Meet Claudie: An American Girl is the first volume of Claudie's series. It is included with the Claudie doll when purchased and can be purchased separately.
Characters[]
Introduced[]
- Claudie Wells
- Ellis Wells
- Gloria Wells
- Jody Wells
- Miss Amelia
- Selma
- Porter
- Gwen
Only in Meet Claudie[]
- Nina
- Miss Zula
- Winston Martin
Chapter by Chapter Summary[]
Chapter One: Stuck On the Ground[]
Chapter Two: Home[]
Chapter Three: Searching[]
Chapter Four: You Gotta Improvise[]
Chapter Five: To the Moon[]
Chapter Six: Thrown Out[]
Chapter Seven: Figuring It Out[]
Chapter Eight: Calling the Shots[]
Chapter Nine: Inspiration[]
Inside Claudie's World[]
Reader Questions[]
Hardback Edition[]
Hardback edition.
The book was also released in a special hardback edition, the first book since the release of Kit's books that has also had the book available in hardback. The book is only available separately from a doll purchase and not with the Claudie doll.
The book has a book jacket resembling the paperback cover. The book cover is pale pink with gold accents and title, and the end papers are pink fan-print. A pink bookmark ribbon is attached. The first endpage has an integrated book plate allowing purchasers to write their name and the date in the front.
A special introduction by the author, Brit Bennett, is included in this edition. She discusses how her writing career was inspired by many books and childhood play. The main focus is how she was inspired by Addy Walker's Central Series by Connie Porter and the Addy doll she and her sister shared ownership of. She also mentions owning one of the first American Girl of Today dolls with a blank book to write her own story, and creating stories with The American Girls Premiere program in the 1990s. She concludes discussing that she was able to speak to Ms. Porter about her writing career and how she was inspired by her--and that Ms. Porter said that Ms. Bennett may someday inspire a new generation of historical writers.
Interspersed in the text, along with original products and illustrations of Addy, are pictures of the author as a young girl performing in an Addy play as well as dressed in the child-sized cinnamon pink dress.
Items associated with Meet Claudie[]
- Claudie Wells (doll)
- Claudie's Accessories
- Claudie's Kick Scooter
- Angelo's Bakery
- Claudie's Jazz Performance Outfit
- Claudie's Dress-Up Accessory Set
- Claudie's Dog, Dizzy Dot
- Claudie's Yellow Bloom Pajamas
Trivia[]
- First edition books include a preview of Chapter One and part of Chapter Two of Addy: Finding Freedom.
- A paragraph on the table of contents explains that Claudie and her family use language accurate to the 1920s in Black Harlem, including the terms "Negro" and "colored," that reflects the way African Americans spoke at the time (an older form of Black Vernacular English). It further states that while these terms are not considered appropriate now, they are included as an accurate reflection of the era.
- The book erroneously refers to World War I as such while also calling it the Great War; however, it was only known as the Great War until the start of World War II (as it had been the only worldwide war of its era; no one could have predicted a second world war). This may be a concession to root modern readers into the era, who might not know the prior term. However, Kit Kittredge's books accurately do not use the term "World War I."
See Also[]
References[]
- ↑ Page 4: "At Angelo's, Claudie sat by the window, flipping idly through the June issue of The Brownies' Book."