Daisy Davenport Saves the Day

by Megan Wagner Lloyd, Maike Plenzke (Illustrator), Paige Pooler (Illustrator)

176 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2026

About the author

Megan Wagner Lloyd is the writer of the kids' graphic novels ALLERGIC and SQUISHED, co-created with illustrator Michelle Mee Nutter, and the SUPER PANCAKE series, co-created with illustrator Abhi Alwar. She's also the author of HAVEN: A SMALL CAT'S BIG ADVENTURE, and several picture books. She lives with her family in the Washington DC area.

Sign up for her newsletter: meganwagnerlloyd.com
Find her on Instagram: @meganwagnerlloyd

Reviews

[Miranda Reads]

I back away. I don't want to hear this. ...
"Callie can't go to camp with you, after all."

Daisy Davenport could not be more excited for Camp Gowonagin...that is until her best friend breaks her arm and has to sit out the three-week sleepaway camp. Suddenly what looked like a grand adventure is becoming more of a nightmare.

New people, new places, new things, new EVERYTHING.

"But what if I'm not strong enough to go to summer camp alone, after all? My stomach twists."

And things only get worse when Daisy checks into the Badger Cabin - four other campers plus a counselor and a caretaker all in the same room together. It's a lot.

"It's way too dark, and I hate how it sounds so different here than at home, with the bug noises and . . . was that an owl hooting? My whole body stiffens."

But as time goes on, Daisy starts to loosen up a bit - but with friendship trouble and scary challenges in her future, will she ever feel happy in this camp?

"Right now there's nothing to do but be right here, right now. To just be in this beautiful place."

4 stars for the story but 5 stars cause she's a camper from Wisconsin.

A Bit of Backstory

I don't know about you all but when I saw that we FINALLY got a Wisconsinite from American Girl, I was screaming! The company was literally founded in Wisconsin, we are FAR past due for having a gal from our neck of the woods.

Daisy Davenport is part of the Girl of the Year (GOTY) series from the American Girl company, meaning her doll and story is set in 2027 and will be highlighted for about 2 years before she'll be officially retired. So it's a bit of a bummer that she's not going to be a permanent part of the collection but ah well. Can't win them all.

As part of the GOTY series, she's released with a couple of books. This book you can purchase separately, but the other book (Meet Daisy) can only be bought with the doll.

First, I'll give my thoughts on the story, then there's a bit of tea.

My Thoughts on the Book

I'm slowly working my way through all of the GOTY books but I HAD to skip ahead when I saw Daisy's being released.

Overall, this was a rather cute book that felt authentic to the Wisconsin Camping Experience (TM) (I was a camper for nearly a decade before becoming a counselor myself).

I really liked how this book showed Daisy's emotions as she processed the camping experience. Camping is often a girl's first experience being totally away from their friends, parents, and familiar environment.

It's a hugely liberating moment but also one fraught with emotional upheaval (this is NOT me being dramatic, this is three years of camp counselor experience being shared here!). And Daisy goes from intimidated to homesick to tentatively having fun to loving her camp. It was a really sweet journey to see.

I also really liked the balance of characters at Camp Gowonagin - we have the Nature Nerd (Amira), the Homesick girl (Nina), the Overly Excited gal (Mai) and the Sweetheart (Violet). Additionally, there's Counselor Izzy, Camp Director Karla, and Ms. Jen (Violet's caretaker).

One thing that was rather well done was Violet's character. She has spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and needs a mobility device and a caretaker to help her with various tasks.

I felt like her inclusion in the girls' camping experience felt natural and while the girls made accommodations for her, it never felt ham-handed or over-the-top. I also appreciated how the book cited two SMA experts who were consulted for this story. Love the representation and the inclusion.

The overarching plot was great - loved the focus on being a team player, trying new things, and finding ways to be brave in the ordinary.

AND DID I MENTION MOLLY? Molly McIntire, one of the original Historical American Girl Dolls, had one of her books set at Camp Gowonagin in the 1940s. She ended up being a character in THIS universe, which is so fun!

I really liked seeing her impact on Daisy and getting a historical blurb about what camping life was like in the 1940s at the back of the book!

That being said, the reason that the story fell to four stars for me was it felt just too busy.

This is a three week camping experience crammed into just under 160 pages with five main girls going off on adventures all the time. Heck, even keeping track of all the characters was a challenge since we are given so many of them to memorize right at the beginning.

There's a lot of character development and plot happening all at once and I would have appreciated if they had split this book into two or even three separate stories (maybe 1 week per book) to really take the time to explore the rapid changes happening in the story.

In the past, GOTY would have at least two, if not three books that really took their time with the character growth and plot and I feel like that would've been a better choice for this story. It was really good, but it felt just too quick for the pacing.

The TEA -- Part 1

So I did mention earlier that the first book (Meet Daisy) can only be bought with the $135 doll of Daisy. To me, this is a huge disappointment. In older GOTY books, all of the books associated with the American Girl dolls can be purchased separately. I'm really not a big fan of this new mandatory trend with the past couple of years.

Furthermore, I've heard chatter online that Meet Daisy (despite having a different cover) is actually just the first few chapters of Daisy Davenport Saves the Day which (if true) is so beyond disappointing.

And while I definitely plan to eventually purchase the doll, I can't really go dropping $135 on every book I want to read so I'll have to leave that as an unconfirmed rumor as of now until there's a sale and I can pickup the doll to confirm for you all.

And, one more thing, the bundling of the doll with the book also prevents libraries from purchasing copies of Meet Daisy for patrons.

I had a previously difficult experience with Lila, the GOTY from 2023. One book, Lila Goes for the Gold, was sold separately, while Lila: My Journal could only be bought with the doll. 244 libraries in the United States own at least one copy of Lila Goes for the Gold while only 2 libraries own Lila: My Journal.

In that case, I was able to do an inter-library loan and thank you to a library in Massachusetts for letting me borrow it but by not selling the book separately, there's thousands of girls who just will never have the chance to read the book.

The TEA -- Part 2

The other thing that surprised me was that Daisy Davenport Saves the Day referenced Molly's Camp Gowonagin experience so much - which was fun! - but the American Girl Company doesn't actually sell the book about Molly and Camp Gowonagin!

For the uninitiated: Molly's books were originally sold as six individual stories. They were paired into two volumes (3 books per volume) and rebranded as the Beforever books (note: they also took out the pictures here. Bummer). Then in the early 2020s, most of the Beforever books were re-released as the "Abridged" version - still as two volumes but with pictures!

Molly only had the first half of her stories re-released, meaning the second half (which includes her Camp Gowonagin experience) hasn't been published as the abridged version. So if you were to go online, you could buy Book 1 (Abridged) but not Book 2.

(Note: We are really getting in the weeds here BUT I have seen photos of the cover art for Book 2 and reached out to the company. They wouldn't give any date on if they were going to re-release the second abridged book).

I do really like how some of the GOTY books are making references to earlier characters (like Lila and McKenna or Samantha and Raquel) but this one puzzles me. Why they would base Daisy's book on Molly's camp experience but not have Molly's story available to purchase?

Overall Thoughts

At the end of the day, my frustration tea aside, I do really love that we have a Wisconsin Camper for the GOTY - it has me excited for a new collection AND I really loved reading about the camping experience. SO much nostalgia and adventure throughout the story.

[teresa :)]

thank you ALA for fueling my childhood (& adulthood) obsession

[Christina Mamori]

I loved this so much can’t wait for Daisy to come out.

[Angela Hull]

Please let Daisy have some connection to Molly. 🙏

[Jessica Olenski]

I really enjoyed Daisy's summer camp adventures! Her friends are unique and were fun to read about. One of them had the name of my best friend, which I especially loved! I wish we got more time with Molly. She and Daisy exchanged a few sweet sentences, but I thought there would be more. Violet's comic was precious, though! . There was a clever lesson about teamwork, which is different than any I've read. This is another GOTY hit! :D

[Kari McDowell]

Super fun campy read. Love it! Shout-out for disability inclusion as well.