On we trek through the American Girls canon as we journey through Addy Walker's world. We explore the formation of the Addy advisory committee, Connie Porter's writing style, and the way the series presents slavery and the Civil War time period to children. We discuss how this Harriet also might be a sociopath and how colorism is depicted in the text and in the illustrations, with a sidebar about the controversy surrounding the Addy illustrators and their work. All of us want to wear Addy's Christmas dress, reminisce about double dutch, and wish we could give poor Sarah (who deserved a spinoff!) a hug. Once again we have some real questions about AG chronologies and the economy of spool puppets. We also talk about the impact of Addy and just how revolutionary the Addy doll's textured hair was. Sadly, we also discover that none of us are all that great at spelling bees. We are joined by a very special guest who is foundational to the creation of Addy Walker and her story.

These Books Made Me is a podcast about the literary heroines who shaped us and is a product of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System podcast network. Stay in touch with us via Twitter @PGCMLS with #TheseBooksMadeMe or by email at TheseBooksMadeMe@pgcmls.info. For recommended readalikes and deep dives into topics related to each episode, visit our blog at https://pgcmls.medium.com/.

We mentioned a lot of topics and articles in this episode. Here’s a brief list of some of them if you want to do your own further research:

Links:
The Creation of Addy Walker: https://slate.com/culture/2016/09/the-making-of-addy-walker-american-girls-first-black-doll.html
Connie Porter: https://iridescentwomen.com/2020/02/28/connie-porter-on-writing-the-american-girl-collection-series-addy/
Addy's Hair: https://www.salon.com/2021/05/15/we-were-american-girls-what-addy-taught-me-about-black-hair-freedom-and-myself/
Spelling bee words:https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/us/spelling-bee-words.html