(Old) American Girl Club Handbook

[Katie from IL]

I bought it from a seller on amazon.com and just got it yesterday. It's in new condition and was not for sale when it was available, because there is no barcode on it. It has activities and commentaries on the first 6 girls(all except Kit and Kaya), and was released right after Josefina was released in 1997. It has over 100 pages and the illustrations for Addy and Sam were from their original books. This is where most of Samantha's Friendship Fun projects and the Hallmark Summer Pin Projects came from. It has so much great material, and is great ideas for parties or when girls want to come over and play Molly or Samantha or whatever.

Does anyone else have this? What have you used it for?

[PrincessRuthie]

I have it, but I haven't really used it yet. I plan to make Sam's petit fours....someday.

This will be perfect for you to use with the Brownie troop, Katie. [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img] Had I had a copy as a Brownie, I'm sure I would've wanted my mom (the leader) to do some activities from this book.

[QNPoohBear]

I have it but I haven't done any of the projects. I like the historical information and have transcribed some of it on the AG Playthings message board

<font color="#33CCCC" size="1">[ June 13, 2006 09:17 PM: Message edited by: QNPoohBear ]</font>

[tatabatata]

I am a paper girl, so I am trying to collect all the "old" AG paper thingies (first issue of the magazine, all cookbooks, all theater sets, etc)
There are two club handbooks and both have simmilar things, but one is from when there were only 5 and one of 6 girls.
It has some good ideas for birthday parties (there is also a party book) and some interesting tidbits about the girl's times.
I think that they sure beat the current (soon to be over) version of the club, since they are more faithful to Pleasant Rowland's idea of getting the girls to love history through the dolls.

Ana

[smwoodsie2004]

I have that and the club kit that is still available b/c I had wanted to start a AG club for her and her friends, but I didn't get around to it before school got out ( I am in school too, so I just did't have time, like I thought I would this summer.)

[Sakurako]

The first AG Club was focused on the historical characters. At the time it was initiated in January, 1996 there were only 5: Sam, Molly, Kirsten, Felicity and Addy. When Josefina was released in 1997, the original activities that were linked to each character were restated in the AG Club Handbook, with Josefina activities added. Because the first iteration of the Club required members to send notifications of their completed projects to Pleasant Company in order to earn their rewards and Pleasant Company had been sold to Mattel, the new handbook changed the source of "reward" from Pleasant Company to a peer group. Instead of earning stickers for completing an activity, the club members simply enjoyed sharing an activity during a club meeting. If anyone has seen the AG Revue at any of the American Girl Places, you will know what an AG Club meeting is supposed to be like. The handbook was not marked for sale because the only way you could get one was to join the AG Club. The handbook was then sent as part of the membership kit.

In this new context, the activities are ways for girls to experience firsthand some of the games and tasks which the historical girls would have participated in as part of their everyday life. One of my favorites is the Evening with Felicity, where you do everything by candlelight with all the entertainments being provided by the people themselves: singing, music, dance, games, story telling, etc. No tv, no computer, no electricity!

Outside a formal club context, you can enjoy doing some of these activities on a one-time basis in a party, sleep-over or rainy day situation.

The way I used the original club membership was to work through the proper number of activities with my dolls so that Gina, my AGT alterego, could earn the stickers which eventually entitled her to the AGHSC charm. She wears her charm proudly as a pin, not on a bracelet. It represents 18 months of concentrated effort because I had to reduce all the workbooks to 1/3 scale before she could fill them in with her drawings and responses to questions on her reading assignments. I also had to make all the project materials on a 1/3 scale before she could complete each activity. I felt a huge sense of achievement at the end, having completed from 3 to 4 projects for each of the 5 characters, usually in more depth than a real little girl would have bothered with. For example, for Samantha's public speaking activity, Gina researched French Impressionism, painted a water color of a flower, toured a flower show in February, assembled samples of paintings by the major Impressionist artists and THEN gave her presentation to several classmates at school. For anyone who saw the album about Jessie's Timewarped Trip to Windsor, you may recall seeing a couple of pictures of Gina delivering this lecture on art.

All my dolls are organized into groups and each group represents an AG club. They still do club activities from time to time. I find the suggestions in all the AG publications to be a useful jumping-off point for what my dolls would like to do next.

[Felicity_Fan85]

I have the book (with Joesefina included). I got it when i joined the club for a year in 1997/1998. I tried to make candied nuts one time and there are a few other things I want to try. I recently reread most of it a couple nights ago.