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American Girl: Josefina #1-6
Josefina's Story Collection
Book by Tripp, Valerie
406 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
15 people are currently reading
605 people want to read
About the author
Valerie Tripp
253 books443 followersValerie Tripp is a children's book author, best known for her work with the American Girl series.
She grew up in Mount Kisco, New York with three sisters and one brother. A member of the first co-educated class at Yale University, Tripp also has a M.Ed. from Harvard. Since 1985 she has lived in Silver Spring, Maryland. Her husband teaches history at Montgomery College.
Right out of college, Tripp started writing songs, stories, and nonfiction for The Superkids Reading Program, working with Pleasant Rowland, the founder of American Girl. For that series, Tripp wrote all the books about Felicity, Josefina, Kit, Molly, and Maryellen and many of the books about Samantha. She also wrote the "Best Friends" character stories to date, plays, mysteries, and short stories about all her characters.. Film dramatizations of the lives of Samantha, Felicity, Molly, and Kit have been based on her stories. Currently, Tripp is writing a STEM series for National Geographic and adapting Greek Myths for Starry Forest Publishing. A frequent speaker at schools and libraries, Tripp has also spoken at the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, The New York Historical Society, and Williamsburg.
She grew up in Mount Kisco, New York with three sisters and one brother. A member of the first co-educated class at Yale University, Tripp also has a M.Ed. from Harvard. Since 1985 she has lived in Silver Spring, Maryland. Her husband teaches history at Montgomery College.
Right out of college, Tripp started writing songs, stories, and nonfiction for The Superkids Reading Program, working with Pleasant Rowland, the founder of American Girl. For that series, Tripp wrote all the books about Felicity, Josefina, Kit, Molly, and Maryellen and many of the books about Samantha. She also wrote the "Best Friends" character stories to date, plays, mysteries, and short stories about all her characters.. Film dramatizations of the lives of Samantha, Felicity, Molly, and Kit have been based on her stories. Currently, Tripp is writing a STEM series for National Geographic and adapting Greek Myths for Starry Forest Publishing. A frequent speaker at schools and libraries, Tripp has also spoken at the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, The New York Historical Society, and Williamsburg.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews
April 25, 2023
The Josefina books are just the best. There is such a deep heart to the stories. Even without the high stakes of other books (cholera, war, ~the economy~) each one has a tight plot and high stakes when needed. The curandera plotline in Happy Birthday, Josefina! is a standout for me. It would have been so easy for the American Girl books to be formulaic and cheesy, since they are written in a pattern, but Tripp and the other authors went farther than that. Sure, they fit together like sisters, but also like sisters, they are completely individual. At the end of the day, I love these simple yet complex stories of life on the rancho and the material culture of 1820s Santa Fe.
February 3, 2021
Definitely a bit softer and easier to digest than the Addy books by virtue of dealing with less intense material. But still educational and sweet stories for young kids. I wish they had explored more of the obviously patriarchal elements of Josefina's family and the sharply circumscribed rolls for children and particularly girls. It seemed like a bit of a missed opportunity, especially when social limitations and overcoming them are such an intense theme in the other books.
December 28, 2025
I never read any of Josefina’s stories as a child, so when I picked up her collection I was looking forward to learning about life in 1820’s New Mexico. Unfortunately, there wasn’t as much historical context around Josefina’s stories as I was hoping for. Instead, there’s a lot of focus on grief, faith, family, and community, which isn’t necessarily bad, but it did make for some slower (borderline boring) stories. My favorite was her Summer Story as that had the adventure, excitement, and larger historical connection I was looking for.
August 23, 2015
We listened to these on our road trip, and I was pleasantly surprised by their wholesomeness. Josefina is a less conventional heroine than many of her AG peers. She's actually interested in serving her family and community and developing her gifts in a thoughtful and wise way, rather than just running off with a horse or wishing she was a boy (Felicity?!). I was also surprised by how positively (Roman Catholic) faith was portrayed. As usual, the illustrations are just lovely. I appreciated the Spanish vocab we learned in this series, also.
August 30, 2021
I started rereading the American Girl series (inspired by the eponymous podcast), and Josefina is the first series I revisited. I still loved the character and how Josefina’s family and faith were portrayed, but some of the historical grounding was a bit lacking (no mention of Mexican independence?). The books are also pretty intensely focused on grief, which I don’t think I absorbed the same way as a kid. Still great stories, and I think these are some of the best illustrations in the series.
December 11, 2024
I haven’t read the Josefina books in probably 20 years so I was thrilled to revisit them after finally finding an affordable copy of the “Josefina Story Collection.”
Over the years, I’d forgotten how much of the books center on dealing with the loss of a family member. Rereading the stories now, a few months after losing a family member myself, was an unexpected comfort.
The stories are well written and do a good job of working in Spanish vocabulary and historical events but keep the emphasis on Josefina’s personal experiences. There’s nothing like the old historical American Girl books.
Over the years, I’d forgotten how much of the books center on dealing with the loss of a family member. Rereading the stories now, a few months after losing a family member myself, was an unexpected comfort.
The stories are well written and do a good job of working in Spanish vocabulary and historical events but keep the emphasis on Josefina’s personal experiences. There’s nothing like the old historical American Girl books.
February 12, 2022
I enjoyed this collection more than Felicity's! This setting is very richly rendered, and the emotional content of these books is substantial.
June 2, 2022
The best AG series.
Also all Josefina girls have anxiety and depression now.
Thanks.
Also all Josefina girls have anxiety and depression now.
Thanks.
October 18, 2012
When I was younger I loved this book as well. I thought that Josefina's stories in particular were amazing. I believe I loved how she truly did embrace a completely different culture than I did. It was nice to be young and to see how people lived in different circumstances. When I re-read this book, I loved to remember her stories and how dedicated to her family she was. These American Girl Doll Books are great books for kids to learn about different cultures and people.
December 23, 2020
A few months back, I unearthed my American Girl books from my parents’ basement in order to reread them as I listened to @americangirlspodcast. If you haven’t heard of it, the podcast revisits the American Girl series book-by-book. The hosts are historians who grew up with American Girl, so they bring a wealth of historical knowledge along with millennial nostalgia.
While I read many of the American Girl series repeatedly as a child, for whatever reason, I believe I only read Josefina’s once or twice. Her six-book series is lovely.
Josefina Montoya is a young girl living on her father’s rancho in 1824 New Mexico. Mourning the death of their mother, Josefina and her sisters’ lives are turned around when their aunt, Tía Dolores, comes to live with them.
While Josefina isn’t living through a turbulent historical period like the American Revolution or the Civil War, she is living through a cultural shift. Mexico (to which New Mexico belonged) had gained independence from Spain just three years before the story takes place. New Mexico, then, opens up to trade with the Americans traveling down the Santa Fe trail. As American goods and influence floods into Mexican land, New Mexican culture will shift. Life will really change for Josefina when the U.S. annexes New Mexico in 1846. Josefina then, will have lived under Spanish, Mexican, and American governance throughout her life.
Admittedly, I don’t know as much about the history of Mexico and the American Southwest as I would like, and I’m grateful that this book introduced me to that piece of the past. While Josefina’s family is of Spanish descent, her stories acquaint us with the nearby Pueblo people. The books give the reader a great sense of how Spanish and Indigenous religions, languages, food, clothing, etc. intermingled and fused, creating Mexican culture.
I’m glad to have read Josefina’s stories, and I once again honor American Girl for fueling my love of history.
While I read many of the American Girl series repeatedly as a child, for whatever reason, I believe I only read Josefina’s once or twice. Her six-book series is lovely.
Josefina Montoya is a young girl living on her father’s rancho in 1824 New Mexico. Mourning the death of their mother, Josefina and her sisters’ lives are turned around when their aunt, Tía Dolores, comes to live with them.
While Josefina isn’t living through a turbulent historical period like the American Revolution or the Civil War, she is living through a cultural shift. Mexico (to which New Mexico belonged) had gained independence from Spain just three years before the story takes place. New Mexico, then, opens up to trade with the Americans traveling down the Santa Fe trail. As American goods and influence floods into Mexican land, New Mexican culture will shift. Life will really change for Josefina when the U.S. annexes New Mexico in 1846. Josefina then, will have lived under Spanish, Mexican, and American governance throughout her life.
Admittedly, I don’t know as much about the history of Mexico and the American Southwest as I would like, and I’m grateful that this book introduced me to that piece of the past. While Josefina’s family is of Spanish descent, her stories acquaint us with the nearby Pueblo people. The books give the reader a great sense of how Spanish and Indigenous religions, languages, food, clothing, etc. intermingled and fused, creating Mexican culture.
I’m glad to have read Josefina’s stories, and I once again honor American Girl for fueling my love of history.
August 13, 2020
Though I think Felicity is perhaps more cohesive and better overall as a series, I thoroughly enjoyed the more sentimental Josefina books (and the hints-at-romantic sixth book). Just like with Felicity’s collection, each book is themed, and all six of them together take place over about a year of Josefina’s life.
Though there isn’t a “difficult” subject like in most of the other original American Girl stories, this series does tackle lots of Mexican culture in its page, and does a lot in the historical notes in telling about New Mexico and the people that live there. There’s even a glossary of Spanish terms in the back of each book. Though New Mexico was not part of the US at the time these books took place, I kinda like that they ran with the “before New Mexico was part of the USA” idea rather than having it take place after it had become a state. It allows for a little bit more historical information to be added.
Though I liked most of Josefina’s books more, I still think Felicity is a better series because of the two Josefina books I didn’t particularly like, which were the 4th and the 5th. The 4th is the birthday story and the main conflict is a rattlesnake bite, but the entire time I was reading it, I thought, “Is this really what being bitten by a rattlesnake is like?” The 5th book deals with americanos (American traders) and trust and is a little bit of an outlier in the series, not really fitting well with the other books despite being about an event that’s spoken of by the characters in previous books. However, I did like this book for the introduction it gave us to the sixth book, which has a super cute romantic plot that I thoroughly enjoyed (and is really why I prefer Josefina’s books to Felicity’s).
Also, the illustrations are great, and have I mentioned how much I love color illustrations in books?
Though there isn’t a “difficult” subject like in most of the other original American Girl stories, this series does tackle lots of Mexican culture in its page, and does a lot in the historical notes in telling about New Mexico and the people that live there. There’s even a glossary of Spanish terms in the back of each book. Though New Mexico was not part of the US at the time these books took place, I kinda like that they ran with the “before New Mexico was part of the USA” idea rather than having it take place after it had become a state. It allows for a little bit more historical information to be added.
Though I liked most of Josefina’s books more, I still think Felicity is a better series because of the two Josefina books I didn’t particularly like, which were the 4th and the 5th. The 4th is the birthday story and the main conflict is a rattlesnake bite, but the entire time I was reading it, I thought, “Is this really what being bitten by a rattlesnake is like?” The 5th book deals with americanos (American traders) and trust and is a little bit of an outlier in the series, not really fitting well with the other books despite being about an event that’s spoken of by the characters in previous books. However, I did like this book for the introduction it gave us to the sixth book, which has a super cute romantic plot that I thoroughly enjoyed (and is really why I prefer Josefina’s books to Felicity’s).
Also, the illustrations are great, and have I mentioned how much I love color illustrations in books?
June 7, 2021
Never read this as a kid but I wish I did. It's weird having read this at a time when I had just lost a best friend. I could relate to Josefina with the loss of her mother. It's hard losing a loved one.
I like how it mentions each way a family member deals with their mother being gone. The different daughters, sisters to Josefina, react in different ways which is how grieving is in real life. Not everyone reacts the same even when losing the same person in their lives and I like that this book shows that to young girls/people. Yes this book isn't perfect, it was written in the late 90's early 2000s. It was also intended for younger girls and I'm nearly 30 reading this. However I still enjoyed this book and would love for my future kid(s) to read it.
I love all of the history that is incorporated. When I read some of the other AG books growing up I remember learning parts of history from the book first before I learned it in school. It's a great way for kids to learn about different periods of American history.
My motivation to read this is because of the American Girls podcast. If they end up reading this, thank you ladies for the great work you've done. I love hearing your commentary on these books. You've peaked my interest in history, so thank you for that.
This review is dedicated to my dear friend Jared Friz who lost his life over a month ago. He always encouraged me to write reviews. He believed in me, and others, so much.
I like how it mentions each way a family member deals with their mother being gone. The different daughters, sisters to Josefina, react in different ways which is how grieving is in real life. Not everyone reacts the same even when losing the same person in their lives and I like that this book shows that to young girls/people. Yes this book isn't perfect, it was written in the late 90's early 2000s. It was also intended for younger girls and I'm nearly 30 reading this. However I still enjoyed this book and would love for my future kid(s) to read it.
I love all of the history that is incorporated. When I read some of the other AG books growing up I remember learning parts of history from the book first before I learned it in school. It's a great way for kids to learn about different periods of American history.
My motivation to read this is because of the American Girls podcast. If they end up reading this, thank you ladies for the great work you've done. I love hearing your commentary on these books. You've peaked my interest in history, so thank you for that.
This review is dedicated to my dear friend Jared Friz who lost his life over a month ago. He always encouraged me to write reviews. He believed in me, and others, so much.
November 1, 2020
Books 1, 2, 4, 5, 6
Another fun trip down memory lane. My sister won a Josefina doll when we were kids; at the time she was the newest addition to the American Girls collection, and it was fun and exciting to read about a hitherto unknown time and place in history. These books really brought it to life through the eyes of Josefina and her sisters - it was fun to see what life would have been like for them back then. It makes me want to go to New Mexico to experience the colorful food and culture for myself. Again, good writing, good life lessons, and a very strong sense of place. Very much enjoyed it.
Another fun trip down memory lane. My sister won a Josefina doll when we were kids; at the time she was the newest addition to the American Girls collection, and it was fun and exciting to read about a hitherto unknown time and place in history. These books really brought it to life through the eyes of Josefina and her sisters - it was fun to see what life would have been like for them back then. It makes me want to go to New Mexico to experience the colorful food and culture for myself. Again, good writing, good life lessons, and a very strong sense of place. Very much enjoyed it.
January 29, 2025
As an avid American Girl fan and collector, these books were disappointing. Negative attitudes towards US relations, and Mexican nationalism were poorly represented. Josefina is a lovely character, which is great for a character driven story, but the history present in these books was rather plain. She easily could have been written during a more adverse time period, or actually "save the day," in the fifth book.
Read
April 4, 2025Ok my favorite part was how this unlocked a core memory. When I was little, my sister told us the story about a man who gave pieces of sky to a little girl. Years later, my mom and I tried to track it down, but I'm not sure if we ever found it. (We thought possibly an L.M. Montgomery story.) I'm pretty sure after listening to Josephina Saves the Day, it must have been JOSEPHINA AND PATRICK. This made me so happy to discover and solved a childhood mystery.
August 1, 2022
Children's, Historical Fiction
I read a handful of American girl books around 2nd grade. Sofia was really obsessed with them. I liked them I think Samantha and Josefina were my favorites. I wanted an American girl doll so so bad. It's honestly a little fucked up how this franchise is so inaccessible....but its still fun.
-August 2022
I read a handful of American girl books around 2nd grade. Sofia was really obsessed with them. I liked them I think Samantha and Josefina were my favorites. I wanted an American girl doll so so bad. It's honestly a little fucked up how this franchise is so inaccessible....but its still fun.
-August 2022
Read
January 15, 2023Another great American Girl series! Really appreciated the respectful treatment of the Catholic faith in this book and how they approached complicated subjects like the death of the mother and the father remarrying. The sisters' relationships were lovely and the family relationship and importance of community in general was beautifully written. So thankful to have these books to share with Annie.
April 2, 2023
Going through the AG books, and the Josefina series is painfully unexciting. I didn't even feel like I was transported in time. Some of the other AG books are well written. These stories are about Josefina coping with life after her mother's death. These books lacked depth. They felt like summaries more than stories.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 15, 2024
not the most engaging american girl series and the romance between tia dolores and papa happening in the background was so strange (i don’t care if it was historically accurate!!!) it is such a sad series and the undercurrent of grief in all these books make them so difficult to read through the eyes of a ten year old. give josefina her childhood back
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 6, 2024
A beautifully bound story collection. Josefina's always read differently to me. This is shocking how congruous the different stories are. They flow wonderfully. If you have any of Josefina's collections, it's wild how perfect every item is and it gets mentioned. They spent so much time making this a great world for her.
January 13, 2023
I read this book to review for complimentary reading material in world history for children 6-10 years old. I wasn't impressed, I was a little surprised it wasn't loaded with cultural information about American history like most of the books in the AG series.
April 10, 2023
I listened to this with my kids (10, 8, 6). We all really enjoyed it! I think it was special for them since they have a Latino heritage. I might have read one or two Josefina books as a child, but I don't remember them if so. So this was new for all of us.
June 30, 2024
I still find it really difficult to rate these books because I am not their target audience anymore. Still, Josefina's storyline was domestic, gentle, and thick with loss that unfolded and eased over the pages. I think it's my favorite so far, but I'm only 3 in.
April 26, 2025
Our favorite so far of the American girl series (we’ve read Felicity, and Kirsten)
I loved these sweet stories, and as a family of 4 girls, my girls loved the relationships between the sisters in the stories.
I loved these sweet stories, and as a family of 4 girls, my girls loved the relationships between the sisters in the stories.
September 14, 2025
Read to my 4 and 7yr old daughters. My 7r old loves the American Girl books. This one was one of our favorites so far! We love the history lessons tied in. Josefina’s story was a sweet one! Meet Addy is next for us!
January 8, 2026
I would recommend all girls read through the American Girl books at some point, they have so much history packed in-between the lines of engaging stories. Josefina, after you learn a little about her, embarks on some thrilling adventures as the world around her keeps changing.
June 30, 2020
Finished another series while I listen to the American Girls podcast. Better than Felicity.
October 9, 2020
Having read the Felicity and Kirsten collections somewhat recently, this one really feels like it was written for a younger audience. I loved hearing about Josefina’s life and culture, though.
October 16, 2020
Our favorite read aloud so far.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews