On August 23 (a month from today!), American Girl's new 1920's historical character, Claudie Wells's meet book is scheduled to release. Up until now, we had no clue who was going to write or illustrate the books, but now we know!
Brit Bennett is the author! She is an author based in Los Angeles, California who has written two New York Times bestselling novels, The Mothers and The Vanishing Half. Warner Brothers and HBO have bought the film rights to both of her novels, which feature Black protagonists and center themes such as Christianity in the Black church, feelings of shame and discrimination, specifically colorism. The Claudie series will be Brit's first book series for children.
A fun fact about Brit is that she was born in 1990, making her the first American Girl author born after Pleasant Company was founded. She also wrote an article about Addy for The Paris Review in 2015, focusing on Addy's representation of slavery and how at the time, she was the only Black doll.
Laura Freedman will be the illustrator of the books. She is also African-American and illustrates books with Black characters, such as the children's edition of the Hidden Figures book about Black women in NASA during the 1900s.
But that's not all... American Girl has announced that on August 24 from 1 pm to 2 pm, Brit Bennett will be at the American Girl Place in New York City to sign books!
Who's excited for Claudie's debut in one short month? I am!
So Brit Bennett is 31 or 32, making her only seven or eight years older than me (I'll be 24 later this year in less than a month on October 1st!)
Wish I lived closer to the NYC store, but even if I did, I imagine it'd be hard to get there.
Neat! She's only two or so years older than me (born in '92.)
I am a little surprised we haven't found any leeks yet being this close to her release!
My one concern is the condensed books. It greatly changed the experience for me when I was reading Courtney, almost seeming too rushed. I also hate that we don't have the 6 book format without the seasonal aspect. The best part about the books was how we could explore what it was like to live in different times as kids. Courtney didn't do a good job of showing what Christmas or birthdays or even what summer looked like for an 80s kid the way some of the other books did, or the experiences were only mentioned briefly. I hope Claudie is more similar to the other AG books in a sense we explore what it is like living a…