Julie's Journey

American Girl: Julie #5

by Megan McDonald, Robert Hunt (Illustrator)

It s 1976, and the entire country is celebrating America s 200th birthday. Julie joins her cousins on a pioneer-style wagon train in honor of the Bicentennial. The journey is filled with adventures, challenges, and self-discovery as Julie faces her fears to make an important contribution to her country s birthday. The "Looking Back" section provides additional information about Bicentennial celebrations in the United States.

This book is the fifth in a series of six historical books filled with inspiring lessons of compassion, courage, and friendship. Julie s entire book set includes: Meet Julie; Julie Tells Her Story; Happy New Year, Julie; Julie and the Eagles; Julie s Journey; and Changes for Julie.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Childrens, Historical, Fiction, Middle Grade, Chapter Books, Juvenile

106 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2007

About the author

"Sometimes I think I am Judy Moody," says Megan McDonald, author of the Judy Moody series, the Stink series, and THE SISTERS CLUB. "I'm certainly moody, like she is. Judy has a strong voice and always speaks up for herself. I like that."

For Megan McDonald, being able to speak up for herself wasn't always easy. She grew up as the youngest of five sisters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her father, an ironworker, was known to his coworkers as "Little Johnny the Storyteller." Every evening at dinner the McDonalds would gather to talk and tell stories, but Megan McDonald was barely able to get a word in edgewise. "I'm told I began to stutter," she says, leading her mother to give her a notebook so she could start "writing things down."


Critically acclaimed, the Judy Moody books have won numerous awards, ranging from a PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Best Book of the Year to an International Reading Association Children's Choice. "Judy has taken on a life of her own," the author notes, with nearly 3 million Judy Moody books in print. Interestingly, the feisty third-grader is highly popular with boys and girls, making for a strong base of fans who are among Megan McDonald's strongest incentives to keep writing, along with "too many ideas and a little chocolate." And now -- by popular demand -- Judy Moody's little brother, Stink, gets his chance to star in his own adventures! Beginning with STINK: THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING KID, three more stories, and his own encyclopedia, STINK-O-PEDIA, Stink's special style comes through loud and strong -- enhanced by a series of comic strips, drawn by Stink himself, which are sprinkled throughout the first book. About the need for a book all about Stink, Megan McDonald says, "Once, while I was visiting a class full of Judy Moody readers, the kids, many with spiked hair à la Judy's little brother, chanted, 'Stink! Stink! Stink! Stink! Stink!' as I entered the room. In that moment, I knew that Stink had to have a book all his own."


More recently, Megan McDonald has recalled some of her own childhood with the warmth, humor -- and squabbles -- of three spunky sisters in THE SISTERS CLUB.


Megan McDonald and her husband live in Sebastopol, California, with two dogs, two adopted horses, and fifteen wild turkeys that like to hang out on their back porch.

Reviews

[Ciara · Rating 1 out of 5]

julie & her sister join the aunt, uncle, & cousins on some tacky-sounding wagon train in a real conestoga wagon. they are traveling from pittsburgh to valley forge. the amazing thing is that this actually happened in 1976. a bunch of dumbasses put their heads together & thought, "what better way to celebrate the 200th anniversary of our great nation than to stuff a bunch of our fellow dumbasses into actual authentic conestoga covered wagons & have them drive to valley forge, where there will be a big rally with the president?" god, i am so glad i wasn't born yet in 1976. everything about the bicentennial sounds like a nightmare. reading these books is making me feel like the american girl historical dolls just did a triple gainer over a shark pit.

on the way to valley forge, julie tries to ride her cousin's horse & gets thrown off into a stream. her cousin laughs at her & julie vows never to speak to her again. but she gets over it when their wagon gets stuck in a pothole (god, i wish i was making this up) & they have to lighten the load by leaving behind some of their belongings. julie ditches her entire collection of "little house on the prairie" books, thinking that laura ingalls wilder didn't have books on her journey to the frontier, so julie shouldn't either. this somehow brings julie & her cousin together again.

along the way, the wagon train is supposed to be gathering up signatures for some scroll they are presenting to the president. what is with julie & getting people to sign shit? i bet she grows up to be a UPS delivery person. the scrolls are some bullshit about how, "i still honor the values & beliefs that inspired the constitution" or something. julie decides she wants to get the signature of some old dude living in hershey, pennsylvania. she & her cousin blow off a fun-filled day at the hershey amusement park (just like the chocolate-themed amusement park where mary ingalls tragically went blind in the "little house" books) to ride the scary horse to the old dude's house & get his signature. he's all, "why do people keep asking for my signature? some yahoo in a wood-paneled station wagon just asked for my signature too." station wagon man is some souvenir salesman who has been following the wagon train & selling bootleg memoribilia.

could this book get any stupider?

anyway, old dude agrees to sign the scroll for julie. he's also like, "oh hey, my great-great-great-great-great grandpa signed the real constitution. look," & he busts out a real authentic copy of the constitution from colonial times.

old dude, WHAT are you doing? put that shit under glass! don't just wave it around on the front porch in front of children! also, i feel that bragging about how your great-great-great-great-great grandpa signed the constitution is a really stupid thing to brag about. especially the way this guy does it, like, "oh, by the by, i don't know if i mentioned that i'm not just old. i'm also a descendant of someone who signed the constitution." i bet he used to use that line to get ladies into bed when he was young & spry.

naturally, when they get to valley forge, the scroll that old dude signed goes missing. i will add that the leader of julie's wagon train group says that he'll be a shoo-in to present the scrolls to the president since his group got old dude's signature. hello, JULIE & HER COUSIN got old dude's signature. shouldn't they do the presenting if that's all it takes to get chosen? anyway, julie assumes that the souvenir guy took the scroll, to sell it. she runs off & confronts him, but he's like, "nope, not me." on the way back to camp, she wonders if maybe this friend of her wagon trail leader stole the scroll. they have a "friendly competition" going as to who can get better signatures. because what better way to celebrate the principles our great nation was founded on, in this, its 200th year, than to compete over how some americans' signatures are better than others?

she breaks into his covered wagon, which is filled to the brim with scrolls. sure enough, she finds the stolen scroll. she steals it back & runs back to her camp. her leader guy is all, "what? i thought that guy was my friend!" then he tells julie to present the scrolls since she recovered the stolen scroll. & GOT THE SIGNATURE THAT SUPPOSEDLY MADE IT WORTH STEALING IN THE FIRST PLACE, HELLO. so julie gets to shake president ford's hand. it would have been great if then president ford had fallen offstage like the infamous grape lady, because, you know, he was clumsy, but he doesn't.

& therefore, this book lost its one shot at redemption.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The great AG marathon continues. Reading this for the first time as an adult, inspired by the American Girls podcast.

Here's the first thing that stood out: Doesn't it seem odd that Julie and Tracy have never flown before? For most '70s kids, I guess I wouldn't be too surprised, but their dad is an airline pilot.

Some aspects of this book feel fairly rote:
- badly wanting to be friends with her cousin, making a good start, getting mad at her, then making up and working together
- wanting to be friends with ride a horse and getting over her fears after falling off

Putting Julie's petition skills to work collecting signatures on the Rededication scrolls is a nice tie-in to the first book. Meeting a guy whose ancestor signed the Declaration is a fun side quest. But I don't love the way that THIS ONE SPECIAL signature becomes such a huge deal when ostensibly the point is the quantity of signatures they're gathering - a display of Americans coming together to mark this milestone.

The sudden detective hunt when the prized signature is stolen goes from zero to 60 mighty fast, making it start to feel like Julie got impatient to start her mystery books and wanted to practice a little now.

And OF COURSE they suddenly invite Julie to present the signatures to President Ford. Which OF COURSE we don't see because, like Molly's birthday or Brown Deer's wedding, we have suddenly run out of pages.

Overall, good fun, until I start overthinking and get cranky.

Here's a generalization that's true of all historical fiction, but affects some books more than others. The older a book gets, the more of a fun house mirror it's going to be: the reader looking back in time to the author, who is looking back in time to the characters. And, in a book like this, the characters themselves looking back to reflect on earlier history. It's almost a game of telephone.

I'm gonna go on the record and say that this one (along with Kirsten Learns a Lesson and Felicity Saves the Day), is not aging so well. In this case, it's partly bound up in how we view stories like "Little House on the Prairie."

(Disclaimer: I haven't read Little House in more than 25 years, and I'm about to talk about other books I haven't read at all. )

A big difference to me between 2007 and 2021 is that, at least in my internet circles, it's become common to see Laura Ingalls Wilder and her work considered critically (e.g. for her problematic portrayal of Native American individuals but also more broadly, the ways in which she signaled which people belonged or had a right to be where, and why). I think Prairie Fires has had a significant impact here, and that was published in 2017. These days, I also see people recommending The Birchbark House series as a good substitute or at least a companion to the Little House series.

The point I'm (slowly) getting to here is that I'm having one reaction as an adult reader, while my inner eight-year-old is having a completely different one. Adult Me is twitching a little at Julie's totally uncritical, unironic, face value adoration for "Little House on the Prairie." Meanwhile, Kid Me is right there with her. I loved those books and enjoyed catching reruns of the TV show when I was home sick. Hell, Kid Me dressed up as Laura Ingalls for a school project on at least one occasion, and (with an assist from Kirsten Larson), the Little House books definitely prompted a big pioneer phase for me in elementary school. I have no beef with Julie's "Little House" love (though a mention of it before now would have been nice), but I really wish the author, from the vantage point of adulthood in 2007, had found a way to point out that U.S. westward expansion had some terrible costs.

For that matter, U.S. history through the lens of the 1970s through the lens of 2007 is... as a whole, more uncritical than I would like. The Looking Back section makes the point that the Bicentennial was an opportunity for the country to try to come together after the divisiveness of Watergate and the Vietnam War - which makes the whole thing a lot more interesting to Adult Me, though I know that most ten-year-olds wouldn't be thinking in those terms.

But Julie's reverse wagon train journey still feels... just, the whitest possible story to tell about the Bicentennial. And makes me realize that Ivy and her family are the only explicitly non-white people in Julie's stories thus far. I think the Looking Back section of one of her books talked about bussing and desegregating schools, but that isn't part of the story itself.

More Julie babble:
Meet Julie | Julie Tells Her Story | Happy New Year, Julie | Julie and the Eagles | Julie's Journey | Changes for Julie

Good Luck, Ivy

The Tangled Web | The Puzzle of the Paper Daughter | The Silver Guitar | Lost in the City | Message in a Bottle

A Brighter Tomorrow

[Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so cute! It was so interesting to read the historical parts about the bicentennial celebration--taking covered wagons across the entire country is CRAZY. I love Julie's relationship with her cousins and sister in this one and the sweet ending <3

[Panda Incognito · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is deeply flawed, with horrible pacing and numerous plot holes. It's clear that the author made no effort to set up this story in the previous volumes, especially since Julie's previously unmentioned obsession with Little House on the Prairie takes center stage here. I enjoyed learning some about the wagon trains that traveled from the west coast to Valley Forge in honor of the bicentennial, and the historical note was educational, but this is a very poor story.

For example, right as the story is supposed to reach its climax, a completely new conflict appears. Julie solves a mystery and saves the day in just a few pages, and the payoff feels completely unconvincing because there wasn't enough build-up for any of this. Clearly, the author needed some excitement for the climax, since there was no plot to come to its natural fruition here, but the way that she forces it in is completely jarring, abrupt, and unsatisfying. If she wanted a mystery plot to be part of the story, she needed to introduce that at least a few chapters prior, instead of throwing it in at the end.

[RaspberryRoses · Rating 2 out of 5]

a hot mess. absolutely no critical thinking about implications or anything - just straight up glorifying of the founding fathers and a footnote at the end . and idgaf about the cousin! and idgaf about horses!!!!!!!! she should have gone to hershey park i'll say it!!!

[Laura Edwards · Rating 1 out of 5]

I haven't mentioned this before, though others have, but the date on the front of the book does not correspond with the story. Nothing takes place in 1974. The first couple of books are set in 1975 and this is obviously 1976. I know the other American Girl books have years ending in 4, but come on. It's like the company thinks little girls are stupid or something. They can count and they know the year is incongruous. Give them a little credit and put 1975 on the books. Yeesh.

I have a couple of problems with the illustrations. The first has bugged me throughout. Has anyone else noticed that Julie and Tracy's parents both have very dark hair, yet the girls are blond? Seems weird and could have been rectified by the illustrator by giving one of the parents a lighter shade of hair. Also, in this book the illustration on page 6 showing the girls with their dad on an airplane is a joke. In the 1970s most people dressed nicely when traveling on an airplane, especially if they were employees like Julie's dad. And as recently as 10 years ago, employees and their families still had to adhere to a dress code whether they were working or not. I know because my cousin's husband worked for United (I don't know about now because he has retired). Jeans were out and I sincerely doubt they would have worn a tie-dye t-shirt. Or any kind of t-shirt for that matter.

Julie really enjoys being the center of attention. She actively finds ways to be the center of attention. Hmm, maybe that's why she's my least favorite American Girl. In this book, her big reason for getting the signature from the old man was to help Mr. Sweeney with his dream of presenting the scroll to the president. I would have found it more endearing if Julie had insisted Mr. Sweeney keep the honor instead of jumping at the chance to be the center of attention yet again.

A few things annoyed me during the wagon trip. First off, April was really dumb, letting her 10-year-old cousin who'd never been on a horse before and never had lessons, ride Hurricane without any kind of guidance. She just tosses Julie the reins and tells her to kick her heels into the horse's side. What an idiot. April is old enough to know better. And then, later, Tracy takes April's side. I don't know about you, but if someone did what April did to my little sister, they'd get an earful. Julie could have broken her neck. Doesn't seem like April's parents punished her, either. Another part that annoyed me was the idea of Tracy buying and playing the board game "Mystery Date". Yes, it was a popular game in the '70s. Amongst middle-schoolers. I highly doubt a 16-year-old girl would own and play this game. And, again, we get product placements in a Julie book. This time it's Hershey chocolate. *insert eye roll* Some of Julie's stories are so crassly commercial.

I did enjoy the historical section at the back. I was 12 in 1976 and remember there being a bit of fuss about the bicentennial, but I never heard about the wagon train. Very interesting. One point had me wondering, however. Some of these people started their journey during the prior year. Were they given leave from their jobs? I wish the historical section had addressed how some people were able to take so much time off to be a part of the wagon train. From what I could tell, Julie's uncle was a farmer and there is no way a farmer could leave his responsibilities for three weeks.

[Sadie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The level of patriotism in this book was nauseating. Julie turned into a horse girl for a moment though so that’s cool. I liked the few sentences in the look back that questioned spending all this money on the bicentennial.

[Hannah Showalter · Rating 3 out of 5]

the spirit of felicity lived on in july in this book

3 stars instead of 4 bc i wasn’t vibing wjth the patriotism here

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julie would be 60 this year making her too young to be the first woman president just yet. Maybe in 2032!!

[Sesana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Re-read 2023: The plotting in this book is weirdly bad for an American Girl book. Putting aside that Julie is suddenly obsessed with Little House, for the first time ever, or that it doesn't really make a ton of sense for she and her sister to get shipped literally across the country to sit in a covered wagon all day. Yes, it's a real thing that really happened, but it's incredibly convenient that they can join the wagon train on a late and probably relatively easy leg of the journey. And would both girls really go if one of them had no interest in doing it and it would mean not being with either of their parents for weeks? Ok, lets just ignore all of that, because this book doesn't know what it wants to be about. It's a 72 page book, and it somehow has three basically unrelated plots: the wagon train just existing, Julie overcoming her fear of horses, and a surprise mystery that literally shows up in the last chapter. Ten actual pages for an item to get stolen, have Julie follow a red herring, then steal the item back from the real culprit and get her reward in the end. Wild.

[Marya · Rating 2 out of 5]

To further prove the point that the character of Ivy is WAY more interesting than Julie, this book features no Ivy and it is a snoozefest. I kept begging other people to read this aloud, just so I could avoid it.

[Danielle T · Rating 3 out of 5]

~3.5. I didn't know that a group of Americans decided they were going to commemorate the bicentennial of the United States by riding in wagon trains eastward to Valley Forge. The Mormons out west do similar annual reenactments with handcarts as part of their Pioneer Day celebrations (because it's a key part of their culture here) but weeks on end crossing the country? woof. Julie is excited because she's very into the Little House books and also because she hasn't seen her cousins in forever. Cousin April is also into the show and I do wond-oh, that's probably why a lot of Americans thought this was a great idea. I'm amused because I'm planning on doing a Little House reread soon and I'm curious about what holds up still to my adult eyes (with knowledge of contemporary history).

The part that most annoyed me was leaving belongs on the side of the trail because going up a mountain strained the horses. I sort of understand pioneers doing it, but this is 1976... that's just littering, y'all, and the last book showed that Julie does have environmental inclinations so what gives?

also also: no Ivy in this book, so no POCs around aside from the Looking Back section. :(

[Faith Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not bothering to make this review long and detailed, but rather get straight to the point, I have to say: WOW! Julie's Journey blew me away with the messages (especially the continuing message of the overall series: the ups and downs of change), a bit of chemistry between characters, the illustrations, how patriotic it was, and, above all, the thrill of the plot. What I appreciated most about the latter was that it was not unrealistic; it's something that is actually possible to happen in real life (which makes it all the more relatable and exciting). And I have to admit that my eyes got the tiniest bit moisty at a certain point!

The only problem was the description of the geography, like where Julie and her friends were going, being confusing. I wish there had been a map at the beginning of the book.

All the same, I was blown away. This or Julie and the Eagles may be may favorite of the American Girl: Julie series. Five stars!

[Joey Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really interesting story, I hadn’t ever heard of the bicentennial train before so reading Julie’s adventure getting to be part of the American history and celebrating the 200th birthday of America was fascinating.

Julie joins her aunt, uncle and cousins in the wagon ride heading across America ending in Pennsylvania where the start of independence began, she dreams of experiencing the life that Laura Ingalls Wilder once lived back in the prairie days. She soon finds things aren’t quite as fun as she was expecting and that things would be harder than she thought. Though when she learns of her family ancestry she gets her courage to try and in the end gets a big reward for what she did to help everyone.

I really enjoyed this and learned some new historical facts on an era I didn’t really know.

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. I’ve come to the conclusion that Julie just isn’t my favorite character. I liked the first two books but these last three haven’t been that great. I didn’t care about the bicentennial celebration happening here and I thought it was strange that they took a wagon across the country. Sounds miserable as hell. I also couldn’t stand Julie’s cousin. What an ass. She laughs when Julie gets thrown off a horse and teases her when Julie is upset about it and yet people took her side. She was wrong. She knew Julie had never been on a horse before and she was careless with that girl’s life. This one was my least favorite honestly.

[Stasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, look... I get it. American Girl in the last decade or more has gone downhill in some areas as far as the stories are concerned. And I feel that it DID start with the Marie Grace and Cecile/Julie books. But people have turned this whole review forum into an attack on Laura Ingalls.... Sigh.

That being said, yeah, this isn't the greatest AG book, but it's still interesting. I always thought (and still do) that it would have been fun to participate in a covered wagon for the celebration like they do!!

[Karol · Rating 2 out of 5]

Julie’s Journey was a bit boring for me. I lit up at the mention of the Little House on The Prairie books, the Bicentennial and rededication scrolls. The book brought back my fond memories of the time. I wore my 1776-1976 t-shirt until I grew out of it. I loved our field trip to Travel Town where we explored all the trains and ate our brown bag lunches. We visited Forest Lawn and signed our names on a scroll and received copies of the completed scroll on special paper to keep.
I love Hershey chocolate bars and learned there is a Hershey amusement park!

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was awesome. I loved it. I had no idea our country had a wagon train journey for the bicentennial. I knew it was a big thing but all I knew about was bicentennial quarters. I have no idea why I never knew what a huge deal it was to celebrate that year. Now I'm excited for 2076, 59 years away! I'll be 85 lol. New goal: still be here for our tricentennial celebration. Can't wait to see what we do for it!

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one! It really kept my interest and I loved the ending with Julie and the scroll. My only complaint is that a the beginning before the story starts, there should have been family illustrations of April, Jimmy, and their parents. Ivy isn't in this story so she shouldn't have been part of the illustrations if we're going based off which characters are and aren't in the book.

Onto the last book!

[Aimee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn’t even know this wagon train thing happened in the 70s so that was pretty cool to read about. It was fun reading this book after having read Felicity and Kirsten’s stories. Felt like it went full circle. I would have loved it if there would have been a little Easter egg mentioning those girls.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book the best as it had information on the 1976 wagon train to Valley Forge and tells about Julie's journey in this event. I liked the helpful horseback riding hints and Julia's enthusiasm as she gathered a signature from a local. Great read.

[Leslie Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this wouldn't, naturally, be part of the American Girl brand, I can't help but feel that an opportunity was missed for time travel. Maybe when American Girl joins the Marvel universe, we'll get such a crossover, but until then I can dream.

[Becca Crane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had no idea about the bicentennial and different ways it was celebrated. The wagon train with a wagon for each state and a freedom train with important American artifacts that travelled from city to city. Pretty interesting history, and opened up conversations with grandparents about what they remembered from that time.

[Kimberly Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite series of the AG series. Earth Day, Chinese New Year, endangered animals, bicentennial, and more.

[Beatrice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just liked it.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

To come

[Sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was exciting and fun.

[Jenny]

Read with Ad.

[Katie Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

Julie is my mom. All of their interests coincide, and it's been fun to discover them as I've read the series.

[Carl Ngouambe · Rating 1 out of 5]

This a god-awful Book.