Addy's Summer Place

American Girl: Short Stories #29

by Connie Rose Porter

Fresh New Adventures for Beloved Characters. American Girls Short Stories(TM) These perfectly pocket-size (41/2" 6") hardcover books feature exciting new adventures for the popular American Girls characters. Each book features full-color illustrations, a historical picture essay, and directions for a fun activity. At Cape Island, New Jersey, Addy eats at an ice cream parlor and feels very grown-up. But when a white girl is unfriendly with her, Addy wonders whether she is really ready to be a young lady.

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

56 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2003

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

[Erin Becker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story is a gem. One of the best of the AG collection, hands down.

[Miranda Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Outside, the world rushed by -- woods thick with trees, farmers driving teams of mules, meadows of uncountable wildflowers..."

Addy's Poppa has spent the whole summer building fancy hotels for on Cape Island and has invited Momma, Esther and her up to visit. She's so excited to be on a vacation and her Poppa has an extra special surprise.

"I couldn't have y'all come here looking this fine and not give y'all a taste of the good life. We going to the Banneker House for ice cream."

And Addy could not hope for a better family memory - all of them sitting in the fanciest place she ever saw, eating delicious ice cream out of delicate dishes. Prefect.

Back at the camp, Addy runs into a rather unpleasant girl her own age.

"Don't you step out of your place, colored girl!" the girl spat. "You better go back to where you belong."

Why do the really good times always get paired with the bad? Why can't Addy have just one nice vacation with her family?

I'm feeling rather mixed on this one.

I've loved much of the Addy series and have praised the author again and again for not shying away from the realities of Addy's world...and yet...this feels cruel to the characters.

I'm not saying it isn't accurate...but the author chose to give Addy such a wonderful vacation. And the author chose to put a racist family nearby the camp so that Addy and her little sister would run into them and have their vacation sullied.

Momma's advice for this situation is that it isn't up to Addy to change the world and to (basically) work within the confines.

She explains how when she was little, she could play with white children on the plantation but as they grew older, the whites and the blacks separated...and that Addy is old enough to know that truth.

Addy mulls upon that and decides to extend kindness to the girl, despite her cruel behavior - once again showing that Addy is too good for this world.

But I'm just...torn. It's historically accurate, but also it feels like a letdown to end the short story series with this one.

[Ciara · Rating 3 out of 5]

addy & her family take the train to cape island, new jersey (now cape may) for a summer holiday. mr. walker is employed doing some construction work there. he's been living there for a while, & so has snares set up in the woods to catch rabbits. he notes that someone has been stealing rabbits from his traps.

the next day, addy & esther have a run-in with a little white girl about addy's age. her little brother says hello to esther & the girl yells at him for talking to a "colored" girl. she spanks him & addy criticizes her for hitting him so hard. the white girl tells addy to "mind her place" & takes off. addy is distraught by the fact that even in freedom, she still has to deal with white people bossing her around & speaking disrespectfully to her. she complains about it to mrs. walker, who warns her that "colored people" have their place even in freedom & that addy will stick to it if she knows what's good for her.

the next day, addy goes into the woods to check the snares. of course, she sees the little white girl stealing a rabbit. addy yells at her & the girl takes off running. addy chases after her, but doesn't know the woods & gets lost. she finally stumbles across a clearing with a little cabin in it & she realizes that it's the white girl's home, & that her family is very poor & the little girl is not treated well. addy waits until the white girl & her family are inside, & then she leaves the rabbit as a gesture of goodwill.

addy & her family go to the beach & addy swims in the ocean, which wrecks the curls her mother had laboriously done up in her hair. but addy doesn't care because of something about how the "ocean has room enough for everybody" or something.

this is a super-short tiny book--like 30 pages. it's not bad, considering the length, but i'd love to know what the point of these short stories actually was. to continue the adventures of these characters? it's definitely good to see addy & her family outside the context of the civil war (this book is set in 1866 or 1867). but of course the cynic in me says that the book was written so american girl could sell more stuff. they manufactured the dress that addy is wearing on the cover as a limited edition item. it now sells on ebay for upwards of $100.

[Katt Hansen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The one complaint that i have with this story is how just about every book has to be a lesson in segregation. Please, can the company just make a doll for 1950's America and be done with it? I wanted this to be more of a look at what a summer vacation might look like and not more about keeping in your place. It's not that I don't appreciate that these things happened, it's that the author hits the reader over the head with it so much that I started feeling a bit bludgeoned after awhile. More delicacy please!

The other problem with this book is that the story does NOT feel finished. We meet a girl who is living a pretty nasty life and walk away. I hit the last page and thought, wait, what? No resolution at all, instead let's go swimming.

Huh.

Sorry, much as I love Addy, this book just didn't cut it this time around. I wish I could give a better ranking but just can't.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Addy feels very grown up on her visit to Cape Island: she has a new dress, new curls, and Poppa takes the family to an ice cream parlor. But a run in with white children who have even less than she does leads her to think that perhaps she isn't in too much of a rush to grow up.

I think this is the first time we've seen Addy interact with white people less well-off than she is. Why do we need to make Addy feel sorry for poor white kids who are mean to her? As usual, capitalism (here in the form of the new fancy hotels Poppa is helping to build) is pitting poor whites against poor blacks, and our sweet Addy is stuck in a place where her good heart means that she's showing generosity to people who would have let her starve were the tables turned.

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, I was wondering where Sam was. It really didn't say. I also felt like it wasn't so much of a story, though it did have a moral lesson at the end.

[Marisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet, fun story that shows a particular snapshot in time of what a vacation would have been like for Addy's family!

[HadenXCharm · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's not much to say about this one. Addy takes a train for a Cape Island holiday with her family and meets a racist Irish girl-- well, a holiday of sorts. Black people can't stay in any of the hotels, despite making up the work-force that is building those same hotels. She and her family are living in a makeshift shack with her dad for a couple days on the beach.

Poppa is feeding himself and the family by setting traps in the woods for rabbits. Addy and Esther are confronted by a viciously mean and racist little Irish girl and her curious brother. She actually whups her brother for approaching and talking to them. I notice that despite being treated terribly by upper class white people themselves, the Irish seemed to turn on the one group lower than them in the social strata. Instead of having class solidarity, the Irish were viciously racist and hateful towards black people themselves out of bitterness that they weren't being accepted into 'white' society. Addy finds out that this mean little girl has been stealing rabbits from her father's traps.

Addy tells her mother about this incident, and her mother tells her that she knows it isn't fair, but this is part of growing up and that when children reach a certain age, racial segregation begins. She herself played with white children as a slave girl, but at a certain point, the white children take on the prejudices of their parents and turn on their black playmates. She tells Addy, "I wish things could be different for you, but this ain't my world to change." Her only advice for Addy is to stay away from the girl.

Addy catches the girl stealing their food and chases her back home, where she witnesses her being abused by her parents, which makes Addy sympathetic towards her. I guess that's the moral of this book -- mean bully kids are cruel because they're mimicking the cruelty of their parents. Addy's generosity towards her is supposed to be a life lesson for the young reader, but I don't agree with this messaging. Being charitable and kind never stopped people from bullying or from being racist. Personally, I think the best course of action is to isolate people who behave in such antisocial and inappropriate manners, not to reward them with kindness. I don't think 'be nice to people who are abusing you' is a great message for little girls, but oh well.

Sidenote, we got some nice historical details in this book, such as Addy having her hair styled by her mother on paper rollers with wax and lard. There hasn't been any other mention of haircare in these books, so I found this interesting

[Sarah Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this Addy short story, Addy gets to leave the city of Philadelphia for the first time since arriving after fleeing slavery. Thanks to the new railroad, Addy and her mother and sister are able to travel to Cape Island, New Jersey to visit her father, who is working there for the summer. It's nice to see Addy get to visit the ocean, explore the woods for the first time since slavery, and just enjoy a vacation and break from her normal life. Like all of the American Girl books, this also includes a valuable lesson when Addy encounters a very hostile little white girl, but later discovers there is more to her story than meets the eye.

I loved everything about this story except the ending, which felt very abrupt! It felt as if they ran out of room to fully conclude the story. I wish it could have been edited to be a bit more complete. I will also say that this story chronologically follows the conclusion of the last of the six full length books and it would be disappointing to read this one first because of spoilers.

I did really appreciate the looking back at the past section of this book, which explains the history of travel out of Philadelphia to Cape Island, which began exactly when Addy first travels there. Likewise, it was so well historically placed that her father was there for the summer building a hotel, because that it exactly the type of work that would very much have been taking place at the time, as the place became a booming summer destination. It was fun to see how the story was based on real history and was well researched.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

[Joey Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Addy’s family have gone to a summer vacation where her poppa is working. She loves being there with the sun and sea, getting to go in the woods again with her poppa and search their traps. But even on her vacation she comes across prejudice for the color of her skin, but she rises above her anger and uses the kindness of her heart even for people that were mean.

This was an okay story, it didn’t hold anything particularly special but it was still cute, her dressed up wanting to be a grown up until she realises that being a child is still way more fun and comes with less difficulties. It was a nice addition to Addy’s stories.

[Little Seal]

At the time of this review, this is one of the better short stories AG has, but it still felt strangely lackluster. However, Addy is a gem. She had every right to not give the rabbit to the white girl but she did. It shows she has a good heart.

[Rubi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poor Addy didn't understand why her people were treated differently even after slavery was abolished. But I loved how even when she wasn't shown common courtesy, she still felt compassion for those less fortunate 😊

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super cute!

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

my favorite part is when addy saw the red headed girl and started to feel sorry that she had no food for supper and they had to eat a log

[Isabella DiGiacomo · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Barbara Lovejoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful story. I appreciate the information section. The ice cream recipe was a fun added bonus.

[Svetlana · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending with the red haired girl was not good enough

[Lex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can see why this has a lower rating. It feels like the conflict wasn't really resolved, but, that's life 😬

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the American Girls Short Stories books.

Addy, her mother, and her sister, Esther, are going to New Jersey for a Fourth of July holiday. They are going to visit Addy's father, who works there.

They had to ride in a train car that was for colored people only, and they had some ice cream at a ice cream parlor that was, again, for colored only. Addy runs into a young white girl who hates black people.

Addy's mother tries to explain to her why she has to remember to “stay in her place.” Addy later finds the white girl stealing one of their rabbits from her father's rabbit trap, and finds out the girl is mistreated by her mother.

The book also includes historical information, and a section on how to make ice cream.

Even though the book is short, it's good, in that it examines just how prejudice affected black people after the end of the Civil War. No matter what direction black people of the time turned, there were going to run into racial prejudice. It could range from people disliking people, to blacks not being allowed to use the same stores, etc, that white people could, all the way to violence, including lynchings.

It is also unfortunate that other groups of people have also faced similar discrimination, including Native Americans, Jews, Hispanics, Irish, Germans, Orientals, and almost any other immigrant group you can think of. Even in today's world Native Americans have their reservations, blacks still run into discrimination, some people still speak against the Jews, and the Mexicans and other Hispanics have become the second-most discriminated and disliked group.

Sometimes it seems nothing really changes.

[Bulk Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure why I hated this so much the first time I read it. I think I was expecting something more to happen. And it is, in fact, kind of plotless and meandering.

Addy goes on a little summer vacation with her family, eats ice cream at a fancy parlor for the first time, and swims at the beach. She encounters some racism from a little white girl, whom she eventually finds out is stealing rabbits from her father's traps. However, she feels pity when she sees the white girl getting pushed around by her mother, and decides to leave a rabbit for her.

This story shows Addy's compassion, and her forgiveness is touching. But the theme of racism still being prevalent in society, despite slavery being over, feels like a repeat of previous Addy books. (I get it. Addy cannot ride on the inside of a streetcar.)

[Kimberly OutspokenMom · Rating 5 out of 5]

this story has an even stronger message, one in which only one word can succeed in describing. Set in the summer of 1864, Addy, Momma, and baby Esther travel from Philadelphia to Cape Island, New Jersey, to visit Papa for the Fourth of July. While attempting to act like a proper young lady, Addy finds it difficult to do so when a wave of changes and decisions comes her way. The foremost change comes to reality however, when she is exposed to the life of one poverty-stricken, white family

[Bree · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is from the perspective of a mother.

This is another of Addy's stories that I think was short-changed as a story and deserved fleshing out into a book. Although it was fun to learn more about what Addy's family was up to in the post-war period, the story format really barely allowed for much in-depth, and the historical wrap-up was repetitive to some of the other books.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great storyline for Addy and her family going on their first seaside vacation. Addy and her sister encounter a girl and her brother at the stream. The girl is quite mean to Addy and her sister then the girls leave to go back to their camp. The story in my opinion was good, but there was no resolution to the girl and her family and Addy' s family.

[Kaetlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

One day Addy's mom surprised her that they are going to Cape Island were her dad works . When they were at Cape Island Addy was the first one to see their dad . Her dad took them out for ice cream . When they were at the camp Addy could see the five-story hotel her dad was working on . Addy got her working clothes on to go with her dad to see the traps for rabbits.

[Bailey Marissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though Addy was never my favorite, she's very sweet and I feel for her.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always like this one even though it's kinda random and all over the place.