American Girl Birthday Stories

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The Central Series 

Each American Girl character’s story is presented in the form of books. Called the Central Series, they are the core main stories about each Historical Character, covering the full initial story of each character over a span of approximately two years.

Birthday Stories

The third book in each Central Series for the Historical Characters is their birthday story. Each birthday and springtime story was titled "Happy Birthday, Historical Character!: A Springtime Story." With all of the books being set in the spring, the first seven characters released all have spring birthdays.

The earliest birthdays shown were Josefina's on March 19 and the latest being Kirsten's on June 8, causing all dates to fall between the Spring Equinox (or very close to it) and the Summer Solstice. While Addy did not know her actual birthday other than being born in the spring, she picked an important historical date, April 9, the formal end of the US Civil War. All Historical Characters turn ten years old on their birthday.

A pet or animal is usually featured prominently in the story at some point. The pet may belong to the Historical Character but not always (for example, Addy, whose "pet" actually belonged to her neighbor, M'dear, or Samantha, where Jip belongs to her aunt Cornelia), and is frequently introduced at some point in the story.

Several of the birthday celebrations happen close to the end of the story and are anticipated by or planned by each Historical Character. The notable exception is Samantha, who has her party at the beginning to allow later events to happen in another location in New York City.

The Historical Character often does something immature, self-centered, or insensitive that troubles another person in their life or themselves and must face the consequences of said behavior. This sometimes results in a lecture, advice, or admonishment from older relatives who show disappointment or concern with the character's behavior and forced self-reflection or reconsideration.

Notable exceptions are Addy, who is "admonished" by the racist actions of others but does not invoke these through her own actions outside of her innocence and hopeful expectations of fair treatment. And Kirsten, who, while not directly admonished for her childish actions, worries that her family will forget her birthday due to the rise in work after the birth of Britta and her fretting that her friends no longer have time for her since she isn't actively attending school.

Another event later follows that gives each Historical Character a chance to demonstrate maturity, growth, and or a change from behaviors and attitudes shown earlier in either the book or series. This is often seen by the person they harmed or were harmed by earlier.

An example is when Molly has numerous stereotypes and sensitivities around Emily being English at her arrival and is very unwilling to adjust her expectations of what should be part of a birthday party to include her when Emily discusses her own unique birthday traditions. Still, self-reflection on her attitude and further knowledge about what Emily has endured during her time in London and how it has been more affected than the US leads to Molly becoming more inclined to include her and respect her struggles.

Variations from the Initial Central Series

Kaya: Kaya's stories do not follow the traditional patterns set by the first seven historical characters. Kaya's Indigenous culture is unique from the dominant American cultural pattern, and she does not celebrate her birthday.

Julie: Julie's "birthday" story focuses less on her birthday party and personal maturity for her and more on the rise of social-environmental concerns in the seventies.

Cécile and Marie-Grace: Cécile and Marie-Grace's series do not follow the traditional styles. The intertwining series make their books serve as a diptych and a parallel to one another. There are no birthday stories for either character in the series. American Girl celebrates Marie-Grace's birthday on March 3 and Cécile's on May 28, but their birthday celebrations are not shown in any of their books.

Caroline: The main stories of Caroline's series loosely follow the pattern seen in previous Historical Characters' series in terms of seasonal setting. Caroline does not have a proper birthday, but her birthday is celebrated at the end of Caroline's Secret Message, her second book, giving her a fall birthday.

Maryellen: Maryellen was the first character never given a separate six-book format and was released with the two-book "classic" volumes. However, her books can be loosely sectioned off internally into the first style of a six-book format, as seen with earlier characters, which includes a spring birthday and immature conflict leading to maturity.

Melody: Unlike Maryellen, Melody's classic-volume books are not as easily sectioned off internally or tied tightly to the original six-book format. While her stories can be divided into vaguely defined sections, there is no tightly-knit six-book structure, unlike those connected to many prior characters. Her birthday is touched on early at the start of her second book, and she is born on January 1, giving her the earliest birthday in the calendar of any Historical Character.

Nanea: Like Melody before her, Nanea's classic-volume books are not sectioned off internally into the six-book format. Each volume is written as a fully flowing story with multiple chapters from start to end. Her birthday is only lightly touched on and not a significant focus of the plot like the characters prior.

Courtney: Like Nanea before her, Courtney's books are not sectioned off internally into the six-book format and each volume is written as a fully flowing story with multiple chapters from start to end. Her birthday is on February 12 and is not shown.y into the six-book format. In fact, Courtney was the first character released to have her first book covers a very short span of time of approximately a month, from early January to early February 1986, quite possibly one of the shortest times covered in a single volume. Like Melody and Nanea, her first volume is a complete story, not written in sections. Instead of a winter story, Courtney meets a boy names Issac at the arcade, who is fighting his own battle called HIV. Courtney supports him and wants to help, but doesn’t know how to.