[.ca] Meet Samantha: An American Girl (ISBN 0937295043)

Victorian Girl with a Conscience:
The charming American Girls series introduces young readers to five different protagonists of various ethnic backgrounds, from five eras in American history. Each heroine has 4-6 short books in her individual setting. Each book includes historical data and photographs which provide authentic details of that particular time frame. Here we meet nine-year-old Samantha, a well-to-do Victorian miss in Turn-of-the-Century America. Pampered but restricted (in her speech, curiosity, clothing and activities) Samantha interacts with various servants in her Grandmother's home. Then she meets a new, but poor working girl next door--her first real friend. This is an age when children were supposed to be Seen but not Heard; she witnesses the dawn of women's struggle for emancipation. This series presents likeable girls caught up in both the historical events and social movements of their day. This is Fiction Plus--a valuable literary concept which offers insight into the contributions of immigrants. Some themes are universal, regardless of era or nationality, like the dreams and frustrations of growing up, which today's American girls can easily understand. Fast and light reading which teaches as it entertains, (...)

Meet Samantha:
Meet Samantha is an excellent book. It is about a young girl whose parents died when she was 5 years old. Now she lives in the country with her grandmother. Samantha's grandmother does not like to make changes. Samantha meets a young girl named Nellie who is working for another family next door. Nellie's parents and two sisters live in the city and work at a factory. The suggested reading level is ages 7 and up but I think that the Samantha series is wonderful for anyone.

Meet Samantha-The Entire Series:
This book is excellent. I am 24,I read these books when I was 8 or 9. Now that my daughter is 7, I thought it would be a good time to get her started. I bought her the entire series, she picked up the first book, Meet Samantha, she loved it. For the next few days every time you saw her she had her nose stuffed in a book. On a recent trip to Mass. she wouldnt leave without her books. Now she is even asking me to get her the series with Felicity. She loves them just as much as I did. Any book that can get a child to want to read is an excellent one in my opinion. Also, in the back of each of the books there is a bit of real history dating back to the time of when the book takes place (ie. Samantha in 1904, Molly,1944) These books you will be 150% satisfied with! GUARENTEED!

Her needlepint was right:
Wealthy Samantha Parkington leads a fairly comfortable life, but is jolted into reality by the befriending of Nellie. Although Nellie is roughly around Samantha's age, economic need coupled with the lack of today's child labor laws have brought her to work as a servant girl for the equally wealthy neighbors. Initially different life perspectives lead the two girls on a timeless friendship which spans socioeconomic status. Samantha may be book smart, but Nellie has spent far more time in the real world's proverbial school of hard knocks. Nellie also helps Samantha understand why a beloved seamstress named Jessie must suddenly leave employment from her own grandmary's house. Because Samantha has grown up without wanting for anything, she does not realize other people have to prioritize the critical bread-and-butter issues such as child care, ironically to support their families. A person's staying or leaving the workplace is not always a question of whether they like the people they work for or have fun. While such quotes were annoying, they also typified a sheltered Victorian childhood, and therefore did not signifigantly detract from the book's overall plot. Samantha begins to understand that surface images can be quite different from the often more complex (and dangerous) reality within the same afforementioned society. Yet, unlike so many of the best-intentioned reformers of the day (who really were trying to help their intended target populations) Samantha does not talk down to Nellie in this volume and we see she genuinely attempts to reach out and believe in her as an equal. Because this was ironically the social arrangement championed by idealistic first wave feminists (who envisioned an international sisterhood) the placement is inspiring.

A good book to read.:
Meet Samantha is a good book,she is even one of my favorite American Girl.This book is good,and i hope you like it too like i do too!