Julie and the Blue Guitar: American Girl Mysteries Across Time

by Casey Gilly, Luna Valentine (Illustrator)

An American Girl Mystery unravels acrosstime! Join Emma in 2024 as she helps Juliesolve a mystery that began in 1977…

Eleven-year-old Emma Devan can’t wait to exploreher new home of San Francisco, but she’s not surehow to make new friends. Then she discovers anold journal in a local thrift shop—and gets caughtup in a 50-year-old mystery!

As Julie Albright investigates stolen artifacts andworks to help animals after a 1977 oil spill, Emmasets out to uncover Julie’s identity. Though half acentury separates them, Emma and Julie areunited by their shared home, passion for theenvironment, and a mysterious blue guitar.This new mystery graphic novel from American Girland IDW weaves together past and present to tellthe exciting story of two girls from different timesjoining forces to help their community/make abetter world.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Historical, Middle Grade, Graphic Novels Comics, Mystery Thriller

96 pages, Paperback

First published June 25, 2024

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

First things first: Yes, longtime AG fans, this is a reworking of a 2011 Julie mystery, The Silver Guitar.

It's a really cute way to repurpose existing material, actually. The art is very fun! This version adds is a contemporary girl, Emma, who discovers Julie's journal, gets completely engrossed by it (for her, it's a nice distraction from the stresses of moving and starting a new school) and even gets to meet grown-up Julie at the very end.

Between the format change, the addition of Emma, and a shorter page count, the guitar story is pared way down. Overall, it becomes appropriate for a slightly younger audience in terms of length and tone.

Biggest nitpick? Emma's part of the story is explicitly set in 2024, meaning Julie would be almost 60, but grown-up Julie looks at most 40. Normalizing normal aging would be nice.

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

[QNPoohBear · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded down

Today:
Emma and her dad have just moved into a new apartment in San Francisco. It's midway through the school year and Emma is super nervous about starting school when all the other kids have their friend groups and activities already. She has homework already. Emma is making a film (on her dad's phone) about herself and her move. She doesn't yet know what the film will say about her other than she's awkward and clumsy. While shopping for new school clothes at a thrift store in her building (One guess as to what was probably there in the 1970s) she knocks over a box. Oops! She can edit that out! In the pile of things that fell out of the box is an old floral print journal. Inside it says the diary belonged to a 10-year-old girl named Julie in 1977. Julie and Emma have a lot in common, they're both animal lovers, activists and like dressing up. Emma is concerned about animals harmed in a recent oil spill.

1977
Julie A. is concerned about animals harmed in a recent oil spill and is eager to raise money to help clean up. She decides to make and sell crafts for donations. Mom introduces Julie to Mrs. and Mr. Vernon, wealthy philanthropists who are planning to auction off some rare collectibles to raise money for oil spill relief. The items include a signed Willie Mays baseball, a patchwork quilt over 150 years old (a friendship quilt, tied not quilted, with calico fabrics that include a piece with tiny red flowers and one with a design that looks like division signs. Did Kirsten move out to California?). The big ticket item is a rare blue guitar owned by Lacey Blick, Julie's favorite folk singer.

When the Vernons go out of town they hire Julie and TJ to look after their plants and cat, Monkey. Their nephew Ethan will let in the auction catalog photographers. When TJ shows up in Julie's building clutching the blue guitar, Julie is horrified to see it is broken! Upon further inspection, she can see it is not the same guitar at all! Julie Drew to the rescue! As she and TJ hunt for clues to the missing guitar, they discover other items are fakes as well. Who could have done this and can they solve the mystery before they get in trouble?

Today
Emma is obsessed with finding Julie. She spends every day researching at the library, determined to find out Julie's identity and where she is today. The quest is a good distraction from her worries about the move and school.


This is the first of a new series of graphic novels. It has a dual time narrative with history woven in and the past and present become linked by a common cause. I see what you did there AG! Continue your mission to social justice without being too obvious, link the past and present but not cause and effect. It's a nice balance which I hope will please the naysayers and the history enthusiasts. The moral is way too heavy handed and I didn't care for the modern narrative. Julie's mystery was rather implausible and obvious. I was more curious whether Emma would find Julie. I don't really want to know what the characters are up to today! They're children - forever children rooted in that place and time. (I do know Melody HAS to be coaching the Detroit Youth Choir!) I was nervous how Julie might be presented today. [spoiler=Spoiler]She says very little about herself, just where she works and she has to tell Emma about her job. She thinks Emma will really like it. Julie is committed to environmental causes even today. We don't know if she's married (if she is, she's a MS. like her teacher) or has children or what happened to her family and friends. She says what happened to TJ only.[/spoiler]

I'm not a huge fan of graphic novels. I usually want more story but this one told the story well. I didn't like Emma's voice though. I'm being nitpicky and complaining about both Emma and her dad's dialogue using "wanna" instead of "want to." It sounded odd coming from the dad. Emma and her dad have a great relationship. She punishes him by threatening to eat his tacos/quesadillas/whatever. That was cute but their relationship is already developed and we don't get any back story. I gather Emma's parents are divorced, Dad may have a new girlfriend but we don't really know anything about Emma except she's awkward and worried about making new friends.


Reviewers say this is a reworking of Julie and the Silver Guitar. I have NO memory of that book whatsoever!

I liked Julie's story better and more than her core books. It was focused on the mystery and not so pop culture/slang oriented.

The history is more subtle. It's in the way they speak and the clothes they wear, the phone on the wall (nope Gen. Alpha, Emma's generation, has no idea what that is or how to use it!) The history is also in the music Julie listens to, although the singer is fictional, she establishes that folk music is super popular.

I found TJ very annoying. He worries about being sent to Alcatraz, a maximum security prison that has been closed for 15 years! He uses the wrong words for things and Julie corrects him. Are we in school? Is this supposed to be used for English class? Once was funny but a whole page is annoying. Ivy is mentioned but not a part of this story. As I liked Ivy better than Julie, that disappointed me.

There is a Peek Into the Past in the back. It's 3 pages of tiny print and no pictures. There's also a behind-the-scenes making of the book.

I don't like the anime style of illustration. It's not my thing and it makes Julie look too generic. I don't even recognize Ivy! The illustrator did a great job with attention to Julie's doll clothes and accessories though.

[Charlie - disableddaydreamer | itsbarbieparis (looking for mutuals) · Rating 4 out of 5]

i have been iffy on getting julie as an adult fan but this low key was good and has me adding her to the top of my AGD wishlist.

kind of out of left field but my library had this one!

currently reading addy and felicity and will turn around for julie next!

[Christopher Geraghty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book as a birthday present for my granddaughter. I enjoyed reading it, and I think she will as well.

[RaspberryRoses · Rating 5 out of 5]

ohhh so extremely charming.

[Chelsea]

This format was a very interesting twist on the typical American Girl book... it was especially neat to get a peak into grown-up modern-day Julie's life!

[Laura Jerrolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and the entire concept of it! I really hope we get more characters.

[Ms. Yingling · Rating 3 out of 5]

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

In this graphic novel, Emma Dhillon moves to San Francisco for her father's job in the city's environmental department. Their new apartment is above a vintage store, and when Emma is investigating, she stumbles upon an old diary, that the owner lets her keep. It's from 1977, and the writer, Julie Albright, is interested in many of the things that interest Emma. Julie and her best friend, T.J., are involved in a fund raiser to save animals from an oil spill, and there is currently one occurring that Emma wants to join. Most of the story involves Julie's exploits; she and T.J. take a job watering plants and catsitting for Mr. and Mrs. Vernon, who own the building where her apartment (and also Emma's) is located. The Vernons have objects to auction off for the fundraiser, and T.J. knocks one of them, a blue guitar, off the wall and breaks it. They take it to a music shop to be repaired, and the owner, T-Bone, tells them that it doesn't belong to musician Lacey Blicks, but is a copy. Also missing is a quilt, a pocket watch, and a baseball signed by Willie Mays. Julie does a great job researching at the library and manages to hunt down three of the items, and also has a good idea of who stole them. Will she be able to tell the Vernons what has happened... and finish the quilt that she wants to make for the auction? Will Emma, in the modern day, be able to locate Julie and return her diary to her?
Strengths: Readers who enjoy American Girl dolls and reading about history will love the thought of finding someone's journal and solving a mystery about an event from the past. It was fascinating to see the changes in Emma's neighborhood, but also endearing to see that the Vernon's grandson is still managing the apartment building. This isn't a scary mystery; it's the type where kids get to find out more about the people in their orbit, and run about talking to pawn shop owners and community college teachers. Emma does make a friend while she is researching, so that was nice to see. I haven't done a deep dive to see if Emma has a canon of her own, but I'd be interested in reading more about her.
Weaknesses: The hundred year old "friendship quilt" is depicted as just squares of fabric and is tied together. A true friendship quilt would have pieced blocks with the names of the makers embroidered on them, often right in the center. There is also one of Julie's outfits, a floral jump suit, that is questionable if this is set in 1977. Fashions changed dramatically during the 1970s, so a Granny Square vest (which Julie also wears) from 1973 would have been considered ridiculous by the time I was in school in 1977. Authors and illustrators should use old catalogs as their Bible in these matters. By 1977, clothes were fairly boring.
What I really think: If you loved Haddix's The Mysteries of Trash and Treasure, but want a shorter read with more pictures, this is the book for you. I no longer have any of the American Girl books, but may start to look into them, as I enjoyed Bennett's Meet Claudie. I will definitely purchase any graphic novels in this series.

[Marian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julie and the Blue Guitar is an adorable graphic novel that bridges 2024 and 1977 without having to suspend too much disbelief.

I was a little worried this was going to be another AG time travel story and while I enjoyed those, I didn't love them. AG books tend to be more grounded in reality (and history!) and throwing magic/time travel in the mix was... odd.

No worries here, though, as Emma travels through time when she finds Julie's diary detailing the Mystery Of the Blue Guitar. Julie's story is broken up by Emma's own search for Julie herself as she desperately tries to distract herself from her anxiety over moving to a new place and going to a brand new school. I was curious as to whether or not we'd actually meet grown up Julie...

And we do! I'm pretty sure that Julie should've looked older (the girl was not staying out of the sun or slapping on sunscreen on the regular, mmmkay?) and as a kid this disconnect would've driven me batty. That aside, I kinda like that we get a glimpse of who Julie grew up to be, but not so much that you can't continue to fill in your own details.

I loved the art style and I absolutely love there being no big disagreement between friends. I would have happily traded TJ for Ivy (sorry, TJ!) but since TJ likes cats, I'll let it slide.

Definitely worth picking up if you're an AG fan and are craving more AG stories.

[Faith Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, the messages were great. Julie was heroic, and Emma was inspirational in a simpler, but more relatable, way. Second, the bonding between Emma and her father was sweet and almost made me cry. Third, the illustrations were gorgeous! Although American Girl has recently released some books with illustrations that could have been better, the art was top-notch here. Every picture was full of color and dimension.

I did not appreciate how similar to The Silver Guitar: A Julie Mystery this was, showing AG continues their habit of ripping off themselves instead of inventing something new. Personally, I wish that at the end... Julie had been married. The reason AG didn't let this happen is likely because they don't want to influence readers to think they have to marry, and instead guide them to think about who they can be when they grow up. That's understandable. All the same... it would have been sweet. But who knows--maybe she did marry and just kept her maiden name!

Overall, the book was good fun! I hope American Girl continues graphic novels with their historical fiction characters: ones with Addy, Josefina, Rebecca, and especially Samantha would be amazing. (At that point, I don't care if they ripped off The Cry of the Loon or The Curse of Ravenscourt: I just want more of Samantha!)

[Panda Incognito · Rating 3 out of 5]

This graphic novel is a dual timeline adaptation of the original American Girl story The Silver Guitar: A Julie Mystery. Because this graphic novel is so much shorter, it pares down the mystery to its most basic elements and changes some details. The story transitions back and forth between Julie's experiences in the 70s, and a present-day girl's experience reading Julie's diary entries and trying to track down Julie.

She succeeds, and it's fun to get a glimpse of Julie's adult life, since we've never seen an American Girl character's future like this. However, Julie looks unrealistically youthful. She should be in her sixties, but she looks like she's in her late thirties. I found that distracting and annoying.

Overall, this book will appeal to young readers and older fans of American Girl. The graphic novel format works well for the story, and has very clear transitions. The illustrations are also appealing. It looks like this is going to become a series, and I'm curious to see how the brand adapts other existing mystery stories.

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This exceeded my expectations! This is basically a rewrite of The Silver Guitar: A Julie Mystery, with an additional modern day storyline. This is a short graphic novel, even for a children's book, so I really didn't think they'd be able to squeeze it all in, and I wasn't enthusiastic about the modern storyline anyways. I'm surprised and pleased to report that the mystery actually holds up, and the modern character is actually engaging. Julie has a series of thefts to investigate, and modern Emma has found her journal and is now looking for Julie. Both storylines have a pretty big focus on doing a lot of hard, mundane work to solve their respective mysteries: Julie tracks down most of the stolen items through making phone calls and talking to a lot of people, and Emma spends a lot of time researching in the library. I think Julie fans will be most excited to see the grown up Julie at the end of the book, and it's really satisfying.

[Kymberli Briggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first read for “Middle-Grade March” and I had a lot of fun. Of course, I grew up with American Girl stories so they hold a place in my heart. I liked both time periods in this story- present day with Emma and 1977 with Julie. Emma discovers that she and Julie have a lot of things in common- a love for mysteries, art, and dumplings (just to name a few). When they discover they have landed in their own mystery, though years apart, they are determined to right the wrongs that have been made. I enjoyed seeing how each girl could use the resources available to them in their time period.

This story is written as a graphic novel and the colors and illustrations are very vivid and make the story pop. I hope American Girl Company publishes more “Mysteries Across Time” stories. I would definitely read them.

*What I have expressed are entirely my own thoughts. I was not compensated in any monetary way.*

Possible Trigger- Parents splitting up

[Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hi, my name’s Ella, I’m 23 years old, and I just read this entire American Girl graphic novel in one sitting. This was so cute- grown-up Julie?!? American Girl crossovers?! My only problem is justice for my girl Ivy, where was she when Julie was dealing with all of this? Julie’s 70s outfits were peak and brought back strong memories of studying all her 1970s accessories in the catalog growing up. It was a little bit funny that 1974 Julie is running around San Francisco solving a theft all by herself, and 2024 Emma’s dad comes with her every single time she goes to the city library.

[Amanda Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I forgot this was releasing, so when it showed up at my door yesterday, I immediately dug in. This is the same base story as The Silver Guitar, just done in comic form. It adds in the twist of a girl from 2024 reading Julie’s journal, which is really well done. She also meets Julie, which is the first time we’ve seen a grown up AG historical. Very cute.

[Ellon · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars (I liked it)

I really liked Julie's story but I could have done without Emma's. The only good part about including her is that then you get to see what happens to Julie and the others from that timeline. I would have been fine without that though. Julie's story was definitely stronger and more interesting.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Impulse because I've never read AG and thought a GN might be fun. But it's too much of a 'hot mess' imo. A lot going on in too few pages. I love the r'ship between Emma and her dad, though, despite that they eat out too often and too unhealthfully.

[Jessica Olenski · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a great mystery! Julie's part is basically The Silver Guitar with a blue coat of paint, but it was adapted well. I love Emma's side of the mystery! Her finding Julie reminds me of the research I do for stories. The stories were tied together so nicely! :D

[KP]

Really solid little graphic novel that has a fun mystery but also gives readers a good idea of how to find interest in history and how to do research.

[Little Seal]

Super cute book, and looking forward to seeing more updated versions of books from the historical girls.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun intro to Julie book with a mystery and modern components. My 8 year old and I enjoyed this together.

[Nawal Ciaramitaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read an American Girl graphic novel, after loving them as a kid. I loved the bright colors and easy storyline.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Older! Julie! Albright!

[Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

Retcons one of Julie’s OG mysteries and for that it’s gonna have to be a no from me.

[Reading with Cats · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Maggie the Muskoka Library Mouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun story with some good messages. The art was pleasing, and the mystery aspect had my interest.

[Marena Galluccio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super cute! I hope they do more like this

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a huge AG fan I enjoyed this one! Love the mix of the present and past. This was a perfect story to tell as a graphic novel.

[Jen Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this with my daughter. We liked it

[Halle Rajkumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great little story. Brought me back to my childhood