Julie's Journey (American Girls: Julie, #5)

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Julie's Journey (American Girls: Julie #5)

by Megan McDonald

3.92 · rating details · 136 ratings · 9 reviews

It s 1976, and the entire country is celebrating America s 200th birthday. Julie joins her cousins on a pioneer-style wagon train in honor of the Bicentennial. The journey is filled with adventures, challenges, and self-discovery as Julie faces her fears to make an important contribution to her country s birthday. The "Looking Back" section provides additional in...more

Paperback, 84 pages

Published September 4th 2007 by American Girl Publishing Inc (first published September 2007)

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Dec 18, 2011

Ciara rated it

Shelves: kids-books, read-in-2011

julie & her sister join the aunt, uncle, & cousins on some tacky-sounding wagon train in a real conestoga wagon. they are traveling from pittsburgh to valley forge. the amazing thing is that this actually happened in 1976. a bunch of dumbasses put their heads together & thought, "what better way to celebrate the 200th anniversary of our great nation than to stuff a bunch of our fellow dumbasses into actual authentic conestoga covered wagons & have them drive to valley forge, where there wil...morejulie & her sister join the aunt, uncle, & cousins on some tacky-sounding wagon train in a real conestoga wagon. they are traveling from pittsburgh to valley forge. the amazing thing is that this actually happened in 1976. a bunch of dumbasses put their heads together & thought, "what better way to celebrate the 200th anniversary of our great nation than to stuff a bunch of our fellow dumbasses into actual authentic conestoga covered wagons & have them drive to valley forge, where there will be a big rally with the president?" god, i am so glad i wasn't born yet in 1976. everything about the bicentennial sounds like a nightmare. reading these books is making me feel like the american girl historical dolls just did a triple gainer over a shark pit.

on the way to valley forge, julie tries to ride her cousin's horse & gets thrown off into a stream. her cousin laughs at her & julie vows never to speak to her again. but she gets over it when their wagon gets stuck in a pothole (god, i wish i was making this up) & they have to lighten the load by leaving behind some of their belongings. julie ditches her entire collection of "little house on the prairie" books, thinking that laura ingalls wilder didn't have books on her journey to the frontier, so julie shouldn't either. this somehow brings julie & her cousin together again.

along the way, the wagon train is supposed to be gathering up signatures for some scroll they are presenting to the president. what is with julie & getting people to sign shit? i bet she grows up to be a UPS delivery person. the scrolls are some bullshit about how, "i still honor the values & beliefs that inspired the constitution" or something. julie decides she wants to get the signature of some old dude living in hershey, pennsylvania. she & her cousin blow off a fun-filled day at the hershey amusement park (just like the chocolate-themed amusement park where mary ingalls tragically went blind in the "little house" books) to ride the scary horse to the old dude's house & get his signature. he's all, "why do people keep asking for my signature? some yahoo in a wood-paneled station wagon just asked for my signature too." station wagon man is some souvenir salesman who has been following the wagon train & selling bootleg memoribilia.

could this book get any stupider?

anyway, old dude agrees to sign the scroll for julie. he's also like, "oh hey, my great-great-great-great-great grandpa signed the real constitution. look," & he busts out a real authentic copy of the constitution from colonial times.

old dude, WHAT are you doing? put that shit under glass! don't just wave it around on the front porch in front of children! also, i feel that bragging about how your great-great-great-great-great grandpa signed the constitution is a really stupid thing to brag about. especially the way this guy does it, like, "oh, by the by, i don't know if i mentioned that i'm not just old. i'm also a descendant of someone who signed the constitution." i bet he used to use that line to get ladies into bed when he was young & spry.

naturally, when they get to valley forge, the scroll that old dude signed goes missing. i will add that the leader of julie's wagon train group says that he'll be a shoo-in to present the scrolls to the president since his group got old dude's signature. hello, JULIE & HER COUSIN got old dude's signature. shouldn't they do the presenting if that's all it takes to get chosen? anyway, julie assumes that the souvenir guy took the scroll, to sell it. she runs off & confronts him, but he's like, "nope, not me." on the way back to camp, she wonders if maybe this friend of her wagon trail leader stole the scroll. they have a "friendly competition" going as to who can get better signatures. because what better way to celebrate the principles our great nation was founded on, in this, its 200th year, than to compete over how some americans' signatures are better than others?

she breaks into his covered wagon, which is filled to the brim with scrolls. sure enough, she finds the stolen scroll. she steals it back & runs back to her camp. her leader guy is all, "what? i thought that guy was my friend!" then he tells julie to present the scrolls since she recovered the stolen scroll. & GOT THE SIGNATURE THAT SUPPOSEDLY MADE IT WORTH STEALING IN THE FIRST PLACE, HELLO. so julie gets to shake president ford's hand. it would have been great if then president ford had fallen offstage like the infamous grape lady, because, you know, he was clumsy, but he doesn't.

& therefore, this book lost its one shot at redemption.(less)

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Mar 29, 2009

Taylor rated it

Julie is joining her cousines on an old fashioned wagon train to celebrate the bicentenial. Julie can not wait ti try pioneer life, espcially riding a horse. But her cousine horse turns out to be a big handful, and julie is afraid to ride him again. when april her cousin laughs at her, julie stops talking to april. Witch isn't so easy when you are in the same wagon! as the journy groes harder Julie thinks to her herself why she ever even thought of going to this place in the first place. but th...more

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Jan 17, 2012

Madalyn H rated it

Julie's journey was about the celebration of America's 200 birthday. There was going to be a wagon train to Valley Forge. Julie lives in San Fransisco and she goes all the way from California to Valley Forge in a wagon She gets to ride a horse, but she falls off and got drenched. Her cousin laughed at Julie and hurt her feelings. The cousin said she was sorry and everyone got along in the end.

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Nov 19, 2009

Katharina2001 added it

This girl named Julie visits her cousen to go on the bicenntennial wich is a day you celebrate America and go on a wagon trail.She rides her cousens horse and falls off and her cousen (her name is April)she laughs at Julie and Julie is mad.But they become friends on the fourth of July and shake hands with the president.

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Oct 20, 2009

Rahmadiyanti rated it

Shelves: young-adult

Julie adalah seri "paling muda" dari American Girl. Kisah Julie bersetting America tahun 1974. Saya belum baca seri 1-3, langsung lompat ke Julie's Journey. Kali ini Julie berkunjung ke Pittsburgh untuk ikut merayakan bicetennial (200 tahun) kemerdekaan Amerika.

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Feb 16, 2011

Ashley rated it

Shelves: abby-and-me, childrens

Julie joins her cousins in a Bicentennial wagon journey to Valley Forge. Abby liked how Julie learned to ride a horse and that her favorite books are the Little House on the Prairie books. I liked how Julie was so interested in American history and her own role as an American. They don't call them American Girl books for nothing :)

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Jan 26, 2012

PWRL marked it as to-read

Shelves: z2012-1-jan-new

A
O
SM

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Nov 25, 2009

Snorkle rated it

Shelves: juvenile, read-2009

This story was interesting, but I didn't find myself captivated. This book would probably hold the attention of a juvenile reader though and I might recommend it.

*Taken from my book reviews blog: http://reviewsatmse.blogspot.com/2009/05...

· see review

Sep 10, 2008

Jennifer rated it

Shelves: historicalfiction, kids

I didn't know about the wagon train during the Bicentennial, so that was interesting to read about. This was fine, but really is only going to be of interest to American Girl enthusiasts.

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Feb 09, 2012

Abby Carpus rated it

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Tasha added it · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens

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About Megan McDonald

"Sometimes I think I am Judy Moody," says Megan McDonald, author of the Judy Moody series, the Stink series, and THE SISTERS CLUB. "I'm certainly moody, like she is. Judy has a strong voice and always speaks up for herself. I like that."

For Megan McDonald, being able to speak up for herself wasn't always easy. She grew up as the youngest of five sisters in Pittsbur...more"Sometimes I think I am Judy Moody," says Megan McDonald, author of the Judy Moody series, the Stink series, and THE SISTERS CLUB. "I'm certainly moody, like she is. Judy has a strong voice and always speaks up for herself. I like that."

For Megan McDonald, being able to speak up for herself wasn't always easy. She grew up as the youngest of five sisters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her father, an ironworker, was known to his coworkers as "Little Johnny the Storyteller." Every evening at dinner the McDonalds would gather to talk and tell stories, but Megan McDonald was barely able to get a word in edgewise. "I'm told I began to stutter," she says, leading her mother to give her a notebook so she could start "writing things down."

Critically acclaimed, the Judy Moody books have won numerous awards, ranging from a PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Best Book of the Year to an International Reading Association Children's Choice. "Judy has taken on a life of her own," the author notes, with nearly 3 million Judy Moody books in print. Interestingly, the feisty third-grader is highly popular with boys and girls, making for a strong base of fans who are among Megan McDonald's strongest incentives to keep writing, along with "too many ideas and a little chocolate." And now -- by popular demand -- Judy Moody's little brother, Stink, gets his chance to star in his own adventures! Beginning with STINK: THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING KID, three more stories, and his own encyclopedia, STINK-O-PEDIA, Stink's special style comes through loud and strong -- enhanced by a series of comic strips, drawn by Stink himself, which are sprinkled throughout the first book. About the need for a book all about Stink, Megan McDonald says, "Once, while I was visiting a class full of Judy Moody readers, the kids, many with spiked hair à la Judy's little brother, chanted, 'Stink! Stink! Stink! Stink! Stink!' as I entered the room. In that moment, I knew that Stink had to have a book all his own."

More recently, Megan McDonald has recalled some of her own childhood with the warmth, humor -- and squabbles -- of three spunky sisters in THE SISTERS CLUB.

Megan McDonald and her husband live in Sebastopol, California, with two dogs, two adopted horses, and fifteen wild turkeys that like to hang out on their back porch.
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Judy Moody, M.D.: The Doctor is In! (Judy Moody #5)

Judy Moody Predicts the Future (Judy Moody, #4)

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Julie's Journey (American Girls: Julie #5)

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