Sydney Clair: A Girl 'n Grace in the 1960s

by Pam Davis, Kathy Buchanan

"When industrious Sydney Clair Wilcox finds herself lonely in the summer of 1965, she determines to do something about it. With her best friends, Vicky and Ann, Sydney Clair sets off on an enterprise to make money to purchase her heart's a fun-loving golden retriever"--

55 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2008

Reviews

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meant as spiritual counter to the American Girl series, the stories are short, historical based, and.. Well, frankly pretty much the same thing. Spiritually speaking there isn't a whole lot of depth here, (Sydney's conversion is very cliche - 1,2,3 pray-with-me, and God was in need of someone to love thus creating man). Historically speaking the author name drops a few 60s Era names (Beatles, 'groovy', space race, etc) so I guess that counts for something.
The good points are, hey, atleast somebody tried to give little girls a more Godly alternative to the ever increasing agenda-driven American Girl. I also admired the author for tackling the topic of feminism(albeit briefly) from a Christian perspective. I don't really know of any authors in children's books who attempts that tiger tail!
The back includes a section of historical information , much like an American Girl book,as well as a section on the start of Campus Crusades. There is also advertising for dolls, online games, and discussion questions.

[Taofy Kenny]

It was fabulous

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is an overly preachy take-off from the American Girl books. Sydney Clair Wilcox lived was ten years old in 1965. Her sister, who is about to enter college, wears white go-go boots and is for women's rights. Her mom works part-time at the library and doesn't want to work full-time. Her friend's mother is constantly telling her to be more ladylike. Sydney wants to buy a dog and she and her friends try various ventures, all of which end badly, to earn money. Then her parents buy her the dog. They compare the dog to the grace of God--both are freely given unearned gifts. One day the dog gets into a bunch of stuff, including some things her mom was doing for work. Because of that, her mother is forced to quickly come up with a new idea, right before an interview with her boss, and instead of being let go, since her part time job was going full time, her mom got a new part time job. Mom points out that the dog was a gift to her, and showed that God knew the desires of her heart. If the dog hadn't ruined what she had, she would never have gotten the new part time job. Then there is the part where Sydney surrenders her life to Jesus.

The illustrations are nice, and do depict suburban life in the 1960's. At the back of the book, a-la-American Girl is a section that is like a scrapbook of the late 1960's showing TV shows, the astronauts and mentioning the Jesus movement. That part is followed by several pages showing the Girls of Grace dolls (which appear to be the same size as American Girl dolls. They have a website and associated merchandise. As a matter of fact, several pages in the book have hearts in the text, and in the heart is .com, so I guess you can go to the website and play.

We went through the American Girl stage here with my oldest daughter, and maybe its a good thing I didn't find the dolls until well after I read the books. I know AG is a merchandising machine that goes far beyond the books, but most of the AG books I read were good books. This one isn't. It is a sermon wrapped in a story,and not a very good story at that.