'American Girls' author visits Washington County library

March 30, 2008

Children's book author Valerie Tripp spoke with 70 local girls on Sunday, March 16, at Washington County Free Library.

Tripp, a longtime resident of Silver Spring, Md., spent several hours at the library entertaining and educating the 8 to 12-year-olds girls and signing books.

Tripp is one of the primary authors of the "American Girls Collection" series of books.

American Girl encompasses a wide-range of products for girls, including books, a monthly magazine, dolls and movies. American Girl, the company, has been delighting American girls, the reality, for several generations now. The focus of the company is to educate contemporary girls about the lives of girls in eras past and, more recently, to help encourage self-esteem and creativity in girls of today.

In 1986, Tripp's first "American Girls Collection" book was published, introducing her character Molly, a girl living in 1944 whose father is serving in the war. She has developed several more adored American Girls since then, including Josephina, Felicity and Samantha.

Tripp began her talk by telling the audience of local girls that they were the inspiration for her characters. Her interactive presentation asked the girls to pretend to be the characters in her "American Girls Collection" books. To experience life as Felicity, a character set in 1774 Williamsburg, Va. Tripp had the girls stand up straight and tall as she instructed them to squeeze their rib cages to form make-believe corsets as they curtsied in unison. She then explained how girls in Felicity's time were expected to follow many more rules about interacting with others, especially grown ups.

Tripp also explained her writing process and showed the girls first drafts of some of her books, complete with notes and corrections from her editor, whom she explained was like a teacher. The group of girls remained enthralled as Tripp, with a gracious manner and a warm smile, walked them through the worlds of her characters and her own world as a writer. Tripp answered questions from the audience after concluding her presentation.

After her presentation, Tripp signed books and answered questions one-on-one for all of the girls present, as well as a few who came to the library after the program. Following the signing, Kit, an American Girl doll, which was donated by the American Girl company, was raffled off, and lucky winner Julia Shipley was on hand to receive her prize. Also donated and raffled were bookplates and paper bookmarks, which were given to the girls after having their books signed, as well as posters of Tripp's characters and brass bookmarks.

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