The American Girls Short Stories by Connie Rose Porter (1999)

They would not contact me email to give me their address. After a week Ebay notified that they were on vacation the item was no longer available

I love anything and everything having to do with American Girl dolls and have been collecting them since 2005. Lately I've been finding the short stories on eBay and was fortunate enough to find the first year's boxed set. I remember being able to buy these in bookstores when my daughter was young. I had no idea there were so many of them! Being more of a fan of the dolls, I had never really done much research on the books and was surprised to see that 6 were released in 4 different years. Actually 2003 seems to have 7.

We only had one of them from my daughter's childhood, "Molly's Flight." After finding "Felicity's New Sister" at my mom's yard sale and seeing what sweet little stories they were, along with the excellent color illustrations, I decided to make it my mission to find more of them.

I now have all of 1999, will soon have all of 2000 once an eBay buy gets here. That leaves me needing most of 2003. I am not certain what happened to 2002 though.

I realize that a person can buy these short stories all in one volume for each American Girl character now. It would probably be smarter to do that but there is just something special about these small books. For one thing, they make nice props and accessories for the dolls themselves. And sometimes, for a short fun read, I might not want to read an entire volume of them, just a couple quick stories about possibly two different girls.

I think the main reason I like the original format of these books is that that's the way Pleasant Rowland intended it. It's why she started the company, to educate girls and allow them to have some fun at the same time. It just seems that the reading part has taken a back seat since Pleasant Rowland is no longer in charge of the company. I hope that more moms, kids and collectors can discover the joy of American Girl books through eBay!

The books are well told, illustrated, age appropriate and very refreshing. The print is just right. The binding is great and the coated covers helps alleviate damages from skin oils/fingerprints and accidental spills, when wiped immediately. The sturdy and very well made slipcase makes this set more attractive to purchase and maintain as a collector's item once your youngster has read the books. The only aspect of this set that made me hesitate to rate this "excellent" (although I have to be fair based on truth) is that I feel that the set should be printed on an approximate 5" X 7" size at a minimum to make it easier to handle, even for little hands. Also, because we have been collecting book sets, although the smaller size is cute, when displayed in a bookshelf, this set gets "lost" among other traditional sized books. All in all, our grand daughters have already read this set several times so that they can practically memorize the stories and have given the TV and electronic toys some rest. Any book that enables this is, in my "book", an excellent investment for future generations.

Books arrived in perfect condition including the box for the set. The arrived in a matter of days as well!

It will make a great addition to my grand daughter's collection of books. They are more age appropriate than I thought they might be.