American Girl Mania

Madison and I joined a mother daughter book club at her school. It's not just any book club though, its an American Girl book club. I didn't know this at the time or I would have tried to talk Madison out of it. It isn't' the $90 dollar doll I mind so much as the $135 bedroom set or $70 stove that go with the doll.

Our first meeting was a luncheon where they talked about the American Girl books and what we would be doing in the book club. Then we were all asked to read a Molly book for the next meeting. Madison read Molly Saves the Day and I read Changes for Molly. They were everything I had imagined.

Tuesday evening we attended book club to discuss Molly. Because Molly lived in 1944 we listened to a speaker tell us about her experiences during World War II. The speaker turned 10 two days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. She talked about how she had four brothers who fought, one of whom died. She told us about rations, victory gardens, and all the many other ways life changed for her during that time.

After the speaker one of the coordinators stood up and told the girls they should go home and write down how their lives had changed while our country has been at war. She said that some day they would be able to stand and talk to a group of girls about all the ways their lives changed during war time, just like our speaker had. Madison turned to me horrified, "Our country is at war?!" I'm guessing that particular speaking engagement isn't a part of Madison's future.