Addy's Surprise: A Christmas Story

American Girl: Addy #3

by Connie Rose Porter

During the holiday season, Addy and Momma are generous with their meager savings and thrilled by a wonderful surprise.' to 'Addy Walker is a proud, courageous girl growing up in 1864, during the midst of the Civil War. Addy's stories tell of her daring escape with her mother from slavery, and the challenges they face afterward as they try to reunite their family. But Addy's stories are about much more than hardship. They are full of the love and hope that help her get through the worst of times and keep her dreams alive

During the holiday season, Addy and Momma are generous with their meager savings and thrilled by a wonderful surprise.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Childrens, Fiction, Christmas, Middle Grade, Historical, Civil War

65 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1993

About the author

Connie Rose Porter is an American author best known for her books for children and young adults. She was the third youngest of nine children of a family living in a housing project.
She has since taught English and creative writing at Milton Academy, Emerson College, and Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She was a fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and was a regional winner in Granta's Best Young American Novelist contest.

Reviews

[Miranda Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Last night I dreamed we was all together. Sam, Poppa, Ester - all of us here in Philadelphia."

Addy and her Momma are feeling the holiday blues. It's been months since they escaped slavery and settled in Philadelphia and there hasn't been any news about Poppa, or her siblings.

"An icy wind whistled through the crack in the garret window."

Winter is upon Momma and Addy - which means long nights of sewing by candlelight for Momma and cold afternoons when school lets out for Addy (they can only afford to use coal for cooking and heating at night).

But Addy tries not to be discouraged. She and Momma are saving up for a lamp to help Momma sew at night and secretly, Addy is saving half her tips for a Christmas present to give Momma.

But then they get word that another group of freedmen are coming to town. Momma and Addy need to make some tough decisions - should they save the money for themselves? Or donate it to the church for the freedman's fund.

"Things are gonna be better here," promised Addy, "The people at the church helped me and my momma. They'll help you too."

Whew. I'm a little mixed on this one.

On the one hand - the message of donating what you have to help those who have none is truly a good one...

But on the other, it's hard for me to understand how the church could expect people with so little to donate all they have.

However, I think I'm a bit jaded from various monetary scandals that have come out in the last few decades.

There used to be a time where donating to the church meant a direct line of help to the poor. And while Addy and her mother are considered under the poverty line, they do have more than the freedmen and women who just arrived.

I think the author does a good job of showing how difficult the decision was for Addy and how much of an impact that money would have on others.

I also enjoyed how despite the monetary restrictions, Addy and Momma were able to celebrate Christmas with love and joy.

I will say that the grand reveal of Poppa returning made me tear up as I read this one aloud to my little one.

BUT after sitting on it, I wish Addy had worked for the reveal, like by writing letters as she's shown to do in subsequent books. It just felt a bit unrealistic and awfully convenient that Poppa arrives on Christmas Eve for Addy but then again, this is a children's book and what's Christmas without a bit of magic?

More reviews in the Addy-verse

Main Series:
Meet Addy - ★★★★☆
Addy Learns a Lesson - ★★★★☆
Addy's Surprise - ★★★★☆
Happy Birthday, Addy - ★★★★★
Addy Saves the Day - ★★★☆☆
Changes for Addy - ★★★★★
Addy's Boxed Set - ★★★★☆

Short Stories:
Addy Studies Freedom - ★★★★☆
Addy's Wedding Quilt - ★★★★★
Addy's Little Brother - ★★★☆☆
High Hopes for Addy - ★★★★☆
Addy's Summer Place - ★★★☆☆
Addy's Short Story Collection - ★★★★☆

Additional History Books
Addy's Cookbook - ★★★★★
Addy's Craft Book - ★★★★★
Addy's Theater Kit - ★★★★★
Real Stories from My Time: The Underground Railroad - ★★★☆☆
Welcome to Addy's World · 1864 - ★★★★★

Mystery Book:
Shadows on Society Hill - ★★☆☆☆

Beforever (Re-Release of Main Series in 2014)
Finding Freedom: An Addy Classic - ★★★☆☆
A Heart Full of Hope: An Addy Classic - ★★★☆☆

Abridged Version (Re-Release of Main Series in 2020)
Addy: Finding Freedom - ★★★★☆
Addy: A Heart Full of Hope - ★★★★☆

Beginner Reader & Picture Books
Freedom for Addy (Step Into Reading) - ★★★☆☆
Happy Birthday! (Little Golden Book) - ★★★★☆
Happy Holidays! (Little Golden Book) - ★★★★★
Time for School! (Little Golden Book) - ★★★★☆

[Allison Tebo · Rating 5 out of 5]

SO sweet. I loved reading this bite-sized piece of nostalgia by the tree.

I had forgotten what an MVP Mrs. Hudson was in this book.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's always a candy coating to the history in these books, especially the holiday ones. In the end, the girls always get what they want, plus a nice surprise or two as well. This is no different: Addy lucks into a beautiful new dress, Momma makes her a new doll, Mrs. Ford gives them the lamp, AND POPPA SHOWS UP OUTTA NOWHERE. Plus, Addy finds a way to contribute to the freedman's fund AND still give Momma a pretty new scarf for Christmas. Everything she wanted and more. (I guess not everything, but STILL. This is a LOT.)

AND YET. The Walkers spend most of the book with a window that won't quite close and it's snowing. They only have enough coal for cooking. Ruth Walker is sewing by candlelight because they can't afford a lamp. We keenly feel their hardships, and yet we see how much needier the newly arrived freedmen are. This sweet little Christmas story is full of suffering and deprivation.

So I guess where I'm going with this is that if anyone deserves to get everything she wants this Christmas, it's Addy. She's not pestering or petulant or disobeying - the worst she does is to hide a few cents of her tip money, planning to buy the scarf for Momma. And even those coins wind up going to the freedmen's fund.

There's something almost predatory about asking people like Addy and Momma for donations when they have so very little. And yet, without people like the Walkers and the Moores, who would help the newly arrived freedmen?

I think I forgot how much I like Addy, you guys. I really, really like Addy.


More Addy babble

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

High Hopes for Addy | Addy’s Little Brother | Addy’s Wedding Quilt | Addy Studies Freedom | Addy’s Summer Place | Addy’s Short Story Collection

Shadows on Society Hill

A New Beginning

[Jessaka · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Christmas Scarf

Addy’s Surprise

This is a delightful Christmas story that takes place right after the end of slavery. Addy’s is a young free slave living in Philadelphia. Her mother works as a seamstress. It is Christmas tie, and Addy sees a red scarf in the window of a used store. The man wants twenty cents for it. Seemed steep to me. Addy wants it for her mother and saves up the money from her tips to buy it. She delivers the clothing that her mom makes. But things don’t go as planned, at least not for a while.

[Olde American Spirit (Shannon) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a precious story. This one is my favorite of Addy's so far.

[Morgan's Endless Bookshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved how important the church was in this one, and Addy's selflessness was so wonderful. And that ending!!! Didn't exactly like the mention of Kwanzaa in the looking back section, though.

[Charlotte🫶 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is tied so far with Kit’s for my favorite AG Holiday book! I loved the characters so much and all the lessons they taught the readers. This book truly encompassed the true meanings of Christmas and it was beautiful. Addy’s books are sure to always hold a special place in my heart.

[Alex (novelswithalex)]

This one was beautiful and also made me sob at the end. 5/5 in my heart.

[Rebekah Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
I haven’t read this book in years! I grew up reading all the American Girl books (back when there were only 6 girls) and thought I’d revisit this one.
I liked Addy and her willingness to help others even when she and her momma had so little. While there isn’t a lot of details in the story about what it was like to live as a freed slave in a northern state, it did give a bit of a picture. But it wasn’t all hard and sad. Loved the ending.
I also enjoyed the fact that the real Christmas story was talked about.
A Peek into the Past was also an interesting read as it gives a little more information about that era.

[Rachel Moyes]

Really really good, I honestly don't want to spoil it, just READ IT.

[Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a little girl named Addy. It's Christmas time and it is her first Christmas with Momma, her mother, in freedom from slavery. She's very very excited and in the last chapter she finds her Poppa, her Daddy. He had been taken away in the first book with her brother Sam. The men had been separated and they didn't know where Sam was. She saw her Poppa in church on Christmas.

[HadenXCharm · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one genuinely brings tears to my eyes. The part where Addy is reunited with her father on christmas day. The symbolism of the Shadow Puppet room where the children are watching these silhouettes that they recognize as Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus, and then Addy looking up and seeing a shadow in the doorway and instantly recognizing that shape as her father, running to embrace him, it just dissolved me into tears, man.

I literally always tear up at the part that the dad turns away and starts crying, I initially thought he was weeping because of the generosity of Mrs. Ford's gift, but then you get the emotional punch of realizing that he's crying in joy because his daughter just read something to him -- something he'd hoped and dreamed for his children to have the chance to do for years and years.

This book vaguely reminds me of the Gift of the Magi, the way Addy has to sacrifice something valuable to her to get a gift for her loved one -- she initially plans to secretly save up and buy a shawl for her mother, but she then is inspired to donate the gift money to the church offering, which will presumably go to help former slaves who are moving north. This book was a lot more overtly religious than American Girl usually gets, but I see why. The role of the black church in helping newly freed slaves cannot be overstated. Addy remembers how she and her mother were helped when they arrived in Philadelphia and imagines that she's donating those precious pennies to help her baby sister, brother, and father reunite with her.

Through circumstance, Addy is rewarded for her generosity by receiving a new dress for Christmas, the excess fabric she uses to make her mother a handmade shawl.

Beautiful illustrations, extremely emotional, definitely imparts 'Christmas' to a young reader as something that is about more than receiving gifts in a way that some of the other girls Christmas volume failed (mostly Samantha's)

P.S., I loved the way Mrs. Ford dealt with that unhappy customer and defended Ruth, you keep that ramrod straight spine, Mrs. Ford, hell yes.

[Charlotte Weber · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first American Girl book I ever read. It was given to me in the third grade. I loved it then and I love it still.

I read it this year (2017) for the Popsugar Reading Challenge for the prompt "a book loved as a child."

[Sarah Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another moving installment in Addy's series. In this book, Christmas is approaching, and Addy is trying to save up the few cents she receives as tips for delivering the dresses her mother makes at work in order to buy her mother a secondhand scarf for Christmas. But after she and her mother discuss all the recently freed people coming to Philadelphia that need their support, just like they received when they arrived with empty arms, Addy is moved to donate funds.

This had such a moving scene on Christmas day where Addy is reunited with a family member. Both of my daughters shrieked with joy over the scene! It felt like a true Christmas miracle, even though Addy is still missing two of her family members who were left behind in slavery.

Just like every American Girl book, this had so many great lessons for young readers, including hard work, generosity, charity, and being grateful for what we have. Addy has very little in the way of material comforts, but she has a wonderful Christmas thanks to her little family, a new life in freedom, and her Church community.

[Charlie - disableddaydreamer | itsbarbieparis (looking for mutuals) · Rating 4 out of 5]

the american girl books, this one especially so, teaches us of christmases of the past and makes real connections that evoke gratitude, thoughtfulness and discussion on the topics presented.

all addy books are a win. i am in awe, im so sad kid me missed these, but im so happy i get them now.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book and I love her doll, Ida Bean. Such an adorable and fitting name. What a great story! Excited to read the rest!

[Danielle R · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this with my daughter and what a sweet story. It was such a nostalgic moment as I remember reading about Addy when I was small! ✨

[Katie Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

One thing I love about the Addy series is that it shows the reality of how former slaves were often separated from their families as they worked to claim freedom. This separation happens in the first book, and then each family member takes a different journey to Philadelphia, where they luckily had planned to meet up. The strength of the freedman's fund and the larger church community is so powerful in Addy's Surprise. You can see the roots of black church culture in this one and it's truly Christian values. I also love that Addy is more focused on giving Momma a present than on receiving, and I love Mrs. Ford's clearly having been won over by this hard-working mother and daughter. Also, it's brilliant how Addy's mom's being a seamstress justifies Addy's comparatively large wardrobe when they can't afford to heat their one-room home.

[Jessie-sharon Craft · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me cry. 😭 It's really amazing how good the AG books are.

[Laura (Book Scrounger) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Addy and her mother are working hard to make ends meet. They have a roof over their heads and food and clothes, but they have to save their pennies for things like coal for heat, and a lamp to do work by at night. Even in the midst of hardships, Addy and Momma both want to find ways to surprise each other for Christmas. But they also feel the pain of others around them who are newly freed and in need, just as they were. They have to make hard choices about what is the most important thing to do with their money. But they also learn that Christmas can still bring surprises, some that are even better than any money can buy.

We enjoyed this book a lot, especially the ending. I like how each book has a "peak into the past" section at the end so we can tie it in with our US history study.

[Laura Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cried reading this one. I think I've cried at some point reading all of Addy's books. How could someone break up a family? How could people justify treating other people worse than animals? It boggles the mind. I hope by the end of book 6, Addy's family is reunited.

I read this series to my niece years ago and I can still remember how moved I was by Addy's story. In my opinion, Addy's series is one of the upper echelon in the American Girls canon, both the stories and the illustrations.

[Sarah Anne Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely one of the best "________'s Surprise" American Girl books. While I certainly don't begrudge the children in most of these books for desiring things like dolls (often an integral part of the Christmas wish plot), as is totally normal for girls that age, Addy's maturity surpasses everyone else's. All she longs for is enough money to buy Momma a nice gift and for her scattered family to reunite. SO incredibly refreshing! I presume that her past with slavery broadens her perspective and instills a wisdom beyond her nine years.

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the book aloud to my 5 year old daughter. We liked how she gave her money to help bring more slaves to freedom. It was a sacrifice as now she wouldn't be able to buy her mom a Christmas present. We loved how God rewarded her for being faithful to his prompting.

[Jen]

American Girl books were a staple during my early reading years. Do they hold up 25 years later? Currently working through the winter/holiday stories since it's that time of year.

See my review of Felicity's Surprise as a quick introduction.

Like Kaya, Addy's stories make you wonder if they hold up after all these years. Addy was the first BIPOC doll produced by Pleasant Company, a girl who escapes slavery, which you are then enticed to purchase. Basically, you want me to purchase a doll that's a formerly enslaved girl, and it's a pricey, luxury item produced by a company with an overly white upper middle class market? It's the kind of of thing that makes you say: AG's canceled.

But let's separate the doll from the books, because the stories are good, even in an age when audiences are begging for black stories that don't revolve around slavery and trauma. The African diaspora is so wide and deep, with hundreds of stories left to be told.

Addy's collection is still worthwhile, especially for American children. In an age when political groups become anti-CRT without knowing what it means, kids need accessible, tangible, empathetic stories that relay the difficult truths about American history. There is no AG character that can match Addy, because Addy is a young person escaping the punishing, violent, and imperialistic system of slavery, and in doing so, she is no longer capital but a full being able to earn her own capital. Whereas other AG characters freely exist within their capitalist society, Addy is a product in that capitalist society who earns her own agency.

It's why the trials she faces in Addy's Surprise can't compare to the trials that Felicity or Kirsten face. In this book, Addy just wants to burn more coal in their tiny apartment so that it's warmer and have more money to buy her mother a scarf. "Freedom ain't free" like the characters quote, but they survive through love and supporting each other. It takes this kind of resiliency for enslaved people to survive the brutalist, designed slave society, and yet, many still didn't.

While it seems AG is phasing out Addy's collection, except to milk the nostalgia of millennials, her stories are worth keeping and sharing.

[Laura Fan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The setting of the beginning of the story is inside a little attic room where Addy and her mom stay above Mrs. Ford's dress shop. I liked that Addy had to do something to help her mom instead of be lazy and stay in bed. If I was in her shoes, I think I would have helped her mom. Addy is determined to buy a beautiful red scarf for her mom that she saw in a shop window. It didn't cost much, but instead of buying the scarf, she put all her money into the Freedman's Fund to help families get together again. I like that she has a bright hope to reunite her family all together and live happily ever after in Pennsylvania. And it's sweet that Addy made a scarf from left over material that Mrs. Ford gave to her. Addy's present was a new doll that she named Ida. I really liked the Christmas celebration at her church - it was such a good ending that someone opened the door and it was her Pappa and they all go home together. (Her brother doesn't make it to Philadelphia until the 5th book.) - age 9

[🍓 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, American Girl’s author Connie Porter writes a heartwarming and lesson-filled story of Addy’s life. I liked the exploration of faith in this story, a piece of history that is always an interesting element to learn as it can be easily related to faith practices of today. I found myself learning things with Addy as she experiences her first Christmas living a life of freedom.

This novel is the most positive of Addy’s so far, the lesson of giving to others and faith being one’s I think really stand out as features of Addy’s character.

[Gage F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Addy’s Surprise by Gage Fruth.
Addy is an independent girl who escapes slavery with her mother. To start a new life in Philadelphia with her mother. Addy is a determined girl who wants to make a good Christmas for her mother. But her mother is barely making enough money to pay for food and rent because times are hard. Addy's character is inspiring in the town they are in. Everyone likes her cause she's a kind young girl.





I would give this book 3 stars because I like it but I don't think this book is really for me but it's a decent book.

[Jasmine Day · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably should’ve started with the first book instead of the 3rd. Grammar wasn’t the best in this book due to the time that it’s based in. I hated learning about these times in school and through books because it’s not fair, but I’m glad it’s not like that anymore. At least not really.

QUOTES FROM THE BOOK:

“Freedom’s got a cost.”

“Time is a curious thing. It can’t be stopped like a clock.”

“Freedom can be a lonely walk through the wilderness and dark. But you can make a difference between a lonely night and one filled with light and hope.”

[Rubi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this story. Addy helps her mom so much! She thinks of others, even giving up the little money she made for a cause she felt was more important than Christmas presents. It was beautiful and I was glad to see her hard work and her mom's acknowledged. It had such a good ending too.
Such a heartwarming and beautiful story ❤

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars. A very sweet Christmas story. I absolutely loved it and the ending had me all choked up but for a good reason. Addy's father is back and now they just need to reunite with Sam and Esther and I'm curious to see how that's going to happen. This was lovely and I cannot say it enough but I really do love these books. They feel timeless.