are you here?" Beemis from "Saves the Day." (In retrospect, perhaps his purpose in "Saves the Day" is really to set up a reason for Samantha to move to the city for "Changes.")
Like her life in New Bedford, Samantha's life in New York is pretty idyllic. She and Cornelia seem to get along beautifully. One grumpy maid is exchanged for another - who again is a minor antagonist, but I still kind of sympathize with her. We know Samantha goes skating and to school, though we don't hear much about that. Samantha is nearly a supporting role in this one, because the real focus is Nellie.
If anything, "Changes" feels like it's trying to make up for all the time we missed with Nellie - we haven't seen her since "Learns a Lesson." We're still looking through Samantha's eyes, but Nellie and her sisters drive the plot. We have to find them (in a "dangerous," i.e., lower class neighborhood), we visit them at the orphanage, we sneak them out and try to protect and shelter them. And ultimately, Gard and Cornelia decide to adopt them. Of course they do: throughout the series, Gard and Cornelia are basically perfect. (Maybe THAT'S the theme!)
I'm okay with this plot up through the introduction of the orphan train (and wow, I had completely forgotten there was an orphan train in this book). Once this becomes a jailbreak/hide in the attic book, I had my eyebrows raised for about the last twenty pages. I think I sprained my credulity.
THAT SAID, is it a sweet story? Yes, absolutely. Is it charming that the girls all get a happy ending? Of course. Do I also wonder what the society matrons who frowned at Samantha just playing with Nellie will say about this? Oh hell yeah.
Let's back up.
Compared to some of the other early AG series, the original Samantha books feel unfocused:
- Felicity's arc is that she is growing more responsible while the revolution is brewing. Her progress isn't always linear - big step forward in Surprise as she nurses her mother, big step backward in Happy Birthday with "there was one rule about the guitar, Felicity." But overall each book charts her personal progress and the developing political situation. Oh, and Penny comes back, which only works through ten-year-old Horse Girl Logic, but okay, whatever.
- Kirsten's arc is about assimilating, and it effectively ends at the close of Happy Birthday - which I think is why the last two books are weaker than the first four. In those four books, Kirsten: travels to her new home, begins to learn English, finds ways to update old traditions, and finds that she has been embraced by her new community. After that, Saves the Day and Changes are both driven by concerns about money - legitimate for the family's situation, but they could just as easily be "further adventures of Kirsten Larson" rather than part of the main narrative. Janet Shaw makes "Changes" feel like a big ending because they get the house, but it comes out of nowhere.
- Addy's arc is also about mastering a new environment, coming to terms with what freedom does and doesn't do for her, while helping to reunite her family. By the end of Changes, everyone's accounted for and Addy has a home and a community in Philadelphia. It's beautifully constructed, and as an adult it might be my favorite series of the first five.
- I haven't finished re-reading Molly, so TBD, but I remember her books being pretty consistent in terms of characters, setting and themes. Saves the Day is at summer camp, but I think the best friends are still there. World War II is always there in the background. (I finished Molly; here are my thoughts on her.)
And then there's Samantha. Who I will always adore - that's the doll I got for Christmas, age 7, and she was the beloved toy that was basically a member of the family. But setting that aside, the books - considered together as a series - are kind of a mess.
Samantha's theme is... ??? Happy Birthday leans in to "sometimes change is good," a message that was deliberately undercut in Learns a Lesson. Saves the Day and "Happy Birthday" both require keeping your head in a (self-manufactured) crisis. The three with Nellie (Meet, "Learns a Lesson," and "Changes") are about using your privilege to help those who have less. Surprise is a cinnamon-flavored Christmas story about wishes coming true and Samantha finding a kindred spirit in Cornelia. "Saves the Day" memorializes Samantha's parents.
I don't even think there's a through-line of character development like you see with Felicity. Occasionally there are suggestions that she's working to live up to Grandmary's expectations of a young lady, but it doesn't build through the series. If anything, that's half the plot of "Meet," and then it just pokes its head out again in "Lesson" and (less successfully) in "Happy Birthday."
It seems relevant that while the Felicity, Kirsten, Addy and Molly series were each written by a single author, the Samantha books have a total of three. I don't know how that happened, and I'd love to know how what guidance each writer received. How much was mapped out from the beginning, and to what extent were scribes 2 and 3 left to pick up the threads and do their best?
I'd go out on a limb and say "not much" and "extensively."
With that, let's go back to the book at hand.
If you had told me that "Changes" was by a different author than all the rest of the Samantha books, I would have believed you. It's not true - Valerie Tripp wrote the last three - but it's so different from the others. Samantha has moved in with Gard and Cornelia so Grandmary can honeymoon with Admiral "No really, why are you here?" Beemis from "Saves the Day." (In retrospect, perhaps his purpose in "Saves the Day" is really to set up a reason for Samantha to move to the city for "Changes.")
Like her life in New Bedford, Samantha's life in New York is pretty idyllic. She and Cornelia seem to get along beautifully. One grumpy maid is exchanged for another - who again is a minor antagonist, but I still kind of sympathize with her. We know Samantha goes skating and to school, though we don't hear much about that. Samantha is nearly a supporting role in this one, because the real focus is Nellie.
If anything, "Changes" feels like it's trying to make up for all the time we missed with Nellie - we haven't seen her since "Learns a Lesson." We're still looking through Samantha's eyes, but Nellie and her sisters drive the plot. We have to find them (in a "dangerous," i.e., lower class neighborhood), we visit them at the orphanage, we sneak them out and try to protect and shelter them. And ultimately, Gard and Cornelia decide to adopt them. Of course they do: throughout the series, Gard and Cornelia are basically perfect. (Maybe THAT'S the theme!)
I'm okay with this plot up through the introduction of the orphan train (and wow, I had completely forgotten there was an orphan train in this book). Once this becomes a jailbreak/hide in the attic book, I had my eyebrows raised for about the last twenty pages. I think I sprained my credulity.
THAT SAID, is it a sweet story? Yes, absolutely. Is it charming that the girls all get a happy ending? Of course. Do I also wonder what the society matrons who frowned at Samantha just playing with Nellie will say about this? Oh hell yeah.