American Girl books inspire historical travel for after-school program students
When Linda Harris was strolling through the Atlanta airport one day on her way back from vacation in Jamaica, she stopped to pick up a couple of magazines. What she found instead was a American Girl historical book based on a character named Addy.
“I read it and liked it but didn’t know it was the first of a series of six Addy American Girl books,” said Harris, director of education at the LeMoyne Community Center in Washington.
After buying the complete set of six, she wondered if the girls in her after-school program at the LeMoyne Center might enjoy them, as well. Ten years ago, she tested the waters with a book based on a Nez Perce American Indian girl named Kaya, which was well received. So much so, it was the start of a book club at the center for girls from third grade and up based on the American Girl historical book series.
Since its founding in 2009, the American Girl Book Club has gone through a total of nine series of six books each that cover heroines set in different eras. These include the Revolutionary War, pioneer days on the frontier, the Civil War, the Victorian Age, the Great Depression, World War II and the Civil Rights Era.
“While the books are not an in-depth look at history, they do provide the girls with an exposure to different eras,” Harris said.
One club requirement is that members take turns reading out loud, and Harris makes her selection by drawing names at random from a deck of index cards. The club meets once a week at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, October through May, and covers one character in the series of six books each year.
Things took on an entirely new dimension after the club read the Felicity series, set in the Revolutionary War. Harris thought it might be a good idea to take the girls to Colonial Williamsburg to get an up close and personal taste of history.
“The girls had a wonderful time and asked ‘Where are we going next year,'” Harris said.
Subsequent annual trips took the club to New York City, Santa Fe (to learn about a Hispanic American Girl character named Josephina), Milwaukee (to explore a nearby pioneer village) and Cape May, N.J., to see the town’s large cluster of Victorian houses.
“In Cape May, the girls had afternoon tea and wore fancy hats,” Harris said. “I usually like to add fun things like a stop at a water park, an amusement park or a visit to Wildwood (N.J.), which for some of the girls was the first time they’d ever been on a beach.”
In the past, the club has traveled by train, by plane and by rented van. All accommodations, transportation, meals and entrance fees are offered free of charge, and the only things the girls are asked to bring along is spending money.
To finance the trips, the club members sell Sarris candy, organize car washes and write letters to individuals and businesses asking for donations. The biggest source of revenue, however, is the annual dinner theater, whose meal and play are based on the current American Girl series they’re reading.
This year, the club read the series based on the life of a slave girl named Addy, the same series that first launched the book club idea 10 years ago. Harris said it gives the readers a taste of Addy both as a slave and as a free person who escaped slavery via the Underground Railroad.
To tie in with the book’s theme, this year’s annual trip in August will take the club to Jamestown, Va., and a look at several plantations that have slave quarters, as well as to Philadelphia, home to numerous stops on the Underground Railroad.
On May 30, the annual dinner theater will feature a play about Addy and her experiences with an 1864 dinner menu taken straight from the book. Chef John Williams Jr. plans to serve up a feast of fried chicken wings, catfish, hoppin’ john (rice and black-eyed peas), corn pudding, sweet potato pone, collard greens, cornbread, peach cobbler and vanilla pound cake.
“I may put my own flair on a couple of things for presentation purposes,” he said.
The cost of the dinner theater is $10. The doors to the center, located at 200 Forest Ave. in Washington, open at 5:50 p.m. with Addy’s Soul Food Dinner starting at 6 p.m. The play “Friendship and Freedom” will follow. For more information, phone 724-228-0260.
Lynzi Smith, 12, of Washington has been on three All American Girl trips, to Milwaukee, Detroit and Washington. “Detroit was my favorite because we went to Hitsville, where we got to see photos of a lot of the Motown singers,” she said. “The trips are so much fun and, while I miss my family, never so much as to want to go home.”
Lynzi will play the lead role of Addy in the May 30 dinner theater play. It will be the third time she’s been featured in one of the dramas.
Claris Berumen, 14, of Washington has taken five trips with the club but said the one to New York where she got to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island was her favorite.
“I always wanted to see New York and this was my first time visit,” said Claris, whose native language is Spanish. “When I joined the book club, I didn’t know a lot of English, but reading the books helped me learn the language. The books are very interesting, and I learn a little about history. The World War II book, for instance, let me imagine how dangerous warfare could be.”
The after-school program at the LeMoyne Community Center serves 75 to 80 children in grades K-12. In addition to book clubs, the center holds science and art classes, a speaker series, offers classes that reinforce what the students are learning in school and teaches the children practical things like going on a job interview and filling out an employment application. The students also get a full evening meal and a snack at no charge.
“When I first started the book club, I wasn’t sure the concept would work,” said Harris. “But here I am 10 years later with more than 100 girls who’ve gone on the trips and read the books. For me, the most important thing is still the reading, the comprehension and the exposure it gives them to different pieces of history.”