“All books were changed dramatically with the release of Nellie in 2004. There was no longer a primary set theme to the cover illustrations, though some of them maintained an illustration style similar to the original covers. This is the second longest available version of books, remaining in this style for ten years. This was also the last version to have any hardback books available, as they were phased out prior to the launch of Julie.

Characters were given a special font intended to mimic what might have been closest to their style of cursive handwriting, used in their names in each title on the cover and on the spine. The title is printed over a stripe of the character's unique color towards the top of the cover.

Books no longer have the book number or extra subtitles on the front cover.

The spine remained the character's special color, but dingbat symbols at the top have been removed and now only appear inside the book for scene breaks.

The back cover changed fully. The stripe at the front of the book is echoed on the back as a cropped inner illustration. Below it is a story summary, then an arch of the other books in the series and a blurb about the series itself. In the lower left-hand corner is the AG Inner Star logo with the then used Inner Star blurb promoted on the website and other products. Other characters are not listed externally, but are listed on the first page inside in chronological order by portraits.

Books either showed a wholly unique illustration or a larger, close up version of an inner illustration with a brighter background. The Meet Books still retained the style of the character's walking introduction in her meet outfit and Holiday Books retained the larger image of the character in her holiday wear from the hips up. The character illustration often had a glossy overlay from the background.

The style was retired with the launch of BeForever, though older character books that have yet to be re-released in styles after this can be found through multiple venues.” (American Girl Wiki, 2023)