The Glowing Heart: A Josefina Mystery

American Girl Mysteries

by Valerie Tripp, Juliana Kolesova (Illustrator)

Josefina's home is filled with holiday guests, including a dashing man from Mexico City who delivers a precious heirloom to Tía Dolores. Everyone is delighted with the stunning ruby ring, but as soon as the ring appears at the rancho, things start going wrong. What is going on? With all her heart, Josefina is determined to find out.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Middle Grade, Historical, Childrens, Fiction

189 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2016

About the author

Valerie 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.

Reviews

[QNPoohBear · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book. I loved learning about the customs of New Mexico and about the Navajo language and culture. All the details in this story are incredibly vivid: from the food they eat to the scenery. I felt like I was right there. I think the history is accurate. I appreciated the mention of the conflict between the ranchers and the Indians. The details about the process of making wool yarn were accurate and I liked reading about that. The mystery was interesting but the villain was super easy to figure out. I also figured out the other mysteries. I'm not the target age but even when I was, I hated mysteries because I always solved the case before the sleuth. There are a number of suspects and I thought it MIGHT be something unexpected or there might be more than one thief. This isn't the very best of the AG mysteries but it's better than most of Kit, Samantha and Felicity's mysteries. This may be Valerie Tripp's best written book yet, or at least the one I have enjoyed the most as an adult. I'm not a huge fan of Josefina's core series or the character in general but I did like this book. Though the mystery/mysteries is/are weak, I appreciated all the historical and cultural details in the book.

[Rebecca]

One of the better American Girl mysteries. I've always had a fondness for Josefina. Some of the secondary characters do seem to have exaggerated personalities, though that is not entirely uncommon in children's books. I had the mystery figured out early on, but I doubt I would have if I was in the target audience. I like how the history and culture was subtly woven into the story. The culture is what really kept me interested in the story.

[Marian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Glowing Heart is my favorite of the three mysteries that came out this year. That's probably mostly due to the fact that it reads like a continuation of Josefina's main series and all the warm fuzzies are there.

It's possible to solve all the mysteries, though only one is fairly obvious right off the bat. I mention this because I like my mysteries to be something the reader can solve and I definitely preferred that as a kid.

[Danae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review to follow.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thief, a long-lost brother, and Josefina's kindness all contribute to the mystery. Adults will likely figure it all out but it's still cute. A bit more in-depth and longer than other Josefina books I've read.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like Josefina's first mystery, The Secrets in the Hills, this one sticks to her usual home and cast of characters, with just a few additions. Unlike the other book, this one doesn't do much to further anyone's characterization, but while Secrets is the stronger installment, I enjoyed this one, too.

Mostly, this is a stolen items plot, with more and more things going missing. Since there are only two new characters until the very end, our suspect list is only those two guys and the rumored raiders, which makes the sisters' discussions go around in the same circles as Clara and Francisca continue their Odd Couple vibe.

Tía Dolores' ailment is blindingly obvious to the adult reader. Given that all the girls have seen Ana go through two pregnancies, not to mention what the older girls may remember about their mother, not to mention other women in their households or in the village, I'm skeptical that they don't recognize what's happening.

It's lovely to see Teresita reconnect with her brother when the one of the key things we've known about her since Lesson has been that she was kidnapped from her people when she was young.

The resolution is, as often happens, a little too tidy to be likely, but we get the happy ending all the same.


More Josefina babble

Meet Josefina | Josefina Learns a Lesson | Josefina’s Surprise | Happy Birthday, Josefina | Josefina Saves the Day | Changes for Josefina

A Reward for Josefina | Again, Josefina! | Josefina’s Song | Just Josefina | Thanks to Josefina | Josefina’s Short Story Collection

Secrets in the Hills | The Glowing Hearts

[Jessica Kuznicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad for an AG mystery but still extremely predictable. I was annoyed by Francisca, she was too pushy with the old romance ideas and too not serious about important matters. Tia Dolores also annoyed me because the same thing was done in a Samantha mystery with Aunt Cornelia being pregnant but the kids not knowing. It seemed more interesting in the Samantha book because the chicken pox and the phone call. And Josefina's mother died of illness so having Tia Dolores suddenly act ill with no explanation seemed unsually cruel to the Montoya sisters. Teresita's plotline seemed more fleshed out and better explained than the main series in that at least Josefina acknowledged that Teresita was ripped away from her home, family, and culture to be their servant. But the overall treatment of the Navajo people in this book still needs a lot of help. Is Teresita a slave? Will she never see her brother again? He gets two sheep and a blanket, that's it? Why don't the Spanish trust Navajo farmers? Is Teresita free to leave probably not? Josefina suspected Teresita of being a thief but not any of the other servants (or are they slaves?) or family members. It seemed weird to me that Don Fernando was only stopped from stealing the horse thanks to Josefina by accident mulitple times. Are none of the adults smart enough to suspect him? They were very suspicious of Patrick, why aren't they wary of this dude? And why does Clara defend him so much? Once again, Josefina has to be the adult and handle everything herself, this poor girl never just gets to be a child. This book felt like a smash up of a Samantha mystery in that Tia Dolores is "ill" and the Cecile mystery in that a beloved servant is acting suspicious for a good reason. The only original thing about this book is the rich New Mexican setting. The plot needs help.

[Panda Incognito · Rating 2 out of 5]

Suitable for the target age, but utterly predictable.

[Maria . · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't finish The Glowing Heart. It was boring to me, and it didn't keep my attention.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like reading about Josefina and would like it if more mysteries were written for this character. This book was okay to read. I saw right through why her aunt, now step-mother Dolores wasn't feeling well and seemed tired all the time. Some characters and the way things were presented seemed rather exaggerated or "over-done," but I think since this book is geared towards kids, I'm rather more worldly and so found this silly. However, perhaps something like that would be good for kids to read. One of the characters who seems like a very nice and polite person actually turns out to be a thief. The fact that "bad" people aren't always scary and mean I think is a good thing for kids to learn. It just would've been better if this plot could've been beefed up a bit more, but oh well.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

First I have to say the cover of this book is absolutely beautiful. How I miss the illustrations in these books so much! Second this story was good. I often find the AG mysteries to be predictable but I ever felt confident in a solution to this story and the answer to the ring mystery was a total surprise. I also learned a lot about living in that time and it was slightly scary and suspenseful in itself!

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was good, but it wasn't the most difficult to figure out "whodunit". I got that correctly first guess, but not the details, obviously. Good story though. The thing that bothers me about Josefina's stories is that all the girls obsess over Tia Dolores. Chill ninas.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

More streamlined than the other Josefina mystery, but also much more easy to solve. I'm surprised at how each of these books introduced a fairly major development in Josefina's life.

[Lydia Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how this book highlights Josefina’s Catholic faith in the every day!
It does completely ignore events from the earlier Josefina mystery… but by the end, I didn’t really care.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Layers of mystery pepper this historical mystery. I loved the familiar characters and the New Mexico scenery. This mystery is interesting and shouldn’t be too scary for younger readers.

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The solution to the main mystery was pretty obvious, and felt like a major oversight on the characters’ part. A lot of repetition explaining who characters were in relation to each other.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this one, mostly because of Tia Dolores’ reveal at the end! I wish there was at least one more book to finish out Josefina’s story.

[Little Seal]

I knew that Tia Dolores was pregnant from the start, but I'm also a woman in her 30s so I guess I shouldn't be that impressed.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had an unbelievable amount of red herrings and false side stories, even for a kids book.

[amanda luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only a little predictable, but still fun.

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love josefina she's my favorite

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

In The Glowing Heart, Josefina and her family, including her stepmother, Tia Dolores, are celebrating Three Kings Day. Joining the family are two visitors: Senor Fernando, who wishes to buy a horse from Josefina's father, and Don Javier, a former boyfriend of Tia Dolores, who brings her the ruby ring she has inherited from an aunt. When the ring goes missing, Tia Dolores is devastated and Josefina wonders which of their guests could have stolen it, and whether the family is in danger of losing anything more to the thief. I liked this book a lot for the day-to-day details of living on a ranch, but not as much for the mystery. For a kids' book, this involved a lot of adult characters with more mature problems than most eight-year-olds can relate to. I had never read a Josefina book, so this was interesting for that reason, but otherwise, it was really just okay.

[Grace Robinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started this book years ago and my goal is to finish all of the book on my shelf. And it’s going well so far but still. This book was not good. By the time I jumped back in I remembered none of it. That shows it isn’t a good book. I can normally pick a book back up and remember some of what happened. But not with this book. I will say it helped me in my Spanish class but that’s like it. I would NOT recommend this book to anyone. Spend your money on something else. Unless you are wanting to learn about Mexico and three kings day or you have the doll or even love Mexican history. I don’t see why the red scarf was brought up so many times and why there was so many subjects of who it could’ve been. Like I do but don’t!

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

See the first book in the series for a full review.