Thanks to Josefina

American Girl: Short Stories #27

by Valerie Tripp

In 1824 New Mexico, Josefina and her sisters argue as they weave, until Josefina thinks of a way to make their work more fun, in a story that includes historical notes on blanket weaving in New Mexico in 1824.

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

48 pages, Hardcover

First published March 31, 2003

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

[Miri]

Josefina and her sisters are working hard weaving blankets to trade for sheep for the rancho under the watchful eye of Tia Dolores, but soon the sisters are tired of weaving and they begin to blame Josefina for roping them into so much extra work. Clara hates to spin, Francisca hates to card and Josefina keeps messing up on the loom. Josefina is hurt that her sisters are blaming her, can she find a way to use all of their most special talents to make the work faster and easier on all?

[Megan]

This was my least favorite book out of Josefina’s Short Story Collection. Why were her sisters being so mean to her???? Josefina is just trying to help the family with the weaving idea and it was like her sisters were just shitting on her for no damn good reason! When did her sisters get to be so fucking mean!!!

[Katt Hansen]

A story about working together - with a great project at the end that involves making your own dye to tie dye a t-shirt. Makes me want to try it!

[Bailey Marissa]

Teamwork makes the dream work.

[Rachel B]

#2 of Josefina's short stories in my opinion. I really liked this book! It wasn't "groundbreaking" or particularly exciting, but I like that it showed the historical reality of what weaving would have been like for girls living at the time Josefina was. I liked that Josefina's character (and her sisters' characters) all felt accurate to how the main series portrayed them, and I liked that Josefina came up with a clever solution to make the most of each of her sisters' unique skills to allow each of them (and herself) to do the parts of weaving that best fit their interests and skill sets. I liked her helping Teresita find the dyes, even though again I have some questions about Teresita (is she a servant or a slave? does she get paid? does she WANT to be in Tia Dolores's household?). This book felt like it could be a short chapter in one of Josefina's main series books, which is a pretty high compliment for a short story, considering how Felicity got character assassinated in some of hers (and even Addy did in Addy's Little Brother). No complaints about this sweet little story, but nothing super exciting happening here either.

[Sarah Beth]

This was another great Josefina short story on a very relatable topic: sibling disagreement! In this book, Josefina and her sisters Clara and Francisca bicker about their tasks related to the family's blanket weaving endeavor. All three sisters like and excel different aspects of the weaving process and grow frustrated when they to spend time on their least favorite parts. Despite being the youngest sister, Josefina comes up with a good solution for how they can all get along and enjoy the process better.

I am always impressed at how complete these short stories feel. Tripp does a great job of providing a well-rounded tale, albeit in a shortened form. I think the subject of this one is very relatable to readers of any time period who have siblings. I also thought the scenes where Josefina is helping collect plants to use for different color dyes was so cool! Such a great insight into how they used the land and everything around them, in this case to make beautiful woven blankets.

[Rubi]

Josefina's sisters are kinda bratty😕
All they did was complain and take advantage of Josefina. But even though Josefina was hurt she found solutions that would make their weaving good faster! So smart 😊

[alivia]

1.5 stars. i recently found a bunch of old books from my childhood that i had never read, so i thought that i would start reading a few of them each month. this was a cute, quick read. it had a good lesson. i get that it’s called a short story, but i just wish it was dragged out a bit more.

[Kara Kuehl]

Thoroughly enjoyed the short read (took about 20 minutes). It reminded me of my sisters. :)

[Alex]

Cute.

[Katie]

Reading for the first time as an adult. As Josefina and her sisters settle into new blanket-making routines following Learns a Lesson, they quickly find that everyone has a part of the process that makes them cranky. Observing how different plant parts are useful for different things leads Josefina to suggest a plan that plays to each sister's strengths. Her solution feels a little obvious, but Tripp is always good at writing sibling conflict and resolution.


More Josefina babble

Meet Josefina | Josefina Learns a Lesson | Josefina’s Surprise | Happy Birthday, Josefina | Josefina Saves the Day | Changes for Josefina

A Reward for Josefina | Again, Josefina! | Josefina’s Song | Just Josefina | Thanks to Josefina | Josefina’s Short Story Collection

Secrets in the Hills | The Glowing Hearts

[Bulk Reviews]

There is such a huge emphasis on blanket weaving in Josefina's books that I am conflicted on how to feel about this story. On the one hand, it's kind of nice to see the actual process of weaving the blankets, since it's so often talked about but so little explained. (And this reminds me that I actually owned some Josefina blanket weaving toy when I was little. I'm pretty sure it had instructions on how to use it, and I was very intrigued by it, but I never figured it out.) It is also interesting to see the process of collecting materials for dyes. I can be annoyed that grass stains my clothes...but also, grass stains my clothes! Wow! Nature is pretty cool!

On the other hand, I'm kind of sick of hearing about blanket weaving, and the Montoya sisters are all pretty mean to each other. They seem to forget that Josefina suggested the blanket weaving for a reason: they need blankets to trade for sheep, or they can't survive. Yes, it's annoying to constantly weave, but it's not all "thanks to Josefina," it's thanks to the huge storm that took out their sheep. Duh?

I am pretty sure there is something in these books about Teresita being a slave, but it wasn't talked about in this one. Maybe it was in a mystery book...?

[Kelly]

Sweet.

[Kaetlyn]

I read this book.
I like that Josefina helped get flowers for die .
I don't like that Clara,Josefina,and Fransica were fighting