Megan's Reviews > Meet Josefina: An American Girl

** spoiler alert ** I read this book for the podcast I’m currently listening to called “American Girls” by Allison Horrocks and Mary Mahoney.

Wow, what can I say about “Meet Josefina: An American Girl”? Well, let’s see... First off, I would like to say that I know NOTHING of the Josefina book series because it was one I never read as a child. I don’t know why I never did because I did find Josefina much more interesting compared to others (like Kirsten and Molly), but I think I just never got around to picking it up within my school library probably because I was constantly re - reading Samantha’s and Kit’s American Girl books (I know, I’m the worst). When I opened this tonight, I really didn’t know what to expect at all. However, what I found was to be something absolutely enchanting and something I wish I had read in my youth. Meet Josefina Montoya. She’s the youngest sister in her family (four of them total, including her), her father owns a ranch that he works tirelessly at, and the entire family is dealing with the recent death of Mamá, Papá’s wife and Josefina’s (and her sisters’) mother. In this particular book, Josefina and her siblings meet their mother’s sister, Tía Dolores, who has moved back to New Mexico after living in Mexico City for the past ten years. When Tía Dolores comes to town, Josefina and her siblings are absolutely captivated by her presence and... SPOILER: They ask Papá to considering asking Tía Dolores to stay with them for a while and she obviously accepts. At the end of the book, Tía Dolores leaves to see her mother for the first time in years, but promises to be back for the Montoya girls to teach them all the stuff they need to know in life that their mother sadly couldn’t finish doing.

In comparison to the last American Girls series I just read (“Felicity: An American Girl”), I found Josefina’s first book to be refreshing compared to the first book I very much remember reading in the Felicity series. Felicity is everything that Josefina is not. Where Felicity is disobedient to everything her parents say, Josefina is respectful. Where Felicity is upset over the responsibilities she has to do for her family, Josefina is humble and grateful for the chance to help her family in anyway and constantly works hard for them. Where Felicity acts selfishly, like, I don’t know, STEALING ANOTHER PERSON’S HORSE (I will admit again that yes, it was being abused by Jiggy Nye... BUT STILL), Josefina is doing the exact opposite. She’s trying to be thoughtful for Tía Dolores and attempts to pick her some flowers, but then gets in a fight with a goat that her family owns and her plan falls apart... Literally, that’s all that basically happens to Josefina in this book! She is trying to do something kind, but then the goat eats her gesture and she has to put the goat back in the pen that it lives in. That’s it! If that was Felicity, Felicity would have been upset over the goat being locked up and freed it most likely (seeing that is what happened in her book series with Penny)! She probably would have scolded Josefina too for saying that she hated the goat even though Josefina is completely in the right for saying something like that because the goat not only wrecks the gift she was going to give her aunt, but destroys one of the last things that existed from her dead mother... Her garden. If I was Josefina, I’d do the same thing! I know it’s probably not fair to compare two girls in completely different situations together, but I just can’t help it. When you look at how Felicity acted compared to Josefina in this first book, you see a major difference and I encourage parents to have their children read this series over the Felicity one because the lessons from Felicity get lost in how badly she goes about doing things. While Felicity is very caring (especially about animals), it really doesn’t amount to squat if she’s unwilling to listen to any other person older and wiser than her because she’s convinced she knows it all at the age of nine (whether it be about animals or, even other things, like her life). With Josefina’s story, you could see how much she cared about the people around her through her actions that didn’t later become redundant like Felicity’s did. It does no good to care about something if you are going about it the wrong way and literally do something like stealing it from someone else’s property. Not only that, but I thought the topics in Josefina’s story were much more important to focus on then the one’s in Felicity’s first book. In Felicity’s, it feels like a bad PETA commercial (which is saying something because most things that PETA already does are pretty bad), but, in Josefina’s, you’re really talking/exploring trauma when it comes to losing someone you love and how to handle grief in the best way you can (with what you got). I respected the latter message so much more than I did with Felicity’s because I felt like it was really talking about something that children should know about and think as deeply as they possibly can on the subject. Death happens at any age. I knew kids in early elementary school that had already lost a parent, that were younger than Josefina, which is why I think it’s important to be looking and reading into subjects like this... So you know how to deal with it (even if it’s still very little). I appreciated what Valerie Tripp was doing much more in this book compared to what she was writing about in Felicity’s series, where some storylines just felt silly or ridiculous and not really what children should be looking up to. However, just like in Felicity, Josefina does has concerning relationships with servants and indigenous people. Despite this being accurate to the time, I think Valerie Tripp should have a stance on these things, not glossing over them, and making her point clear to children that it’s not okay that certain things occur in our nation’s history even if it is our nation’s history. Although I do not know the full scale of these relationships based off just reading first book, I know Valerie Tripp and I assume that they are going to be ones I disagree with as, just like with Felicity, we (meaning people as a whole) should NEVER OWN OTHER PEOPLE JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE DIFFERENT FROM US. The relationship with Josefina and her country is a much more complicated one compared to Felicity because despite America taking over her land in the Mexican - American War (which is obviously wrong), Josefina and her ancestors have taken over the land of indigenous people that were already there when they settled from Spain to Mexico. Just like in the Felicity series, I encourage parents to talk to their children about the problematic things our countries have done in the past (to have control over as much land and people and power as possible; in a race to be the “best and biggest nation”) and to explain to their children why we shouldn’t try to think/be this way because this attitude can (and does) continue to grow even today when we look at our politics in 2020.

Furthermore, in unrelated, but more light - hearted opinions on this book, I really liked the “Little Women” vibes this book was serving (FOUR SISTERS THAT ARE ALL JUST A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT ENOUGH) and another difference from Felicity that I am experiencing is, unlike what happens in the first Felicity book (or what feels implied), romantic entanglements. In the Felicity series, you are confused on if Benjamin and Felicity should or shouldn’t be together (is American Girl wanting us to want them together??????) and is that even morally okay (NO because Ben is MUCH OLDER than Felicity even if it is like 1773!!!), but that’s also something that’s actually completely gone from the Josefina series thus far. Instead though, since their is no romantic entanglements being questioned, I have found myself one and have stumbled into totally semi - appropriately shipping Tía Dolores with Josefina’s Papá, which might be frowned upon... But, also, maybe not because I can also totally see that happening in the 1800s??? Unlike the Felicity series, where I think American Girl is subtly wanting your brain to connect Ben and Felicity together, I’m almost positive that this is not what they imagined the brain to do with Tía Dolores and Papá, WHICH IS WHY I AM HERE FOR IT EVEN MORE!!! Does anyone else agree with this ship? Is it canon? It’s not TOTALLY wrong because THEY ARE ONLY RELATED BY MARRIAGE, OKAY???? I KNOW DIVORCED AND WIDOWED PEOPLE THAT GET WITH THEIR PARTER’S SIBLING???? DOES IT REALLY MAKE IT *THAT* WRONG????

The last thing I wanted to add really quickly is that I also think it’s very interesting how far Josefina’s story takes place from the Mexican - American War. I really thought that would be something we’d see in Josefina’s story, but I’m assuming it’s not going to happen since it occurs 25 years later and American Girl really does not get that distance into the girl’s future timeline (like Felicity started in 1773 and ended in 1776 or 1777). Now knowing that won’t be something we will be seeing in her storyline, I’m even more curious as to what is in store for wonderful Josefina!!! What will be the book’s central theme? What will Josefina be learning from and how will she be growing as the books continue??? I cannot wait to find out.