Kaya Part One- The Journey Begins: A Kaya Classic 1

Lets dive back to 1764 with Kaya.

Kaya is a young Native American girl with a love for adventure and a lot of respect for the earth. Her first book is The Journey Begins: A Kaya Classic 1 which can be purchased here. For those of you who go by the older publications, this book includes "Meet Kaya: An American Girl", "Kaya's Escape!: A Survival Story", and "Kaya's Hero: A Story of Giving".

You can find great pictures of people's Kaya dolls and items by looking at this Doll Diaries post!

Bring Kaya's world to life by checking out this amazing blog post to make your doll a Native American Tipi!

How long ago was the year 1764 when Kaya was alive?

Questions for Discussion

1. Q: When trying to teach her horse how to race, kaya tries to immediately be good at racing rather than working with her horse slowly. Have you ever tried to be good at something immediately?
2. Q: Kaya was supposed to watch over her brothers, but instead she runs off to race other kids. Have you ever done something you weren't supposed to do?
3. When Kaya broke the rules, she and all the other children got whipped for it. What happens if you do something bad?
4. Q: Speaking Rain is so close to Kaya and her family that they are just like sisters. Are you close like that with anyone who is not really a sibling of yours?
5. Q: Kaya has to be very brave after she is captured and taken away from her family. What does it mean to be brave?
6. Q: Kaya had to have patience while learning how to weave baskets. What does it mean to have patience?
7. Q: Swan Circling is who Kaya wants to be like. Who do you want to be like someday?

What do you think? You can talk about one question, talk about all the questions, or respond to someone else's comments. Keep in mind to be respectful, this blog is for people of all ages and backgrounds!

Stay tuned for Kaya Part Two to be posted soon...

Introduction

Hello world!

My name is Samantha and I love children's fiction. I made this blog to be a place for readers of all ages from anywhere in the world to connect and discuss with one another my favourite series of historical fiction books, American Girl Doll. Despite the name and protagonists being female, anyone is welcome at this blog!

I just finished my freshman year of college and I learned from my history teacher that history text books are horrible. They're heavy, intimidating, and full of information mostly about white men. So many other types of people are left with little to no representation in text books! This is one of the numerous reasons why I love historical fiction. It teaches people so much in a fun and approachable manner.

For those of you unfamiliar with the American Girl Doll company, check out their website. They are a company that sells dolls, clothing, accessories, and books (both historical fiction and contemporary realism). I find their books are amazing gateways to discussions about serious topics such as homelessness, racism, and bullying. These things are hard to talk about and even a little scary to talk about but there are many people out there all over the world facing these problems daily; people cannot live in fear all alone, they need to know that there is help and support out here for them! Nobody is alone and no matter how rough an issue may seem in the moment, things will get better. I hope to use this companies books to spark these conversations in a safe environment.

For those of you familiar with the American Girl Doll company, although I previously mentioned my love for historical fiction, I would also like to talk about the girl of the year books. They bring up great topics as well! I also can assure you that there will be posts about retired and current dolls, so any fans of the older original girls will get to have their favourites in the spotlight as well.

In the end, I hope you enjoy reading my thoughts, questions, craft ideas, and whatever else ends up in this space. Please be thoughtful and respectful with all of your comments and if you tell a personal story having to do with the issues being discussed, please give all other people involved numbers or colours or anything to identify them other than their real names. Finally, please have fun! I hope you learn a lot here.

Yours truly,
Samantha