American Girls
Changes for Felicity by Valerie Tripp, 1992.
This is part of the Felicity, An American Girl series.
Everything is changing for Felicity. To begin with, her horse, Penny, is expecting a foal. Penny has been happy and healthy since she came to live with the Merrimans, but Felicity worries about what will happen when Jiggy Nye, her abusive former owner, gets out of prison. He has been in jail for not paying his debts. Felicity learns that he was once a respected member of the community and an expert with animals, but he became an alcoholic after his wife’s death. However, Felicity can’t bring herself to feel sorry for Nye after the way he’s behaved, even when she learns that he is sick. Felicity’s friend, Elizabeth, convinces her that they should send him some medicine and other supplies in prison, partly to have pity on him and partly so that he will feel grateful to Felicity when he gets out and not make trouble for her.
Unfortunately, Elizabeth’s father also soon ends up in prison. Tensions between Patriots and Loyalists are high. The former governor has fled Williamsburg, and Patriots are arresting Loyalists. That Mr. Cole is a Loyalist has been well-known for some time. Felicity fears for Elizabeth and wonders what will happen to their friendship.
Then, Felicity’s grandfather also becomes ill. He soon dies of his illness, devastating her family, but before his death, he takes steps to make things better for Elizabeth’s family, Jiggy Nye, and his own family, especially Felicity. In return for Felicity’s charitable gift and her grandfather’s honorable payment for the horse, Jiggy Nye also helps Felicity and Penny when they need him the most, redeeming himself in everyone’s eyes.
With the war everyone has dreaded finally becoming reality, there are still more changes yet to come. Elizabeth’s father must leave Williamsburg, Felicity’s father decides how he will support the war effort, and Felicity begins to play more of a role in the running of her father’s shop, as she had wished to do before.
In the midst of Felicity’s grief over her grandfather’s death and worries about the coming changes in all of their lives, her mother has some poignant thoughts about the nature of death and change. While Felicity wishes that it were summer again, back when her grandfather was alive and they were all happy, her mother says that not all changes are bad ones. As she points out to Felicity, even though it might be tempting for her to wish that she were a child again herself, when both of her parents were still alive, to go back to that time would mean giving up her life with her husband and her children. She loves her children and enjoys seeing them grow up and change. The ability to witness those happy changes is worth dealing with the less happy changes in life as well. Death, like change, is just another part of life, and Felicity’s mother points out that love still connects us to those we’ve lost. Like everyone else, the only way Felicity can move in her life is forward, and that’s a good thing. Felicity still has growing up to do and happier changes yet to come.
In the back of the book, there is a section of historical information about the Revolutionary War.
The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.
One Halloween, Jenny goes to visit Nancy, a woman who local people say is a witch. Jenny is curious about magic and, knowing that there are magical creatures abroad on Halloween, she wonders if she might see something unusual at Nancy’s house.
This is a kind of cautionary story about the dangers of curiosity. Jenny’s curiosity invites the attention of dangerous creatures and leads her into a frightening situation, something that she never wants to repeat. For the most part, I think that curiosity is a trait that should be encouraged, but Jenny did deliberately seek out a person with a dangerous reputation and pry into the things she was doing, even trying some herself because she wanted to know more about it, so she could be considered to have gone looking for trouble.
This is the first book in the 
Every morning for about a month, Felicity sneaks out of the house early, dressed in a pair of breeches that she borrowed from Ben without his permission. She goes to visit Penny and gradually gains her trust. When Penny finally allows her to ride her, Felicity thinks that she has won ownership of her, but Jiggy Nye accuses her of theft and takes back the horse. He denies that he ever promised to give her to anyone who could ride her, although Felicity’s younger siblings agree that they heard him say so.
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