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American Girl: Maryellen
The Sky's the Limit: My Journey with Maryellen
What if you suddenly found yourself in Maryellen’s world during the 1950s? How would your life be changed, what would you do to fit in—and, more importantly, what would you do to stand out? Join Maryellen on an adventure where the two of you can put on poodle skirts and head to a school dance (they were called sock hops back then!), enter a contest, or take a trip in a streamlined silver camper that looks like a rocket ship! 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.
193 pages, Paperback
First published August 27, 2015
15 people are currently reading
228 people want to read
About the author
Valerie Tripp
273 books439 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 30 reviews
September 10, 2017
I've read quite a few of the Beforever CYOA books recently, and this is the first one I've read worthy of a five star rating. Rather than the two stories with various options within, this one actually has two choices that form at least eight different stories, which made me want to go back and read for the different endings. Rather than rehash things from the Maryellen Classic books, this one also had tons of tidbits about Florida culture and 1950s culture and also Southern culture. I also learned more about Maryellen and her family and friends.
December 14, 2015
Felt like a lot of Sophie's excuses weren't believable. Also, it was strange that she used her real name.
November 2, 2024
I liked this book! I thought it was fun that a modern girl was going back in time to meet Maryellen and reflect on her own life while partaking in various adventures. We too can transport ourselves by traveling, reading, or just trying something new. These experiences often make us think about our own lives differently. It was hard for my to quit worrying, during the first storyline, what would happen when the real girl the Larkin’s were waiting on showed up at their door but Sophie had already taken off with the family pretending to be her?!? My favorite storyline was Sophie happening to meet her grandma when she was a kid in the 1950s-so cute! And the feminist themes of this storyline as well- women can do anything, including Sophie’s grandma hoping to become an archaeologist (which we know does come true).
Finally, Maryellen has joined the crew of lesbian American Girls! She says she won’t like boys for a VERY long time…
Finally, Maryellen has joined the crew of lesbian American Girls! She says she won’t like boys for a VERY long time…
July 23, 2017
Just because I like Maryellen her stories and her time so much I enjoyed reading this book because I learned a lot about the era. And now I wish I was a kid then lol. As a make your own ending book though, it didn't have too many options to do that. Mainly the only choices were to leave or to stay. And if you didn't keep staying not much happened in the story you created. If you kept choosing to stay till you couldn't go further the stories were really great. So there were two stand out stories in this book that should be stand alone books lol. Otherwise the side options were kind of Flat. If it weren't for that I'd give this five stars because the Maryellen series is really good!
November 14, 2017
In this “choose-your-own-ending” book, a current day girl gets whisked back in time to meet Maryellen Larkin and her family. Adventures include spending time on a Florida beach, a road trip, Thanksgiving with Grandmom and Grandpop, and even a meeting with her own grandmother when she was a young girl.
November 12, 2021
Read to Isabel: just wasn’t a huge fan of this CYOA format with it being a modern girl time traveling into Maryellen’s time. It might be more fun if it was written with a second person “you” instead of a new modern day character who the audience doesn’t get much time to really care about and most of her issues are told and not shown. Also Maryellen is more of a set piece in this book than a new story being told within her world. My daughter loves Maryellen so she was pretty disappointed that Maryellen wasn’t the focus of the narrative.
November 2, 2025
Cried.
November 29, 2016
These new "choose your own" American Girl stories are cute. The only qualm I had was that for certain endings you had to go online to finish your tale. A good marketing ploy, sure, to drive traffic to the website, but annoying for someone who was in book mode and didn't want to have to get out the tech to continue.
May 28, 2023
One of my favorite childhood books.
November 24, 2023
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. They all have some basic backstory elements, and this one even has a name (many don’t), but it’s still hard to craft a compelling character while also making a reader stand-in. This one’s better than some, and in fact Sophie actually starts to overshadow Maryellen. Which, poor Ellie, is exactly what she hates about being in the middle of a big family. At least Sophie can commiserate, as she also feels overshadowed by her twin sister, so a key component of all versions of her journey is learning to speak up for herself.
- 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. Instead, we get a description of a rotary phone attached to the wall and I prepare to crumble into dust.
Here’s what this not-so-young reader needs explained:
- Did everyone just forget poor Cindy Lou at the airport?? We establish early on that a girl related to one of Mom’s friends is arriving to stay with the Larkins for a while, and the first big choice for Sophie is whether or not she claims to be this girl. When she does, Mrs. Larkin says she had planned to pick up Cindy Lou at the airport and praises Sophie for being enterprising enough to just get a taxi to the house instead. Nowhere in this branch are there any repercussions for this assumed identity (Cindy Lou never calls from the airport wondering where her ride is), and nowhere in the other branch does Mrs. Larkin actually pick up Cindy Lou. What the actual.
- Why are the Larkins so comfortable about dropping Sophie at the airport and handling her own ticket change? I get that this is the era of “just come home when the streetlights come on,” but air travel was new and special — not something you’d leave to a nine-year-old, I would think?? Yet three different conclusions show the Larkins dropping Sophie off outside three different airports as she assures them it’s all fine.
So there’s that.
The various storylines do pick up various elements of Maryellen’s two core books: we go to the beach, meet her school friends (and frenemies), tackle Ellie’s stage fright, even travel in the Airstream trailer and go skating at Ellie’s grandparents’ house. But one thing we don’t see (also like Maryellen’s core series), is any any mention of segregation. I can believe that, from the perspective of a (presumably) white girl visiting the Larkins, a nine-year-old really just might not notice. Maybe. But it is a choice for the writer and editors to steer around it. For all the other little things that get dropped in, they easily could have found a way to include this, too.
How is the Choose Your Own Adventure aspect? 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 one more on my shelf, so that’s probably next.
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. They all have some basic backstory elements, and this one even has a name (many don’t), but it’s still hard to craft a compelling character while also making a reader stand-in. This one’s better than some, and in fact Sophie actually starts to overshadow Maryellen. Which, poor Ellie, is exactly what she hates about being in the middle of a big family. At least Sophie can commiserate, as she also feels overshadowed by her twin sister, so a key component of all versions of her journey is learning to speak up for herself.
- 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. Instead, we get a description of a rotary phone attached to the wall and I prepare to crumble into dust.
Here’s what this not-so-young reader needs explained:
- Did everyone just forget poor Cindy Lou at the airport?? We establish early on that a girl related to one of Mom’s friends is arriving to stay with the Larkins for a while, and the first big choice for Sophie is whether or not she claims to be this girl. When she does, Mrs. Larkin says she had planned to pick up Cindy Lou at the airport and praises Sophie for being enterprising enough to just get a taxi to the house instead. Nowhere in this branch are there any repercussions for this assumed identity (Cindy Lou never calls from the airport wondering where her ride is), and nowhere in the other branch does Mrs. Larkin actually pick up Cindy Lou. What the actual.
- Why are the Larkins so comfortable about dropping Sophie at the airport and handling her own ticket change? I get that this is the era of “just come home when the streetlights come on,” but air travel was new and special — not something you’d leave to a nine-year-old, I would think?? Yet three different conclusions show the Larkins dropping Sophie off outside three different airports as she assures them it’s all fine.
So there’s that.
The various storylines do pick up various elements of Maryellen’s two core books: we go to the beach, meet her school friends (and frenemies), tackle Ellie’s stage fright, even travel in the Airstream trailer and go skating at Ellie’s grandparents’ house. But one thing we don’t see (also like Maryellen’s core series), is any any mention of segregation. I can believe that, from the perspective of a (presumably) white girl visiting the Larkins, a nine-year-old really just might not notice. Maybe. But it is a choice for the writer and editors to steer around it. For all the other little things that get dropped in, they easily could have found a way to include this, too.
How is the Choose Your Own Adventure aspect? 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 one more on my shelf, so that’s probably next.
October 18, 2022
The first two Maryellen books in the series were okay, for me they were too corny but I guess younger kids don’t mind. But the choose your own adventure was way worse, which is funny because I originally thought it would be my favorite. I’ve read other choose your own adventures in the American Girl series, all of which were at least three stars, but this one just didn’t quite pull that off for me…it was so different. I have been liking Maryellen’s character development progression throughout the books, and this one continues it! I did appreciate that. But pretty much all other aspects of the book sucked.
First of all, lots of the decisions to make were terrible options. Half of them were just whether to stay with Maryellen and her family or to go back home. If you choose to leave, then there’s like two pages about what happens at home and then the story’s over. So I basically found myself repeatedly selecting to stay, because if I didn’t, the story just abruptly ends! What sort of sloppy storytelling is that? Just having the options be to end the story or not?
Also, some decisions that you make lead to other people in the story changing their decisions. Even though they’re completely unrelated to the decisions the other characters end up changing! For example, if you choose to lie about something, Maryellen’s family decides to go on a road trip, but if you tell the truth, the road trip is never even mentioned in the story! It doesn’t logically make sense to me for the author to change it up like that. Other people’s choices should remain unaffected. Maybe that’s an opinion, but if so, I’d like to think it’s a popular one.
Another thing I disliked was the main character. Sure, the perspective shift is nice because now we can see how Maryellen seems to other people, but that’s about it. The character (Sophie) is really bland. The only trait I could honestly define for her throughout the story is stupid. Okay, that seems kinda harsh. But why on earth would she believe in time travel? She just decides to accept the fact that apparently science is a lie and magic is real?
If that’s not enough, when you select the tell the truth option, Sophie takes it too seriously. She tells a random girl she met by time travel her real name! And her personal information! Maryellen doesn’t deserve to know about her family’s money issues or her relationship with her twin sister. Sophie tells her anyways, without even being provoked. Super smart move right there! Not. This book generally lacks logic and imagination. Two stars is pretty generous…the other AG books were way higher in quality.
First of all, lots of the decisions to make were terrible options. Half of them were just whether to stay with Maryellen and her family or to go back home. If you choose to leave, then there’s like two pages about what happens at home and then the story’s over. So I basically found myself repeatedly selecting to stay, because if I didn’t, the story just abruptly ends! What sort of sloppy storytelling is that? Just having the options be to end the story or not?
Also, some decisions that you make lead to other people in the story changing their decisions. Even though they’re completely unrelated to the decisions the other characters end up changing! For example, if you choose to lie about something, Maryellen’s family decides to go on a road trip, but if you tell the truth, the road trip is never even mentioned in the story! It doesn’t logically make sense to me for the author to change it up like that. Other people’s choices should remain unaffected. Maybe that’s an opinion, but if so, I’d like to think it’s a popular one.
Another thing I disliked was the main character. Sure, the perspective shift is nice because now we can see how Maryellen seems to other people, but that’s about it. The character (Sophie) is really bland. The only trait I could honestly define for her throughout the story is stupid. Okay, that seems kinda harsh. But why on earth would she believe in time travel? She just decides to accept the fact that apparently science is a lie and magic is real?
If that’s not enough, when you select the tell the truth option, Sophie takes it too seriously. She tells a random girl she met by time travel her real name! And her personal information! Maryellen doesn’t deserve to know about her family’s money issues or her relationship with her twin sister. Sophie tells her anyways, without even being provoked. Super smart move right there! Not. This book generally lacks logic and imagination. Two stars is pretty generous…the other AG books were way higher in quality.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 28, 2018
This was cute and ok for what it was, but it had zero verisimilitude (and no, I'm not referring to the time-travel element). Why would a school hold a sock hop on the day before Thanksgiving? I felt like the author was forcing this book into a timeline just so Sophie and Maryellen could see the eclipse in Washington D.C. Also, it bugged me that the other characters made different choices depending on your unrelated choices. If you choose to pretend to be someone you're not, Maryellen's parents decide to take the family on a road trip but they don't if you tell the truth. Huh? I guess I'm being nitpicky, but that's the way I roll. Also gets negative respect points for going back to November, 1955 and not bringing up Back to the Future (the eleven-year-old protagonist has seen Jane Eyre so don't tell me they don't know BttF).
November 29, 2025
I thought maybe a fair review would require me to read all the choices, as this is a choose-your-own-adventure story. Which is super cool, love that concept though I’m not usually drawn to it! I just did the one readthrough. It could’ve been better. Some things were on the nose and blander than I expect from American Girl, but not necessarily from Maryellen’s series itself. I love Maryellen and the vibes! It just feels not as deep sometimes, I guess? Idk. Love Valerie Tripp so this is nothing against her. Cute and fun and a nice light read, just could’ve been better.
January 7, 2024
Do I read my children’s books? Apparently yes. But they didn’t have these time-travel choose-your-own-adventure American Girl books back in the 90s! I would have loved them. The different endings have different morals, which is cute. It highlights how different childhood is now, good and bad, in a way kids can relate to. Valerie Tripp was always my favorite American Girl author. And the book is dedicated to Jennifer Hirsch, whom I’ve always liked so much.
October 6, 2017
This book can have different endings! It is fun that you can choose what the main character will do. It’s very exciting to see all the different endings. It can be confusing at times but it is mostly exciting.
November 17, 2018
I like AG books, but it turns out I don’t like them much with modern kids time-traveling to hang out with AG characters in a choose-your-own-adventure format.
January 11, 2019
Did you know that they have choose-your-own-adventure books involving time travel in the American Girl universe? Because why not?
January 16, 2019
Very entertaining. I love how many choices there are.
November 19, 2019
A really charming and heartwarming book. Be sure to go online and read the alternative endings, too.
November 20, 2020
Great book, very interesting. Very different than the other books. The book is interactive and you get to pick what she does
Read
July 18, 2022If anyone knows how to access the old online endings, that would be awesome!
Read
October 26, 2024DUDE 3RD GRADE ME ATE UP ANY CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE BOOKS
November 12, 2024
I could not find my ending in the american girl site ... So what is my ending?!?
June 26, 2025
4.73598 stars according to my kid.
July 15, 2019
Sophie, a modern girl is participating in a ski team competition with her twin sister Emma. Sophie is momentarily confused when she can't see path but someone waves her in the right direction. She's astonished and happy she won. She's given a vintage wrist watch with a stop watch as a prize but then she's accused of cheating by her very own sister! Sophie is miserable and finds it difficult to explain. Sophie has been under a lot of stress lately and really regrets joining the ski team because her sister wants to. Her Gran moved in with them and now Sophie and Emma share a room. They haven't been getting along too well but Sophie nevr dreamed Emma would accuse her of something so horrible. She fiddles with the stop watch and woosh she's transported to a sunny locale - Daytona Beach with Maryellen and the Larkins. She loves Maryellen's big, loving family and together Sophie and Maryellen help each other conquer their fears and discover what's truly important - family.
I liked this book better than the regular Maryellen books. It takes place in November 1955 (Elvis fans be sure to read the online endings) just after Maryellen's core stories. The modern story seems plausible and even the time travel isn't too fish out of water. I disliked one storyline that affects the "space time continuum" as another story set in the fall of 1955 calls it. This story is far more realistic than Back to the Future though. Everything that happens seems like it could actually happen in real life. I can't help but love the Larkins seeing them through Sophie's eyes. I also liked how some specific 1950s differences were pointed out- like Sophie's life is very regimented but Maryellen has a lot more free time and less pressure on her so she can enjoy being a kid. The children are allowed to roam freely without parental supervision, which is unheard of today and in my day we played outside like the Larkins but had to ask permission or get an adult before wandering off or inviting someone home. (My mom says the Baby Boomers turned into hovering parents). I liked getting to know Maryellen a bit better from someone else's point-of-view. I loved the visit to Cypress Gardens in the online ending. It sounds like a magical place. Best of all, I love that spending time with Maryellen makes Sophie eager to get to know her Gran.
I liked this book better than the regular Maryellen books. It takes place in November 1955 (Elvis fans be sure to read the online endings) just after Maryellen's core stories. The modern story seems plausible and even the time travel isn't too fish out of water. I disliked one storyline that affects the "space time continuum" as another story set in the fall of 1955 calls it. This story is far more realistic than Back to the Future though. Everything that happens seems like it could actually happen in real life. I can't help but love the Larkins seeing them through Sophie's eyes. I also liked how some specific 1950s differences were pointed out- like Sophie's life is very regimented but Maryellen has a lot more free time and less pressure on her so she can enjoy being a kid. The children are allowed to roam freely without parental supervision, which is unheard of today and in my day we played outside like the Larkins but had to ask permission or get an adult before wandering off or inviting someone home. (My mom says the Baby Boomers turned into hovering parents). I liked getting to know Maryellen a bit better from someone else's point-of-view. I loved the visit to Cypress Gardens in the online ending. It sounds like a magical place. Best of all, I love that spending time with Maryellen makes Sophie eager to get to know her Gran.
December 15, 2015
It has been a long time since I've read a "choose-your-own-adventure" book. So I was pleasantly surprised when this book turned out to be one! We are given a little bit of fantasy as the reader is allowed to go back in time to 1955 to visit with Maryellen.
Will you go skiing or skating with Maryellen. Go on a family vacation with the Larkins and visit different places with them. Determine when you want to "leave" and go back to your proper time period, there were lot of fun options. And also more lessons about what life was like in the 1950s.
Will you go skiing or skating with Maryellen. Go on a family vacation with the Larkins and visit different places with them. Determine when you want to "leave" and go back to your proper time period, there were lot of fun options. And also more lessons about what life was like in the 1950s.
September 13, 2015
fun story
August 2, 2016
I loved the way it transports us back to the mid 1950s. Really great book!
April 15, 2017
A fun choose your own ending that has some great lessons. I thought it was interesting that it was in 1st person, since most of these type of books are in second. A good adventure.
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September 20, 2018I didn’t like it nor dislike it therefore it gets no rating.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews