An American girl tea party: multicultural dolls escort some very special young readers to a fun event

Black Issues Book Review, Nov-Dec, 2004 by Suzanne Rust

On a rainy Manhattan afternoon, Black Issues Book Review editors were hostesses for a tea party in the charming American Girl Care in midtown Manhattan. (The Chicago American Girl Place also has a care that serves lunch, tea and dinner.) Seated with a gaggle of girls and Executive Editor Angela P. Dodson, I placed a napkin on my lap, switched on my tape recorder and tried to capture all the magic of the moment. Our enthusiastic group of bright young ladies--all New York City locals--consisted of six-year-old Niara, nine-year-old Kiva, eight-year-old Olivia, and sisters Madison, 7, and Kari, 9.

The girls were all seasoned customers. "Oh, I come here all the time!" chimed one. "I had my birthday party here. My doll and I had matching outfits and she got her hair done at the salon," added another.

As we sat down to afternoon tea, a ritual with which they were all familiar, we were given warm cinnamon buns and offerings of pink lemonade and tea to start us off.

The American Girl doll and book empire, spawned in 1986 by a midwestern entrepreneur who in 1998 sold the whole franchise to Mattel, is nothing short of a multicultural phenomenon. Little girls wax poetically about the books and dolls, as they move through the stores in a joyful trance. The company's mission is to celebrate young girls by helping to instill values such as the importance of family, friendship, strength, courage, compassion, responsibility and forgiveness. It's also about having fun--and lots of it.

The American Girls Collection, geared to girls ages eight and up, is the flagship product line featuring books and dolls based on nine-year-old fictional girls who grew up during pivotal times in America's history. Each character comes with a rich life story that offers little girls a window to the past, allowing them to see how things have changed and to make their own assessments of what has stayed the same.

After the girls settled in at our party inside the American Girl Place and put their dolls in the tiny black-and-white striped table chairs made expressly for them, I asked the burning question: What makes these American Girl books and dolls so special? Kiva likes them because they "tell a story about how life was," and she likes the fact that "the dolls and books go together." Kari tells me that she likes the books because they're about "all different kinds of people, places and time periods. You kind of get to know them from their habitats."

Niara likes all the different stories they tell. Madison adds, "The books are just great!"

Through the books, which are mostly well written and informative, they learn what life was like if you were like Addy, a courageous runaway slave seeking her freedom during the Civil War; or like Josefina, an Hispanic girl in colonial New Mexico in 1824 who saw the opening of the Santa Fe Trail; or Kaya, a spirited girl of the Nez Perce tribe in 1764 before America was established as a union. These are the three characters of color in the collection, which also includes Kristin, a pioneer girl; Kit, a Depression era child; the orphan Samantha, living at the turn of the century; Felicity, a colonial Williamsburg girl growing up in 1774; and Molly, raised on the home front during World War II. Samantha: An American Girl Holiday, the first in a series of movies based on each of the characters in the American Girls Collection, is scheduled to have its debut on the WB network in November 2004.

With six books per character, each girl takes on a life history embodied by the dolls and all of their historically accurate accoutrements--i.e., a drinking gourd and quilt for Addy, a teepee for Kaya. While these 18-inch dolls are meticulously crafted, they're not cheap--at about $84.00 for each doll, not to mention all of the accessories that comes with each of them.

For the girls more interested in contemporary dolls, the American Girl Today dolls celebrate the diversity of modern girls. Little girls can select the dolls skin, eye and hair color and texture, as well as accessories. For younger girls, ages 3 and older, there are the Bitty Baby, Hopscotch Hill School and the Angelina Ballerina collections.

More than 100 million American Girl books (Pleasant Company Publications ranks as one of the nations top 15 children's publishers) and 10 million dolls (second only to Barbie in the dolls category) have been sold. The products are sold through the company's catalogue (800-845-0005), Web site (www.americangirl.com), and at its two retail stores, which are in Chicago and New York; the books are also available in bookstores nationwide. The catalogue is listed as one of the top 25 consumer catalogues, and the award-winning American Girl magazine has more than 650,000 subscribers.

The American Girl Place at 609 Fifth Avenue at 49th Street in New York City celebrated its first anniversary this past November. The store is a place of wonder: It has a bookstore, a theater for shows based on the characters, boutiques where you can purchase matching doll/girl ensembles, an official doll hospital, and one of my very favorite things (the little girl in me squealed), a hair salon where the dolls get their hair braided, twisted and flipped for a fee while you watch.