Today, I read Corinne to the Rescue! Here's the summary and review!
If you don't want to be spoiled, don't click this post... BUT do click here to order the book for yourself!
Chapter 1
It’s the last good day for skiing before spring starts, and Corinne is a little sad, but Gwynn reminds her that every summer, they learn “Five New Things” together, so that cheers Corinne up. Corinne thinks about Flurry, but then remembers that without snow, Flurry can’t learn search and rescue. Corinne then takes Flurry to the park to train her. At the park, Zach, her dad’s friend who trains dogs, introduces her to Kim, his dog-training mentor who agrees to be Corinne’s mentor if Flurry learns to go on a ski lift, climb on someone’s back and ride in a sled. Corinne accepts the offer.
Chapter 2
Corinne wants to try “loading up” on the chair lift in her room, but Gwynn’s stuffed animals are on the lift. Before she practices, she goes to Kuai Le, her mother’s restaurant and tells her mom about the offer. But as she practices, Gwynn butts in, pretending to be a dog and asking to play with her sister, and Corinne gets annoyed.
Chapter 3
Corinne comes to Gwynn’s skating practice to encourage her. Gwynn practices for her next competition, but struggles a bit. When her mom comes, though, she requests to hang out with Corinne. The two get ice cream, making sure to have dairy pills beforehand because they’re lactose intolerant, before heading to the bookstore. (Wow, American Girl. Making characters lactose intolerant without having that be the main plot!) Anyways, Corinne finds a book about decorating a bedroom, and thinks that it might be time for her to find her own room. She tries to show the book to her mom, but her mom tells her that she’s having a baby.
Chapter 4
On the phone, Corinne tells Cassidy about the baby, and also tells her that the spare room will be turned into a nursery, so she will have to stick with Gwynn. Gwynn annoys Corinne again, making her wish she had her own room. During dinner a few weeks later, it is revealed that the new baby is a boy, and Corinne’s mom calls her parents, Corinne’s Gong Gong (maternal grandfather) and Po Po (maternal grandmother) to tell them. Gong Gong says “A boy! Finally!”, which hurts Corinne.
Chapter 5
A few weeks later, Corinne invites Cassidy to go on a hike with Flurry. Flurry notices a fox and barks and growls at it, which shocks Corinne because Flurry is usually gentle. Cassidy helps Flurry up the ski lift, and Corinne comes up with the idea to invite Cassidy on her annual family camping trip to help train Flurry.
Chapter 6
Arne tells Corinne that her mom has been sick with the pregnancy and that the camping trip might be cancelled. Her mom insists that it’s normal hormones, and Arne relents. On a video call with Kim, Corinne updates her on Flurry’s progress, and Kim gives her an idea on how to help with getting Flurry to jump on her back, which she was struggling with.
Chapter 7
To prepare Flurry for canoeing, something that she needs to learn in order to ride in a sled, Corinne teaches her to sit on a canoe in the ground. After, Cassidy has the idea to make a survival kit for the trip- all the stuff they wished they had during their hike.
Chapter 8
Corinne’s family and Cassidy head to the campground for their trip. They do camping things, hiking, sing camping songs, have dinner, and start a fire.
Chapter 9
By the fire, Corinne and her family have banana boats, bananas stuffed with junk food, for dessert. During dessert, the baby in Corinne’s mom’s stomach kicks, which makes everyone happy. While discussing baby names, Arne suggests naming the baby Love (pronounced Loo-veh), which makes Corinne feel hurt.
Chapter 10
The next day, a campground worker named Lori shows the group the canoe, and they go on it. Flurry does good, which makes Corinne proud. Everyone has fun, but Gwynn doesn’t paddle because she’s too young, which makes Corinne feel jealous.
Chapter 11
The boat jolts down, and everyone lands in the river. Stressed, Corinne swims with Flurry to get to the shore. Once they get to shore, Corinne notices that Arne’s leg is bleeding. Corinne uses the survival kit she and Cassidy made to boil water for everyone, and the two friends decide to hike back to the campground, excluding Gwynn because she’ll slow them down.
Chapter 12
While hiking, Corinne and Cassidy feel stressed, so they sing and talk about movies and TV shows to get their minds off of it. After playing a game of naming characters from Star Wars, Cassidy’s favorite movie series, Cassidy says that she likes the name Love for the baby and reminds her that her family still loves her. Corinne talks about her feelings about the baby, and Cassidy comforts her. She thinks about how her family is doing and that it wouldn’t be that much longer that they see them again.
Chapter 13
Corinne and Cassidy come across a rockslide. Cassidy thinks they should wait for help, but Corinne encourages her to climb over the rocks with her. The two climb over, and Flurry jumps on Corinne’s back to come climb. As they climb, they see a mountain lion and yell at it to go away. Cassidy makes a noise with her walking stick, which makes the mountain lion go away. More rocks fall, which stresses the girls out, and Flurry goes after a poisonous snake… or a scrunchie. Cassidy’s scrunchie. Corinne and Cassidy are led to Lori by Flurry, and they plan to get Mom, Arne and Gwynn.
Chapter 14
Gwynn and Corinne reunite, and Gwynn tells her sister that she sent her “sister brain” messages to encourage her. Turns out, Arne had a broken shinbone, or tibia, as Gwynn calls it… she wants to be both a doctor AND President. On another video call, Kim tells Corinne that she did everything she needed to do and she’d let her practice with Kim and Zach. Mom tells Corinne that she’s her hero and that Arne won’t love her any less because of the baby.
Chapter 15
Three months later, the baby arrives. The baby is named Blix Yong, and Corinne feels like just like Kim’s her dog training mentor, Corinne can be Blix’s mentor at life. She tells him, “I can’t wait to show you the whole world.”
My Review: This book was an improvement from Book 1, and I really enjoyed it!
Corinne's character developed a lot throughout this book as she learned to value her family and gained confidence, not just as a dog trainer, but as a human being. I also liked Gwynn's arc in this book, since it actually enhanced the story and wasn't a side plot.
I also liked how this book honed in on the family focus of Corinne's story. My main complaint about Book 1 was that it dealt with too many things, and while Book 2 also dealt with a lot, it had a better structure than Book 1 and balanced everything out, which I appreciated.
The plot was very engaging and it took me less time to read this book than Book 1 because it held my attention for way longer. Ten-year-olds will enjoy the camping and family fun chapters, but to be honest, what really got to me was when Corinne and her group had their canoe troubles. Not only did it have the perfect amount of stakes for the age group, but it was also really well-done and allowed Corinne to develop her character more, both personally and interpersonally.
One thing I would change about this book, though, is that Corinne's biological dad only showed up in the beginning. I understand for obvious reasons he wouldn't come on the camping trip, but maybe he should have been more involved in the plot before the trip? I don't know, but as a child of divorced parents, I couldn't imagine not hanging out with my dad (since I live with my mom) for literal months. I see my dad every Wednesday, our Saturday mornings when we usually go to American Girl, and I sleepover every other weekend. There's no way that Corinne only did plot-related things with her dad ONCE in a 15-chapter book. But other than that, I liked the book!
I liked it and would recommend it to American Girl fans, and if you want to order it, you can click here!
This book gets a 7.5/10 from me.
P.S: AmericanGirlStar asked me to tell my readers if Corinne is Jewish since Wendy Wan-Long Shang often writes about Chinese-Jewish characters. No religion was specified in this book either so Corinne is not Jewish.
P.P.S: Unless something big comes up, this will probably be my last post of 2021! Thank you all so much for your support this year, even as I battled depression and wasn‘t as consistent as usual. Love you all!
🖤, Sydney