Online Newsletter #12

February 2003

It's almost time for the new products, and the Society newsletter is keeping you in the know!

New AGOT Items

Pleasant Company has added new outfits and accessories to the American Girl Today line. In the Easter/Spring theme is a blue flowered skirt with blue peasant-style blouse. (There is also a matching dress for girls.) Blue Flower Accessories for girls include a hair comb, ring, and bracelet. A girl-size blue flowered purse is also available. For the AGOT, the Egg Hunt accessories include a metal basket with pink grass, three Easter eggs, blue purse, and bunny ears for Coconut. In the sports & recreation vein, the AGOT can now have a bowling outfit, which includes a bowling shirt, plaid skort, socks, shimmery bowling shoes, ponytail holders, a glove which keeps a magnetized bowling ball in ther hand, and three pins. The set also includes a sparkly bowling ball bag. Focusing on Coconut is another new outfit called the Coconut's Best Friend outfit. It comes with a jean jacket, Coconut tee, khaki capris, a ponytail holder, a watch, and denim sandals. Another addition to the AGOT line is a new nightgown: a blue floral print nightgown with slippers and a sleep mask. There is a matching nightgown for girls as well as a blue robe. To go with the doll nightgown is a flower sleepover kit, which includes a sponge, pretend soap, a soapbox, toothpase and toothbrush, and mirror in a carrying case, as well as a tip sheet for fun slumber parties.

Pictures of new books

Barnes & Noble's website has pictures of the new historical girl short stories due out in March. They are quite small, but after you search for the books, click on the link for each book and there will be a slightly larger picture along with the book info. All of the new short stories have on their covers pictures of the girls in never-before-seen dresses. This led to some speculation on the message board that there might be new outfits. While we cannot be certain, Society member Jec said that a friend of hers let slip that there would be some new outfits for the historical girls in the near future. Hopefully this rumor turns out to be true!

Barnes & Noble also has a small picture of Kit's Railway Adventure. The cover shows Kit in her birthday dress, so there is speculation that Kit won't get a new dress with her Travel Adventure like Samantha and Molly. Another question has to do with the fact that AG started featuring Molly's suitcase and Samantha's valise with their travel collections. But Kit doesn't have a suitcase yet; will she get one? These speculations have in no way been substantiated though, so we will just have to wait to find out!

Upcoming Additions to Girls of Many Lands

Society member Brittany comes up with this: three new additions to the Girls of Many Lands series are planned. The information she gave me says the projected publishing date is "0309." I don't know if this means March 9th of some year, September 3rd of some year, or September of 2003. The last one is what I'm guessing. Here they are:

Leyla : The Black Tulip, by Alev Lytle Croutier, illustration by Kazuhiko Sano.
Summary: While trying to help her financially destitute family, twelve-year-old Leyla ends up on a slave ship bound for Istanbul, then in the beautiful Topkapi Palace, where she discovers that life in the sheltered world of the palace harem follows its own rigid rules and rhythms and offers her unexpected opportunities during Turkey's brief Tulip Period of the 1720's.
Subjects: Slavery--Turkey--Fiction. Harem--Fiction. Tulips--Fiction. Kings, queens, rulers, etc.--Fiction. Istanbul (Turkey)--History--18th century--Fiction. Turkey--History--Ahmed III, 1703-1730--Fiction.

Kathleen : The Celtic Knot, by by Siobh�n Parkinson, illustration by Troy Howell.
Summary: Twelve-year-old Dubliner Kathleen Delaney is given the chance to take Irish dancing lessons in 1937 and discovers she has a talent for it.
Subjects: Folk dancing, Irish--Fiction. Dance--Fiction. Poverty--Fiction. Dublin (Ireland)--History--20th century--Fiction. Ireland--History--1922---Fiction.

Saba : Under the Hyena's Foot, by Jane Kurtz, illustration by Jean-Paul Tibbles.
Summary: After being kidnapped and brought to the emperor's palace in Gondar, Ethiopia, twelve-year-old Saba discovers that she and her brother are part of the emperor's desperate attempt to consolidate political power in the mid-1840's.
Subjects: Kings, queens, rulers, etc.--Fiction. Kidnapping--Fiction. Brothers and sisters--Fiction. Ethiopia--History--19th century--Juvenile fiction. Ethiopia--History--19th century--Fiction.

Thanks, Brittany!

More rumors floating around

Lately two rumors have been reported to Society members from AG reps on the phone. The first is that Addy, Molly, and Kirsten would be featured on the website only, ala Felicity. My "secret source," however, says that she knows nothing of this and that is was probably a rumor that started and got out of hand. Hopefully she is right! The second rumor said that all the dolls, including Felicity, would be featured in the catalog on some kind of a rotating basis, so that not all dolls were included at any one time, but all would be included at some time. This would be good news for Felicity fans, although it might mean more retirements. There has been no further word on this, so it's probably the same kind of rumor as most of the rest we have gotten from AG reps: not true.

February Society Reading Feature

Society member Sarah was kind enough to put some more work in, typing up questions from Josefina's reading journal. I've added some activites and tidbits from The American Girls Club Handbook. To access this month's reading feature, click here.

Monthly Membership Update

Here are the membership stats for January:
New Members: 18
New State: South Dakota
Total members: 164



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