A Brighter Tomorrow: My Journey with Julie (American Girl)

This was a well-written novel. Even in the choose-your-own-adventure format, the main character manages to learn life-lessons and have real feelings and growth in each version of the branching story, as well as visiting different real-life San Francisco landmarks. I enjoyed reading it along with my kid, and going back and trying things differently to explore the different options.The book doesn't include all the endings. Some of the endings, with more branching choices within them, are only available on the publisher's website, so you have to follow links (and then find the right book from a menu screen), and switch to reading through a different interface on their website. If we had bought the print edition, then I guess I could understand this as a cost-saving measure, because it let them keep the book down to a reasonable page-count. But why not include the whole story in the e-book, at least? One download should be able to put the whole thing into the iPad, and then you could read it all offline in the same interface. I can't think of any reason that the Kindle Edition shouldn't include all the pages and options in the story, making it self-contained. That just seems like lazy e-book development, and I took away a star for that reason.

Great book, my daughter loved it. I generally like this series of books.

a++++

A Brighter Tomorrow: My Journey with Julie gives readers a glimpse into the year of 1975. During this time there were big things happening like the push that that girls would have have the same rights as boys at school including being on sports teams. This time was also during the movement of which people realized the importance of caring for the environment. We follow the characters in this story depending on what path is read handling not just one these topics but also kids dealing with their own separate families divorcing.Through the story, we see the equality, environmental awareness, the importance of family, and friendship. I think it's great that young girls will be learning how things used to be and in turn have a greater respect of all the freedoms and movements still going strong today. It was fun for me to learn about the era in which my mom was the same age as the girls in the story!This book is full of adventure and because it's in the American Beforever Journey series that makes it even more appealing! That means it is written in a unique choose your own adventure format. Every single path leads to an unknown destination by the readers own choosing. This format keeps things interesting and the book can be read multiple times and then all over again!The writing style was very easy to read. I would suggest this book for girls around 6-12 years old. It's a total winner! Do note, there are a few endings that require you to follow a URL to see what happens. This can be a down-side for some and I wanted to make sure it was noted.

This is part of the "Choose Your Own Adventure" (CYOA) series branded as part of American Girls. So, yes, there's a marketing element since Julie is an American Girl, but I'm not going to dock a star for its commercial element. If you're against such branding and PR, don't read any American Girls books, and move on.As for the book itself, the story is about a girl whose parents are going through a separation period, and she's moving to San Francisco from Ohio with her mom and younger brother. While she struggles with the major changes in her life, she gets transported back to the early '70s where she meets Julie, a kindred spirit of our protagonist from few decades ago.The quality and satisfaction of the plot vary greatly based on the reader's choices. The choices take you through social issues of the '70s, like environmentalism and equal rights for women, though not all are experienced from every storyline because each story is rather short, thus not able to cover a lot. Some just end with a basketball game between a boys' team and a girls' team. Others also deal with social issue(s), plus the personal issue of Julie's life as a child of divorce. The better stories are the ones where our protagonist learns from Julie and her sister's struggles.Because there are many choices, the reader ends up getting a larger picture of that time period if the reader goes back to read all the alternate possibilities. Overall, it's a cool book, though it can get confusing at times. You do feel that the protagonist will be a better older sister to her brother who's also struggling with the changes in their lives.

"A Brighter Tomorrow" is a new book from American Girl's historical line, which has recently relaunched as Beforever. The book is a Choose Your Own Adventure type of book where you can go on a journey with Julie in 1975.The book begins with an anonymous girl in present times. She just recently moved to San Francisco with her mother and little brother. Her father stayed behind in Ohio and her parents might be getting divorced. The girl is stressed about because of the move, because her parents might be splitting up, and because she misses her best friend. She finds a mood ring in her room that magically transports her to the September of 1975. She's in the same room but it's different looking. She then meets Julie and together they go on adventures together. From there you can choose where to go. Some choices leads you to helping clean up a littered beach, help repair Julie's relationship with her sister, or play a basketball game to prove that girls can be good at basketball too.Overall, the book is a fun read. It's a pretty fast read as well. There isn't as much to learn about the history about the time, some of the other Beforever Journey books were better at showing the history and the differences between now and then. But I think Julie fans will love this book.