Since Samantha was the first series I got my hands on, she’s up first. I remember her being pretty cool so I was ready. Friday night rolled around and I was committed to starting the series. I opened the book and my childhood came rushing back. Remember how the characters are listed at the beginning of the book? Not a dry list of characters like other books that I skim in annoyance, no, no. American Girl did it right. They have pictures of the characters in cute little frames and a short description of the person such as Cornelia – An old fashioned beauty who has newfangled ideas

Already this journey was starting out great. These books are about fifty pages long and super easy to read thus, I read all the books over a weekend. 

Meet Samantha: Samantha’s a rich girl in 1904 who was orphaned when she was five so her Grandmary is raising her. Eddie Ryland, the pesky neighbor boy, hires a servant, Nellie, who is just Samantha’s age and Samantha befriends her. They make a telephone out of tin cans and drape it over the hedge separating the property and Samantha gives Nellie her first taste of gingerbread. She also starts teaching Nellie how to read. Samantha wants a doll but Grandmary wants her to prove she’s responsible so Samantha is very industrious in her sewing and Grandmary gifts her the doll. Jessie, the seamstress, stops working for them one day and everyone is acting like this is perfectly normal and not at all weird. Nellie suggests rather blandly that maybe Jessie had a baby. Samantha and Nellie make plans to go to her house at night to find out what the heck is going on and so they do and Nellie was right. While they’re going to Jessie’s house, Samantha notices that the neighborhood Jessie lives in is kind of run down. (She’s black). The author did a good job of slipping in this bit of information about blacks in 1910. It was slight enough to create curiosity but not overbearing. At the end of the book, Mrs. Ryland is sending Nellie back to the city cause she’s afraid Nellie will get sick so Samantha quickly has the cook put together a basket of food and gives Nellie her doll.

Samantha Learns a Lesson: In the beginning of this book Grandmary convinces a nearby lady to hire Nellie’s whole family – Nellie, her parents and two sisters – so Samantha and Nellie are reunited. Nellie and her sisters go to school for the first time but Nellie can’t be in the same grade as Samantha cause she’s never gone to school. Her first day she’s laughed at by the kids in her grade so Samantha starts tutoring Nellie. Meanwhile at Samantha’s school, there’s a speaking contest called Progress in America. The girls have to write an essay on the best invention in America. Samantha picks the factory and gets a reward for her essay and is going to recite it in front of a lot of people. Then Nellie throws some hard truth at her that kids work in factories and the working conditions are deplorable. Samantha changes the speech at the last minute to reflect what Nellie told her. I’ll say Samantha really did learn a lesson.

Samantha’s Surprise: Its Christmas and Samantha wants a Nutcracker doll since she gave her doll away to Nellie. She’s decorating a box for Uncle Gard for him to keep his cuff links in and she has grand plans for a gingerbread house she’s going to decorate with Mrs. Hawkins. Then Cornelia, Uncle Gard’s girlfriend, decides to join them for Christmas and everyone is too busy for Samantha and the annoying maid tears down Samantha’s homemade decorations. Samantha is really not impressed with Cornelia by this time so she’s like, I’m not gonna get her a Christmas gift. But then Cornelia goes sledding with Samantha and likes the nutcracker doll and decorates a gingerbread house with her. Samantha decides Cornelia is worth a pound of chocolates. Christmas day rolls around and what does Samantha get for Christmas? The nutcracker doll. From Cornelia. In a split second, Samantha gives Cornelia the box she was going to give Uncle Gard and Gard gets the chocolates. Then Gard murmurs to Cornelia, I have something you can put in there and PROPOSES TO HER. Samantha shouts in joy and Cornelia accepts.

Samantha’s Birthday: This book brings in two new characters, Agnes and Agatha, Cornelia’s twin sisters, and has no mention of Nellie. Its June and Agnes and Agatha convince Samantha she doesn’t need to wear her long underwear and Samantha ditches it. Samantha makes ice cream for her birthday party but Eddie Ryland puts salt in it when no one is around so her party is ruined. As a consolation present, Samantha and Grandmary are invited to visit Cornelia and Gard in NYC along with Agatha and Agnes. The three girls take Cornelia’s dog, Jip, to the park with strict instructions not to let him off the leash. They get tired of holding the leash so they put him in the doll carriage but he jumps out and leads them on a merry chase. They chase him all around NYC eventually into Madison Square Park where there’s a suffragette meeting and Cornelia is speaking. Jip runs right up to Cornelia and those girls know they’re in trouble. Except they’re not really. Everyone meets for ice cream and Grandmary tells Cornelia she heard her speaking and decides women should have the right to vote after all.

Samantha Saves the Day – Its summertime and every year Samantha and her Grandmary go to Piney Point. Cornelia, Gard, Agnes, Agatha, and Admiral Archibald Beemis, an old friend of grandfather’s who is smitten with Grandmary, are also there. Samantha finds a sketchbook of her mothers and there are various sketches of Samantha and her parents at Teardrop Island. Before Samantha found the sketchbook she never wanted to go there because her parents died in a boat accident on their way back from Teardrop Island. After she finds the sketchbook, she wants to go there so one day she and the twins take the boat and go. They find all the places in the sketchbook then a storm comes up and when they go to the boat its drifted away so they’re stuck. They’re just sitting on a rock waiting for help when they hear a groan and its the admiral who has come looking for him. He had fallen and hit his head on a rock so there’s a gash in his forehead and he’s in no condition to row them home. The girls get him in the boat and Samantha commandeers the boat and leads the way out of the dangerous waters with all the rocks while the twins row. Everyone gets to safety.

Changes for Samantha – Grandmary and the Admiral have gotten married and Samantha is living with Gard and Cornelia in NYC. Sam gets a letter from Nellie that her parents have died and she and Jenny and Bridget are going to live with their Uncle Mike in NYC. She tells Samantha she’ll meet up with her soon. Samantha waits for a while but Nellie never comes. Gard finds out the general area of NYC the girls were sent to from the old employer, but Gard tells Samantha all they can do is wait for Nellie to show up because it would be nearly impossible to find them. Hire a detective! With the grownups being useless, Samantha takes it upon herself to find Nellie. Samantha does her hunting, finds the tenement building Uncle Mike lives in, and finds out from a neighbor lady that the girls’ uncle took everything they had and ran off. This lady took them in but couldn’t afford to keep them so brought them to an orphanage. Samantha and Cornelia visit Nellie at the orphanage which is of course a terrible place but they’re alright for the time being. Then Nellie is told she’s going to be put on an orphan train without Bridget and Nellie. Samantha tells her all three girls are going to run away and Samantha will hide them in the attic. She hides them for four days before the maid, Gertrude, finds them and gives them up to Gard and Cornelia. Gard and Cornelia decide to adopt all three girls. Maybe Samantha gets adopted too.

I quite enjoyed these books. Samantha generally acted like a nine year old. Her wandering NYC by herself and the three girls successfully rowing the boat through rough waters is a little unrealistic, but not terribly so. Aside from those instances, Samantha acted her age. Not liking Cordelia cause she’s taking away Gard, not putting on her long underwear after Agnes and Agatha tell her not to, putting the dog in the doll carriage and it getting loose are things a nine year old would do.

I thought it was weird how Nellie is non existent in Happy Birthday Samantha and Samantha Saves the Day then pops back up in Changes for Samantha as if she was always there. 

My favorite out of these is probably Samantha Saves the Day but only by a slim margin. They’re all really solid. 

I had forgotten how at the end of each book there’s a short history section devoted to the era the girls are in complete with pictures. I find the Victorian era pretty interesting so maybe that’s why I enjoyed Samantha so much.

The Samantha series: 10 of 10 recommend.