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A review by piburnjones
Very Funny, Elizabeth by Valerie Tripp
1.0
Fair warning: I only just read this as an adult. No nostalgia bonus.
Where to start with this mess?
First, just as a flag, there's a scene where a new character chides Elizabeth and Annabelle for their healthy appetites, saying that fine ladies in England are dainty eaters. Priscilla is an absolute, unredeemed gorgon, but STILL - no other character disagrees with her - you have to make the leap from "Priscilla is awful" to "anything Priscilla says is garbage" all on your own. Valerie, you are writing for children, kindly do not encourage disordered eating.
Since we've introduced Priscilla, let's talk about one dimensional characters in Felicity and Elizabeth's world. In the original Felicity books, Annabelle is a very consistently drawn caricature who never gets the chance to breathe and be a real person. Here she breaks out of that for all of one scene. I would have hoped that Elizabeth might show us a more fully realized picture of her sister than this tiny flicker of sisterly support, but apparently it's too much fun to write Annabelle Bananabelle.
But if Annabelle is bad, Priscilla is Annabelle turned up to eleven. Through the Felicity books, Annabelle occasionally gets reminded by adults to be civil to the younger girls, but no adult here seems to bat an eye at Priscilla's awfulness. Are the Cole parents so cowed by an English title they never correct her about Annabelle's name? This all plays at the level of a farce, which is not usually the mode American Girl operates in.
Then there are all the tricks Elizabeth and Felicity play. The narrative wants you to feel okay about them because Annabelle - and later Priscilla - are so awful, but the whole thing makes me super uncomfortable. The girls justify it to themselves by insisting that they're trying to shake Annabelle out of being such a snob - and the narrative goes along with this rationale - but I can't imagine a person for whom that would actually work as presented. Plus, we're told that the girls have agreed on limits - nothing harmful or mean-spirited - but I'm not convinced that the tricks we see follow those rules. This feels a lot less ha-ha funny and a lot closer to bullying than this book is ready to grapple with.
Not funny, Elizabeth. Not funny at all.
Where to start with this mess?
First, just as a flag, there's a scene where a new character chides Elizabeth and Annabelle for their healthy appetites, saying that fine ladies in England are dainty eaters. Priscilla is an absolute, unredeemed gorgon, but STILL - no other character disagrees with her - you have to make the leap from "Priscilla is awful" to "anything Priscilla says is garbage" all on your own. Valerie, you are writing for children, kindly do not encourage disordered eating.
Since we've introduced Priscilla, let's talk about one dimensional characters in Felicity and Elizabeth's world. In the original Felicity books, Annabelle is a very consistently drawn caricature who never gets the chance to breathe and be a real person. Here she breaks out of that for all of one scene. I would have hoped that Elizabeth might show us a more fully realized picture of her sister than this tiny flicker of sisterly support, but apparently it's too much fun to write Annabelle Bananabelle.
But if Annabelle is bad, Priscilla is Annabelle turned up to eleven. Through the Felicity books, Annabelle occasionally gets reminded by adults to be civil to the younger girls, but no adult here seems to bat an eye at Priscilla's awfulness. Are the Cole parents so cowed by an English title they never correct her about Annabelle's name? This all plays at the level of a farce, which is not usually the mode American Girl operates in.
Then there are all the tricks Elizabeth and Felicity play. The narrative wants you to feel okay about them because Annabelle - and later Priscilla - are so awful, but the whole thing makes me super uncomfortable. The girls justify it to themselves by insisting that they're trying to shake Annabelle out of being such a snob - and the narrative goes along with this rationale - but I can't imagine a person for whom that would actually work as presented. Plus, we're told that the girls have agreed on limits - nothing harmful or mean-spirited - but I'm not convinced that the tricks we see follow those rules. This feels a lot less ha-ha funny and a lot closer to bullying than this book is ready to grapple with.
Not funny, Elizabeth. Not funny at all.