American Girl Doll Book Review: Daisy Saves The Day

Hi guys! Earlier today, I finished reading Daisy's book, Daisy Saves The Day, so here's my review!

Guys, American Girl did great with this one. In recent years, I have became used to complaining about the downfall of the company and seeing the doll stories deteriorate in quality, but in terms of the story as its own thing, I have nearly nothing to complain about, and I think I know why. Daisy is the first Girl of the Year to deal with her own problems and flaws since Kavi, who is almost about to be 4 years old. Lila's and Summer's books focused more on superficial problems, while the core of the conflict in Raquel's books dealt more with her cousin rather than her as a character, and as both a writer and a diehard AG fan, that was frustrating to deal with. But none of that was present here, and I think it was because AG hired a fresh voice in Megan Wagner Lloyd - who grew up with the company and has tons of writing experience, yet has never written for AG up until this point and wanted to make something that resonated with girls today. I loved Claudie's books for the same reason - Brit Bennett grew up with American Girl, reached out to them to make a character, and then was able to put that same passion and voice into her story that gave Claudie such a nostalgic and unique feel. So American Girl, invest more in your books - the quality will show.

Daisy is a bit of a perfectionist - she is the star player on the soccer team, yet always tends to do things her way instead of sticking with the team. She excels at guitar, but wants to keep her fears and worries about camp and about life in general away. She's just a normal kid, who loves to ride her bike at the age of 10 and, unlike many Girls of the Year from recent times, doesn't have a phone. She's allowed to fail, and her actions have consequences that aren't easily fixed in one page. Her bond with her friends at camp is complex - no friend is all good or all bad, even Daisy is allowed to make mistakes and be a bad friend, and when they fight, it's not that the plot demands it, it's because Daisy's character demands it for genuine growth, not to check a box. It was all really compelling stuff, and if American Girl was in a better position with diversity and general corporate shenanigans, this book would be an easy 10/10 - my first for a Girl of the Year book since Kavi's, I believe.

Unfortunately, though, we have to take in the context of how this was released, and how easy it could have been to tell a story about someone who isn't a typical able-bodied White girl. Every single one of Daisy's friends is either a person of color or disabled. Animal-loving Amina is Black, nature-loving Nina is Latina, soccer-loving Mai is either East or Southeast Asian, and Color War strategist Violet has spinal muscular atrophy and uses a wheelchair. Even more frustratingly, CureCMD, an organization for people with muscular dystrophy, had 2 consultants on Daisy's advisory board to help portray Violet well, yet American Girl didn't think to make the main character disabled. Or a person of color. Or even both. 2027 will mark 10 years since American Girl had a Black Girl of the Year, and we've never had one with a unique design, even though Daisy is our 25th Girl of the Year. However, out of this decade's 5 Girls of the Year who are White, nearly all of them had best friends of color - Joss had Sofia (Japanese), Kira had Alexis (Aboriginal Australian), Lila had Amelia (Latina), and Summer had Daisy (Black). This, in addition to the inclusion of Violet in Daisy's story shows that they COULD add more diversity to this crucial line - they just choose not to.

Plus, I think it's kind of messed up that American Girl didn't even try with the meet book this year and just gave people half of a book that comes with the doll. Couldn't we just have Daisy come with her full first book and let Megan Wagner Lloyd tell us, say, the story of how Daisy used her skills that she learned at camp to do better on the soccer team the next school year, and the challenges she'd face with that, in a book two?

Oh wait. American Girl would never. They'd rather give us an 18 inch Barbie of a country singer none of us heard of before the partnership leaked.

8.5/10 (really a 10/10, but rounded down due to AG's corporate baloney)