Felicity's Short Story Collection

American Girl: Short Stories

by Valerie Tripp, Philip Hood (Illustrator), Dan Andreasen (Illustrator)

Felicity is growing up in Virginia just before the Revolutionary War. As the colonies struggle to break free from England's rule, Felicity has her own struggles for independence. She's learning what it means to be a proper gentlewoman, and she's beginning to form her own beliefs. Through her adventures, Felicity discovers that with independence comes responsibility.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Childrens, Historical, Short Stories, Middle Grade, Fiction

213 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2002

About the author

Valerie Tripp is a children's book author, best known for her work with the American Girl series.

She grew up in Mount Kisco, New York with three sisters and one brother. A member of the first co-educated class at Yale University, Tripp also has a M.Ed. from Harvard. Since 1985 she has lived in Silver Spring, Maryland. Her husband teaches history at Montgomery College.

Right out of college, Tripp started writing songs, stories, and nonfiction for The Superkids Reading Program, working with Pleasant Rowland, the founder of American Girl. For that series, Tripp wrote all the books about Felicity, Josefina, Kit, Molly, and Maryellen and many of the books about Samantha. She also wrote the "Best Friends" character stories to date, plays, mysteries, and short stories about all her characters.. Film dramatizations of the lives of Samantha, Felicity, Molly, and Kit have been based on her stories. Currently, Tripp is writing a STEM series for National Geographic and adapting Greek Myths for Starry Forest Publishing. A frequent speaker at schools and libraries, Tripp has also spoken at the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, The New York Historical Society, and Williamsburg.

Reviews

[Panda Incognito · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was excited to snag an affordable used copy of this book, and enjoyed it very much, especially since I am now old enough to feel less acute vicarious embarrassment over Felicity's scrapes. These short stories are all fun and educational, and the collection also includes one about Valentine's Day that was never published as a stand-alone. I had no idea that this collection would include something new, and enjoyed that story tremendously. It is so sweet and creative, and I'm glad that I got to read it.

My only complaint about this book is that the story and historical notes never differentiate very clearly between servants and slaves, and don't share enough information to condemn the institution of slavery. I didn't notice this very much as a child, since I already knew plenty about slavery and could read between the lines, but if a young reader isn't well-educated in that area, some aspects of these stories could romanticize Colonial life without clearly explaining the moral issues entrenched in that culture.

[Karol · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore Felicity. Her short story collection is a gem. I most enjoyed Felicity’s Dancing Shoes, Felicity’s Valentine and Felicity Discovers a Secret. The “Looking Back” sections at the end of each story provide great information from Felicity’s time.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend this for lovers of the American Girl stories! I read Felicity's series as a child/tween and loved them, but never got around to reading these short stories until I revisited the series as an adult. I really enjoyed each story in this collection and loved that they had the same quality of illustrations as the core Felicity books. This Short Story Collection also includes the story Felicity's Valentine, which was never published individually and was one of my favorites out of all of Felicity's short stories.

[Danae · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5*

I'm writing this review too long after reading the book to remember details, but I do generally think the stories were cute.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the fact that they kept the "Looking Back" part when they put all the short stories together. I love history so I enjoy reading those as much as the stories.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has five separate short stories from the Felicity: An American Girl series that I’ve been reading for the “American Girls” podcast that I’ve been listening to by Allison Horrocks and Mary Mahoney. I will be reviewing all the stories individually, on their own book pages (because they are individual books... this was just a nice collection I got for cheap). As a collective whole, however, I did like the stories. Some of them were a little ridiculous (but it is Felicity, of course), but I did like them overall. The only negative thing I can say (as a whole) about this collection is that I did feel like, after having read one through six of the original book series, Felicity had taken a step back in developmental growth in this series. HOWEVER, I do believe some of these stories take place in the middle of some of the books in the main series... So, maybe that’s why some of her growth had become terrible again.

On another note, I sadly cannot rate separately my favorite story from the whole collection, which was “Felicity’s Valentine”, so I am going to do that here. This was my favorite story from the entirety of the collection. I would give it five stars (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) because it was a cute story of Felicity and Elizabeth being regular friends and although they did land themselves into the typical shenanigans that they always do, I felt like in this story it really was not there fault. Everything that had happened was purely accidental and nothing to where they should really be terribly held accountable (except for the fact that they should do their homework) and in the end, everything wasn’t really what it seemed. It actually made me gush with what happened between F.M. and E.C., which I loved. Probably one of my favorites out of the entirety of the series, to be honest.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading for a second time in 2013, I think I liked this collection a bit more than I had originally. The stories are nice and fit neatly into Felicity's timeline. And giving each story its own historical context section meant that a lot of detailed information could be shared about relatively minor things, like Valentine's Day.

[Jenni Lithgow]

This was a gift from my friend Sarah, and it was a fun little read! I read all the regular Felicity stories when I was a kid, but had never read the short stories. It was a real treat to get to read new-to-me Felicity stories that I'd never read before! :)

[Amanda Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

These little editions are so great for the short stories. I acquired all of them this summer, and it's nice to have the stories that were added just to make complete sets. These build on the Felicity character, but are a bit lacking in depth.

[Ale · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book has 5 books in it and is really intrested!!

[Caitlin]

Met the author in NYC and got a signed copy at American Girl Place. She loved hearing how I was from Williamsburg! :)

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good collection of stories. Sweet and simple and make one feel warm and fuzzy inside.