This morning while I was getting dressed I was thinking about a couple of years ago when our local library association started lending American Girl dolls. I got a call from a local newspaper and the reporter asked me what I thought of this. I am NOT an American Girl fan and I will explain why. At the library where I work, we do an American Girl program and it is quite popular, but we don't really stick with the books. I like the program a lot. I used to do it, but scheduling has had me hand it over to people who are much more capable! But it was fun because we didn't stick to the American Girl company produced stuff. Because American Girl doesn't really show American Girls. There is no Muslim girl. There is a new African American Girl now, as one was discontinued. But for a long time, the only African American American Girl was a slave. There are no more Asian American Girls, the only one being discontinued. There is one girl who has divorced parents but there are no American Girls who have one parent and have always had one parent. There is no American Girl who is being raised by her grandparents. There is no Latino American Girl. There is no Indian American Girl. There is a Native American Girl, though, so wow and big credit you. There is one Jewish American Girl. So again, wow and big credit to you. But is that the best you can do, American Girl?
I explained all of that to the reporter. Oddly my comments were not included in the article, which was just a piece about how great the program is. Is the program really great? Not in my opinion, and so I won't link anything about it here.
That is all just to say that Upside Down Magic and Flower Power show a much more realistic picture of American Girls and Boys than American Girl does, even with the magical element of UDM!
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