Luciana 3-Book Box Set (American Girl: Girl of the Year 2018) Paperback – May 29, 2018

My 9 year old daughter enjoys the modern American Girl book series. Some sets she reads to herself but this one I read with her. I was initially excited because it is about a girl who aspires to be the first girl to go to Mars. The concept is modern and inspiring. It started off well with Luci going to Space Camp. The first book was fine, but presents Luci as careless and selfish. It also describes a space shuttle explosion. The second gets more serious when one of the team members intentionally leaves Luci trapped underwater and endangers her life. That’s pretty heavy reading for the intended audience of young girls. It also has a subplot of her adopted baby sister needing major heart surgery. The third book has Luci’s grandmother’s house damaged by an earthquake, and then spends most of the book on Luci and another 12 year old experiencing a major earthquake alone, trapped, seriously injured, abandoned, then fighting a fire caused by gasoline. Maybe the author intended the character to display courage but this book was downright frightening. It gave my daughter nightmares. Not only was it completely unrealistic and entirely too dramatic, the main character was not a good representation of an American Girl: she was portrayed as habitually selfish and careless, which far overshadows any bravery or lessons learned. I was so disappointed in this series. These did not represent the American Girl brand well at all and were very heavy topics, not what I consider appropriate for the intended audience age. Fortunately, AG books are written by a range of authors. I will be careful to not purchase any other sets by this author.

My 10-year-old niece is suddenly into space and astronauts. It's such a great find, these American Girl books about Luciana, a space-loving girl. I've paired it with  Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream  by Tanya Lee Stone, about women who trained as astronauts in a privately-funded parallel program to NASA's Mercury program in the early 1960s.

Inspired my daughter to be an astronaut more then ever

My granddaughter received the Luciana doll from her parents and the book set from me. It made a nice complementary gift that provided enthusiasm towards reading and literacy.

My daughter loves these books

My daughter loved it as a gift

My daughter loves all three books!

My 8 y/o niece loved it!