Growing up with American Girl really helped widen my knowledge of US history. I remember when I read Addy's books, falling in love with the little black girl who was so brave and being shocked when I read the first book--namely the confrontation with the overseer.

Addy's books bring to light for younger girls a dark period of history in our country. It really made me understand as a third grader how horrible and awful slavery could be. While it's not a pretty time, it is history, and we should do our best not to just ignore all the dirty parts of it. Instead, we need to educate and learn from it so that the same mistakes are not repeated.

As a little girl it was wonderful reading about Addy's escape and new life and made me smile for her, for getting away from it all.

To me, depicting what is factual history is not racist. It would be far worse if Addy had come out in that time period and the books pretended slavery did not exist. Children at the target age for these books are old enough to learn about the bad things that have happened, although not in so much detail as to frighten them or horribly affect them.

Personally, I feel AG did a great job of depicting the horrors of slavery to the age group they are aiming for. Because of this, AG is not racist. They are merely educating children and doing so in a manner that will help them understand hard things.

-Janine

(I didn't read the whole thread, but if you possibly include some of our opinions in your portfolio, I think it could help. Good luck!)

Edit: If it helps make my opinion count more...(I'm white so I don't know how they'd accept it...) My uncle is black and I love him dearly. He's an amazing man and he never had any problems with my AGs...bleh. I also don't see my myself as a racist in any way. Just...and ignorist. I don't like dealing with ignorant people. [img]wink.gif[/img]

<font color="#33CCCC" size="1">[ March 22, 2006 05:45 PM: Message edited by: Janine_Nicole ]</font>