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American Girl: Julie
A Brighter Tomorrow: My Journey With Julie
What if you suddenly found yourself in Julie's world--sunny San Francisco in the 1970s? How would you feel with lots of changes happening at once, and what could you do to make things change for the better? Join Julie on this adventure where the two of you can challenge the boys to a basketball contest, or spend a day at the beach and rescue a baby sea otter. Your journey back in time can take whatever twists and turns you choose, as you select from a variety of exciting options in this multiple-ending story.
149 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
19 people are currently reading
162 people want to read
About the author
Megan McDonald
296 books741 followers"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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 18, 2014
*Book received through the Amazon Vine Program*
"A Brighter Tomorrow" is a new book from American Girl's historical line, which has recently relaunched as Beforever. The book is a Choose Your Own Adventure type of book where you can go on a journey with Julie in 1975.
The book begins with an anonymous girl in present times. She just recently moved to San Francisco with her mother and little brother. Her father stayed behind in Ohio and her parents might be getting divorced. The girl is stressed about because of the move, because her parents might be splitting up, and because she misses her best friend. She finds a mood ring in her room that magically transports her to the September of 1975. She's in the same room but it's different looking. She then meets Julie and together they go on adventures together. From there you can choose where to go. Some choices leads you to helping clean up a littered beach, help repair Julie's relationship with her sister, or play a basketball game to prove that girls can be good at basketball too.
Overall, the book is a fun read. It's a pretty fast read as well. There isn't as much to learn about the history about the time, some of the other Beforever Journey books were better at showing the history and the differences between now and then. But I think Julie fans will love this book.
"A Brighter Tomorrow" is a new book from American Girl's historical line, which has recently relaunched as Beforever. The book is a Choose Your Own Adventure type of book where you can go on a journey with Julie in 1975.
The book begins with an anonymous girl in present times. She just recently moved to San Francisco with her mother and little brother. Her father stayed behind in Ohio and her parents might be getting divorced. The girl is stressed about because of the move, because her parents might be splitting up, and because she misses her best friend. She finds a mood ring in her room that magically transports her to the September of 1975. She's in the same room but it's different looking. She then meets Julie and together they go on adventures together. From there you can choose where to go. Some choices leads you to helping clean up a littered beach, help repair Julie's relationship with her sister, or play a basketball game to prove that girls can be good at basketball too.
Overall, the book is a fun read. It's a pretty fast read as well. There isn't as much to learn about the history about the time, some of the other Beforever Journey books were better at showing the history and the differences between now and then. But I think Julie fans will love this book.
December 28, 2014
It was really cool. I got to make good choices and the girls won!!I really like these kind of books so when my got for my little sister I said can I read it after u? Again really good
November 28, 2020
I randomly picked this book from the little free library recently. So I didn't have any prior expectations. I am happy to say that it took me by a pleasant surprise. I had heard of books where the reader gets to decide the ending, but this was the very first such book I read.
I do appreciate the way the authors give the reader the option to choose the next step of action. I can see how it will help young minds take ownership of their decisions, and be comfortable with the different possibilities their decisions can give rise to.
As someone who is not much decisive in nature, and growing up being surrounded by people too eager to take decision on my behalf , I can see how much impact it can make on young kids' minds.
I do appreciate the way the authors give the reader the option to choose the next step of action. I can see how it will help young minds take ownership of their decisions, and be comfortable with the different possibilities their decisions can give rise to.
As someone who is not much decisive in nature, and growing up being surrounded by people too eager to take decision on my behalf , I can see how much impact it can make on young kids' minds.
December 16, 2017
OMG really a cute one!
October 15, 2022
A quick read that allows the reader to experience the time period and engage it in a unique way while learning.
Read
April 14, 2023The sea otter one almost got to me. Poor baby.
February 11, 2024
The great AG marathon continues. Again, reading for the first time as an adult.
AG's "My journey with" books are choose-your-own-adventure-style books in which a present day kid time travels back to meet the AG character and experience their world. So obviously, that does a couple things right off the bat:
- By necessity, we have a protagonist who is generic enough to be a stand-in for the reader. This one is unnamed, but apparently not all of them are. Hard to craft a compelling character while also making a reader stand-in.
- We have a built-in reason to explain anything that a young reader might need explained, though there’s definitely less of this than we saw in Addy’s Journey book or Kaya’s Journey book.
Our nameless protagonist may not have a ton of personality, but she does have a handful of characteristics, most of which line up or contrast with Julie in some way: a recent move, family tensions, an older sibling who doesn’t want to open up to a younger one, a deep love of basketball.
Seriously. This book spends a lot of potential storylines on the basketball court.
Whatever her name is, her experience with Julie (no matter what version of the story you wind up with) gives her new perspective on her family situation and confidence about her athletic abilities - and generally helps her work through her own problems. The various storylines picks up a few elements of Julie’s core series: Mom’s store, wanting to get on the basketball team at school, environmentalism, the Albright’s divorce. The book is basically split between beach cleanup plot lines and basketball plot lines. Ivy and Dad appear only in photographs.
Unsurprisingly, the stakes here feel WAY lower than they did for the girls who met Kaya or Addy, and it all feels pretty safe.
While there are places where you get to make real choices, there are a lot MORE places where you flip to a new page just for the sake of jumping around. That, uh, feels like cheating. The reason to do that would be to transition to a page or section that gets used in multiple storylines. This book mostly doesn't do that. In Dungeons & Dragons, we call this railroading - the illusion of control over the story when in fact you're on train tracks that only go one place. (And again, this isn't true railroading as there are choices, but there's also a lot of random page flipping for the sake of page flipping. Would I care about this if I were eight? Maybe not?)
These are Not For Me and I won't be collecting all of them, but I have a couple more, so I’ll be reading those at some point.
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
AG's "My journey with" books are choose-your-own-adventure-style books in which a present day kid time travels back to meet the AG character and experience their world. So obviously, that does a couple things right off the bat:
- By necessity, we have a protagonist who is generic enough to be a stand-in for the reader. This one is unnamed, but apparently not all of them are. Hard to craft a compelling character while also making a reader stand-in.
- We have a built-in reason to explain anything that a young reader might need explained, though there’s definitely less of this than we saw in Addy’s Journey book or Kaya’s Journey book.
Our nameless protagonist may not have a ton of personality, but she does have a handful of characteristics, most of which line up or contrast with Julie in some way: a recent move, family tensions, an older sibling who doesn’t want to open up to a younger one, a deep love of basketball.
Seriously. This book spends a lot of potential storylines on the basketball court.
Whatever her name is, her experience with Julie (no matter what version of the story you wind up with) gives her new perspective on her family situation and confidence about her athletic abilities - and generally helps her work through her own problems. The various storylines picks up a few elements of Julie’s core series: Mom’s store, wanting to get on the basketball team at school, environmentalism, the Albright’s divorce. The book is basically split between beach cleanup plot lines and basketball plot lines. Ivy and Dad appear only in photographs.
Unsurprisingly, the stakes here feel WAY lower than they did for the girls who met Kaya or Addy, and it all feels pretty safe.
While there are places where you get to make real choices, there are a lot MORE places where you flip to a new page just for the sake of jumping around. That, uh, feels like cheating. The reason to do that would be to transition to a page or section that gets used in multiple storylines. This book mostly doesn't do that. In Dungeons & Dragons, we call this railroading - the illusion of control over the story when in fact you're on train tracks that only go one place. (And again, this isn't true railroading as there are choices, but there's also a lot of random page flipping for the sake of page flipping. Would I care about this if I were eight? Maybe not?)
These are Not For Me and I won't be collecting all of them, but I have a couple more, so I’ll be reading those at some point.
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
February 24, 2015
My favorite out of all the Beforever books.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews