A few weeks ago, my preschool-aged daughter and I started learning about the War of 1812. Yes, I know it’s a bit late for me to be learning about a war I should have learned all about in High School and I also know it’s a bit early for her to start learning about war at all, but that’s what American Girl will do to us.
Just like after we were introduced to American Girl Kit Kittredge via a package from Santa and we spent the time after the holidays learning about the Great Depression, this past month we’ve been back to “studying” in a very fun way. American Girl’s newest Historical character, Caroline Abbott, made learning about the War of 1812 fun and very relatable for my daughter.
The day that I read American Girl was releasing Caroline Abbot this fall as their new Historical Character, I was thrilled. I will admit I see hundreds of press releases each week and very rarely do they rate at any level on my excitement meter, but there’s just something exciting about an addition to the American Girl family. And, since this is the first Historical Character released since my daughter’s been interested in the brand, it made it all the more exciting for both of us.
When a press kit with an advanced copy of the book arrived, you would have thought it came with the actual doll by how thrilled my daughter was. Mind you, the child cannot actually read on her own, and this wasn’t a colorful picture book, so I was really surprised to see that level of enthusiasm over a chapter book.
But, that afternoon we began reading it together and by the second day I found myself engrossed in the story. While it wouldn’t be something I picked up and read on my own, I found I loved explaining all the details to my daughter so she could best understand and it made for some great mother-daughter bonding time.
And, once again it reminded me why I love the American Girl brand. Instead of producing doll after doll with simply a different color dress and different eye and hair colors, American Girl
dolls come with their own elaborate back stories that are rooted in actual history. And, Caroline’s story is just as riveting as I have come to expect.
The first book of the six book series, Meet Caroline, is set during the beginning of the War of 1812, and begins with Caroline doing what she loves best, sailing Lake Ontario with her father. When a British officer boards their boat and takes her father prisoner, Caroline makes a promise to her father to stay strong and steady until he returns. During the rest of the novel, Caroline must help her mother tend to the family’s shipyard and stay focused on keeping her promise to her father.
I personally loved the history parts of the book, even though they could sometimes be challenging to explain to a kiddo who has very little historical knowledge to build upon. By using examples of things she already knows about geography, history, and a little bit of war knowledge by her cousins, uncles, and grandparents have told her about their time in the service, we’ve been able to make it through most of the book and are quite taken with the story.
My daughter loves how the theme of bravery is introduced and all the ways Caroline shows how brave she is even during very scary times and it seems to be resonating well with her. I’m excited to finish the book and then move along to the other 5 in the series and then we will start saving for the doll herself.
Besides the books and the Caroline Abbott doll, there are a whole bunch of new covetable items in the Caroline series, including her boat {seriously adorable}, a canopy bed, an elegant party table and chairs and even her own parlor!
A big thank you to American Girl who sent the book, Meet Caroline, for us to read. As always, all opinions are 100% ours and we were not enticed to write this post in any way.