Awesome / American Girls Collection

Kaya (1764)

• Kaya saving her sister Speaking Rain from drowning in a rushing river.
• Speaking Rain's Heroic Sacrifice: she decides she'll stay with their captors until help comes, and Kaya must escape.
• Kaya throws sand in the eyes of a cougar to give her wounded friend time to escape. When that doesn't work, she punches it in the nose.
• Kaya making it back from her captivity, especially with a lame boy in tow, counts as this.
• Kaya's mentor Swan Circling is a walking example of Moment of Awesome. Not only is she the only warrior woman in her band of the tribe, but she rides out in the dead of winter to get medicine for a sick baby and is killed when her horse slips in an icy creek.
  • Before then, she stopped a spooking horse (with a baby latched onto it) from running by simply getting in the way and holding her hands out.
  • Swan Circling became a warrior woman when she followed her husband on a hunting trip to Buffalo Country, where the enemies came to fight them at night when he forgot his bow and arrows, Swan Circling took them and ran with him, ignoring an arrow that's singed her flesh and tended to the wounded men. This was something her husband Claw Necklace spoke of to the rest of the tribe.
• Lone Dog, a wolf that Kaya befriended and she only trusts Kaya with her and her pups, saves Kaya's younger brother and her pups from a bear attack.
• Kaya outrunning a forest fire with Steps High and the foal.
• Kaya and Spotted Owl saving Elder Woman in the rapids in Kaya and the River Girl.

Felicity (1774)

• Felicity Merriman can ride a spooky Thoroughbred mare bareback and without a bridle. In skirts.
  • She also sneaks in the middle of the night (with Ben's help and his breeches) to save the same mare from its abusive owner, Ben points out for her to be careful since the punishment for horse theft is hanging. A 9 year old girl , in 1774, wears breeches to save a horse despite the risk of getting caught and possibly killed. That is awesome.
• Felicity Learns a Lesson: After being divided on joining in the tea time for her tutoring and on her family's loyalty to the tea boycott, Felicity politely turns down tea (the point is that it's rarely polite to turn down any offers of tea and treats during tea time), making her loyalties clear.

  Thank you. I shall take no tea.

  • When Annabelle overhears Felicity and Elizabeth making fun of her, she threatens to tell Mrs. Cole what they've been doing. Felicity isn't the least bit afraid of the older girl and threatens to tell Ben that Annabelle is sweet on him. Annabelle is so angry that she can't even muster a response, simply calling Felicity an "uncivilized brat" and storming out of the room. Judging by her reaction, it sounds like the first time anyone has really stood up to her!
  • Mr. Merriman shows his Nerves of Steel by standing his ground against angry Loyalists who refuse to do business with him because he has stopped selling tea in his store to protest the king's taxes, without raising his voice once. Sometimes words can be stronger than fists.
  • After being afraid of her older sister for the entire book (and presumably for a long time before that), Elizabeth calling out Annabelle for calling her "Bitsy" and bossing her around, she then threatens to call her sister "Bananabelle" and states she knows about her crush on Ben.
• The plot of Felicity's Dancing Shoes revolves around Felicity despairing over her poor dancing skills and her lack of slippers for the lessons, she borrows her younger sister Nan's shoes for the school lessons in exchange for teaching her the skills she picked up, overtime Felicity is convinced the slippers are magic; when her mother finds out, she forbids her from borrowing them and Felicity returns to her dance lessons with her heavy street shoes....yet has improved her dancing!
• Happy Birthday, Felicity! has Felicity overhearing a conversation between Mr. Cole and a redcoat concerning the Governor's plan on taking gunpowder from the Magazine: Loyalist Mr. Cole makes it clear that the colonists wouldn't be unreasonable in mistrusting the Governor after that and Felicity warns Ben and their militia drummer friend Isaac, the three sneak out and catch the men in the act and shout the news to the angry townspeople. Not bad for two teenage boys (one of whom is black and is under curfew) and an almost 10 year old girl.
• In Felicity Saves the Day, she manages to protect the injured Ben (despite him being a runaway to the Patriot Army), sneaking him food and bandages. Then when two bounty hunters come looking for him (and aren't afraid to get rough with him), she rides out during a storm to get Ben to just turn himself back in to her Dad. She also tells him how foolish he's being.
  • Also one for Penny: she started off as a frightened and skittish horse in the series; now she's shown as being focused on ensuring Felicity safely reaches Ben during a storm.
• Changes for Felicity:
  • Grandfather arranging to have Jiggy Nye's debts paid off, Mr. Cole bailed out from jail (after he was jailed for being a Loyalist), and Felicity's ownership of Penny secured all before he died. This also manages to get Jiggy back on the right track in life.
  • Jiggy Nye successfully birthing Penny and her foal...Patriot.
  • Felicity starts to run her father's store with Marcus's help (what she's always wanted to do since the 1st book) when her Father volunteers to deliver supplies to the Patriots.
• Very Funny Elizabeth! has them in spades:
  • Felicity notes that Elizabeth isn't so intimidated by Annabelle as when they first met, since then Elizabeth has took a level in badass.
    "'Twas you who taught me to stand up to Annabelle Bananabelle!" Elizabeth replied. "Mind, she still snips at me as much as ever. But I don't let her scolding bother me anymore. 'Tis just part of her silliness. And now I know that it is more fun to laugh than to be afraid."
  • Elizabeth's prank on the Grande Dame Lady Lacey (who is arranging for Annabelle to marry her cowed brother and is requesting the girls to move to England to live with them): she scoops some snowballs into the woman's wig. When she starts dancing during the party, she ends up running out of the room before she can make the announcement (one that can't be taken back, according to social convention).
    • Elizabeth soon has this response, meaning to get a smile out of Annabelle:
      "Gracious, Prissabelle!" she said. "Ladies in England never whimper! And surely you of all people must know that they never run out of the room without making a proper curtsy!"
  • Lord Harry standing up to his sister, telling her that she isn't going to make the decisions for him now, he and Annabelle amicably break their engagement and when Lady Lacey tells Annabelle she isn't fit to be "Lady Lacey", Annabelle finally tells her off:
    "I beg your pardon, Miss Priscilla, but what I know is that my name is just plain Annabelle Cole, and that my sister Elizabeth has helped me see that there's nothing wrong with that—or with being who I truly am. I'd rather have people respect me for what I do than for what my name is." Annabelle grinned at Elizabeth, then said, "And I have become much too independent-minded to allow anyone to tell me what to do every moment of the day! I guess I had better stay here in the colonies, where people are proud of thinking for themselves."
• Traitor In Williamsburg
  • Elizabeth gets several of them; you don't mess with Elizabeth's friends...ever.
    • Elizabeth takes no offense to Fiona indirectly insulting Elizabeth's entire family while complaining about the rumors that her father is a Loyalist, instead graciously accepting Fiona's apology and offering her sympathies. Though Felicity doesn't say so, her thoughts make her pride in her best friend clear.
    • When she and Felicity sneak out to meet the "Mr. Puller" that was making malicious accusations against the local shopkeepers, the mystery man almost was going to rough up Felicity, when Elizabeth took a branch and hit him with it.
    • The nasty shopkeeper Mr. Capps planted evidence to make Mr. Merriman look guilty of betraying the Patriots, distracting Ben by making him search through a bunch of inventory and deciding not to make a purchase. Upon finding out, the girls decide to go to the shop. Felicity sneaks around and look at the receipts he kept while Elizabeth (with the help of Mr. Capps' put-upon employee) basically gives him a taste of the medicine Capps gave Ben. This method reveals that Mr. Capp was the one that was selling supplies to British troops.
  • Felicity marching in court and providing the evidence that proves her Father innocent.
• Peril at Kings Creek ending where Felicity, her father, and her father's slave Marcus chase down a spy and have him captured.

Caroline (1812)

• Meet Caroline
  • Caroline defying the British men escorting her back to her town after they've captured her father and telling off the Lieutenant for arresting her father and cousin, especially when they weren't aware of the war that started and he was just sailing his ship.
  • Mrs. Abbot starts out as a walking CMOA and Mama Bear not too long after the book introduces her, she then takes up her husband's place at the family business, the shipyard with Caroline's help. A Lieutenant even stammers in her wake to the point of him twisting his hat. Seems to run in the family as Grandmother was a strong woman in her younger years and Caroline is a Little Miss Badass.
  Thirty years ago, British soldiers killed my father. I will ''not'' allow British soldiers to imprison my husband and nephew now. Not without trying to win their freedom. Do you hear me?
  Grandmother: I learned that women can do what they must.
  • Seth the post walker risking his life to deliver mail from the townspeople to their relatives in nearby Upper Canada (present day Ontario).
  • Caroline and fussy Mrs. Shaw taking Caroline's carpet to the gun crew during a battle.
• Caroline's Secret Message
  • Caroline and Mrs. Abbot sail their skiff to Canada just to try and free Mr. Abbot from jail.
  • Caroline, upon learning her father would need to escape prison, uses her embroidered sampler she did of Lake Ontario as a secret message to point out where it isn't safe for him to seek help while making small talk in front of the guard supervising her visit to him.
  • Caroline even invoked the Daddy's Girl trope to convince a British major to allow her to visit her father.
• A Surprise for Caroline
  • When Caroline gets stuck on a ice block out in a lake, Cousin Lydia and Rhonda take out a long, thin, flat board for Caroline to walk across. Not bad for a 10 year old and two 12 year olds.
• Caroline Takes a Chance
  • It's been almost a year since Mrs. Abbot took charge of the shipyard and the business is still running, albeit in the war effort.
  • While Caroline goes fishing with Rhonda and the mail walker Seth, they see a British sloop chasing down an American supply bateau ship carrying needed supplies. After the bateau makes it, the girls and Seth use sticks and other pieces of wood as an effort to impede the passage for the enemy ship and even destroy the skiff they were sailing on to use as extra wood.
  • Mr. Abbot escaped from jail by taking the gun of a drunken guard and taking off in the winter evening (especially impressive, considering this is happening at the cold Canadian and New York state border) and made it before breaking a leg.
  • Caroline breaks her father's fever and helps him get back to Sacket's Harbor, given that she's a tiny ten year old girl helping a grown, tall, adult man.
• Caroline's Battle
  • No able-bodied man thinks twice when the British start approaching Sacket's Harbor. All of them, even Mr. Abbot, volunteer for the militia at the moment.
  • Caroline and Mrs. Abbot retrieve the documents and give them to Grandmother, who will spend the battle in the cellar and ready to defend herself, while the two younger women guard the shipyard on their lonesome. A badass line of women in that family.
  • Mrs. Abbot scares off two soldiers asking for shelter since she figured real soldiers would stay with their comrades rather than desert.
  • For awhile it looked as though the militia would retreat, until a few Americans remaining at the burning storehouses stayed firm and made the British start retreating off their land.
• Changes for Caroline
  • Caroline figuring out how a thief got onto her uncle's garden (which had a screechy door that would alert anyone) and her protecting the family cow and calf when left alone to take care of the farm.
  • Lifting a pitchfork to chase after the thief, nothing can stop this girl!
  • When finding out the thief was a twelve-year-old boy trying to feed his widowed family, she makes up her own mind to spare some of the food supply for them.
  • Her return to Sackets Harbor, where her father remade the destroyed skiff and called it "Miss Caroline", she and her father sail out on it during the Independence Day celebration where she raises the sail. Daughter is now her Father.
  Caroline: Shall I raise the sail?
  Papa: You're the captain.
  Caroline felt her spirits rise even higher, and soar above the horizon.
• The Traveler's Trick. Anytime someone sticks it to the snooty thief Mr. Jencks.
  • Rhonda calling him out on his rudeness to Caroline, insinuating that she knows nothing about how serious the war is.
    Caroline's father owns Abbot's Shipyard, the finest shipyard on the Great Lakes. He builds gunboats for the navy. My own father is an army officer. We may be young, but we know all too well about the war.
  • Mr. Herrick, a magician who was accused of stealing every time he visited a town (with Mr. Jencks in tow), with Caroline's help, he uses his magic show to out Jencks as the culprit and at the grand finale. He found the stolen items (jewelry, money, spectacles, and a document Caroline meant to take for her father) under a false bottom of his bag.
• Traitor in the Shipyard
  • Hosea, helping runaway slaves get to Canada, even if he'll be punished as a traitor.
  • Caroline and Rhonda racing to meet up with Captain Abbot's gun boat even with bullets flying around. That is no mean feat for two tweenage girls.
• Caroline in The Smuggler's Secret sneaks into a wagon and finds out who has been smuggling goods and potash to the British, she also has an accidental awesome when her pocketbook is revealed to have British cloth, which starts to lead to the culprits behind the smuggling scheme!
  • Uncle Aaron is also revealed to be an informant for the squads looking for traitors.
  • The steadfastness and loyalty felt by Caroline.
  You won't beat us. We are Americans, and we are here to stay.

Josefina (1824)

• Meet Josefina. Josefina locking the bad tempered goat Floricita, after the goat ate Josefina's gift to Tia Dolores (a bouquet of flowers), the beginning of the book stated that Josefina was scared of her and the goat could and will bite her. Not bad for timid Josefina.
  • Add to that: Josefina actually grab the goat by the same horns that would poke and push her in the past.
• Just Josefina had Josefina struggling with her grandmother viewing her late mother and the grandmother's late daughter inside Josefina, that the poor girl feels regretful about doing things her mother wouldn't do like dancing before her teen years started at a family gathering. The next morning, albeit with regret and remorse, Josefina gives the gentlest Calling The Old Lady Out speech ever to her disappointed and tradition-bound grandmother.
  Oh, Abuelita. I'm sorry. I know I disappointed you when I danced. But Tia Dolores's music made me feel so wonderful, I had to dance. I know Mama never would have done such a thing. I've always been so honored when you've said that I'm like Mama. But I've learned something about myself. In some ways I am like Mama, but in some ways I am not.
• Tia Dolores's idea for replacing the herd of sheep that drowned in the flood: start weaving several blankets out of the wool they have, so they can start replacing the sheep when the traders come to Santa Fe; the mood of the ranch has been revitalized.
  • According to Abuelito (her father), Dolores insistence on bringing her piano really paid off. When some bandits attack the wagon train, the wagon carrying the piano (enclosed in a box) fell into an arroyo and produced a loud sound that scared off the bandits.
• A Reward for Josefina has Josefina and her nephew Juan collect pinon nuts in a bid for a reward her father is offering for who can collect the most, despite having to stay behind and help out at the camp, they follow a squirrel that stole the reward to its tree and took the pinon nuts and ended up with a bulging bag. Not bad for a small girl and her toddler nephew.
• Josefina killing a rattlesnake that just bit her friend and saving her friend from dying, by making a poultice from a root and squeezing the poison out.
  • Also it was revealed before to Josefina that her father did kill a rattlesnake after it bit him as a child; he kept the rattle as a souvenir, which he soon gives to Josefina.
• Josefina's Song: Josefina takes her father to the nearest shelter during a storm he was injured in and her friend Angelito, their shepherd's grandson, proves just how capable he is. Enough for Josefina's father to allow the boy and his grandfather (who's going blind) to stay with the sheep.
• Francisca and Josefina going out in the middle of the night to retrieve the necessary goods they've traded for, before their Dad goes into town to reverse the deal.
• The Character Development by the end of the main series: Señor Montoya is happier, Josefina is a little more confident and less shyer than she used to be, Ana is more confident as a homemaker, and all girls have more skills in their hands. Tia Dolores can surely pat herself on the back
• Papa proposing to Tia Dolores and she accepts.
• Secrets in the Hills
  • Pedro Zamora, Josefina, and Teresita finding the elusive treasure that's been told about in the colony for several hundreds of years: a golden cross that once belonged to the village church.
• The Glowing Heart has Josefina solving a mystery, finding a thief, proving a man's innocence, and telling off said thief who has been both chivalrous then that was revealed into sexism.

Cecile and Marie-Grace (1853)

• Meet Marie-Grace
  • Marie-Grace encouraging two sisters, bullied by the snotty Lavinia, to just dance even if they aren't of "the best society".
• Meet Cecile
  • Cecile telling off a rude American visitor for disrespecting her grandfather and calling him a slave. Her grandfather later concurs that he is a free person of color, his family is well known and well reputed in the city of New Orleans, and the young man should be careful who he insults.
  • Cecile (while in disguise as Marie-Grace) defying the snotty and bossy Lavinia for telling her not to dance.
• Marie-Grace and the Orphans
  • Marie-Grace's father successfully bluffing the slave owner who came for the baby boy abandoned at the Gardners' front door, by claiming the baby was anything but in perfect health.
• Marie-Grace Makes a Difference
  • Marie-Grace shows how much she's been studying her father when he treats his patients and uses it to help Mademoiselle Oceane recover from her yellow fever. Hell, her father told her that a nurse told him that many people twice Marie-Grace's age wouldn't have succeeded.
  • Sister Beatrice talks Dr. Gardner into letting Marie-Grace stay in the city by offering her refuge at Holy Trinity orphanage.
  Marie-Grace: I'm not afraid, Papa. I want to stay here and help, just like you.
  • By the end of the book, the city is slowly recovering from the epidemic and there is a wedding held for Mademoiselle Oceane and Uncle Luc with Marie-Grace singing, also a Marie-Grace who understands and speaks fluently. Keep in mind, she was barely grasping it less than a year before.
• Cecile's Gift
  • Cecile's poem "Things to Hold Close" is this for her, she made it to the stage.
  When summer came and the sun beat down,
  A season of sorrow began in our town.
  Many people left because they were afraid,
  And life in New Orleans changed for all who stayed.

  Friends and strangers worked together,

  Making each other strong,

  And the best medicine was a soft voice
  Or a gentle song.
  When I see children all alone,
  I know the cost.
  I feel my heart break
  Over what they have lost.
  Though I am just a girl to most,
  This summer has taught me what to hold close:
  Happy memories of the past, our smiles today,
  Friends and family beside us, and those far away.
  Today we gather to help the children in need.
  Under these cloudless skies, our city is great indeed.
  My words may be weak, but my feelings are true.
  These words—and my love—are my gift to you.
  • According to Dr. Gardner, a lot of money was donated to the benefit, so much that it was still being counted.
  Dr. Gardner: Every orphanage in the city will be helped!
• The Cameo Necklace has Cecile and her brother Armand, helping their former maid (a runaway slave who used to be a free person of color) escape from the path of slave catchers by taking her to meet Cecile's Maroon friends in the swamp, past alligators and at night (though not much light gets in the swamps in the day time even in modern times).
• The Hidden Gold has a few:
  • The late Mr. Newman, after losing his gold to theft, used his blacksmith skills to mold his gold into a spider pan and a frying pan and painting them to avoid detection, knowing his daughter will figure out the riddles he left her in a Nursery Rhyme book.
  • Wilhelmina Newman and Marie-Grace figure out the riddles in time and find the gold before it could be stolen by a gambler on the steamboat.

Kirsten (1854)

• The first book had a scene where Kirsten gets lost in New York City, she's soon assisted by a kind woman and soon asks the woman to take her to the port to meet the family despite their language barrier.
• Kirsten reciting the story of the Larson family's voyage to America in English, after she struggled with it for most of the book.
• Kirsten faces down an angry mama bear to rescue her little brother.
  • Before that she discovers she knows her way around the forest well, enough to track down a bee hive...full of honey!
• In her mystery, after having been afraid of the wilderness and the animals for so long and just wanting to go back home, she flings meat at wolves that are chasing their cart, screaming, "Just leave us alone!".
• Kirsten helping herself, her father, and their horse through a snowstorm in "Kirsten's Surprise". She also leads them to a cave where she played with her friend Singing Bird. Her father is impressed about her forest know how
• In her birthday book, Kirsten rides the horse Blackie rapidly to fetch her aunt and Dad when her Mother starts to give birth.
• "Changes for Kirsten":
  • According to her brother Lars, Kirsten has a keen sense of what animals do and knows the forest.
  • Kirsten gathering items like the rifle and her Mom's candlesticks into the family trunk (which contains items like the family Bible) before dragging the whole thing out the door when the cabin catches on fire, ensuring that their most precious possessions are saved.
  • Lars and Kirsten finding the pelts of the recently expired Old Jack, which would sell for enough money combined with the money their father is earning in a far off logging camp, to buy the frame house belonging to their departing friends. After the Larson family have immigrated from Sweden, dealt with the hardships of starting a new home in America, assimilating, Britta's birth, and their cabin burned down, they have the home Mrs. Larson states is what she and her husband dreamed of.
• In Kirsten and the Chippewa, Caro the puppy ends up on thin ice and is drowning. One of the Chippewa warriors took off his moccasins and leggings before going into the icy water and swinging his tomahawk through the ice to save the dog. He didn't even wince while doing it.

Addy (1864)

• Addy and her Mother's escape to Philadelphia in the first book counts, with Addy even being able to fool some Confederate soldiers into thinking she's their water boy (it was night and she was clad in boy's clothes). A 9-year-old girl who's never been outside Master Stevens' plantation in her life has strong enough Nerves of Steel to keep calm when going through a Confederate soldiers' camp, despite the very real risk of her and her mother being found out and sold back into slavery.
• Addy manages to save her mother from drowning in a river during their journey to freedom. Addy was fortunate to even know how to swim.
• Miss Caroline, a white Southern woman, is a conductor on the Underground Railroad and she makes it very clear to Addy that she doesn't "cotton to those rebels [the Confederate soldiers]". She could've been considered a traitor, that is one righteous lady.
• Addy's My Journey book has one for Reverend Drake. If Addy and the reader insert are captured by the slave-catcher who's mistaken them for the girls he was hired to find, the reverend bursts into their office to vouch for them and dares anyone in the building to stand against his claim. He knows full well that, if this weren't a kids' book with every ending guaranteed to be happy, there's a very high chance that he could be thrown out and laughed at even with solid proof, but he's not going to let this stand.
• At the end of Addy Learns a Lesson, she manages to spell a difficult word (one that even tripped up Know-Nothing Know-It-All and Academic Alpha Bitch Harriet) and win the class spelling bee. The same Addy that started the book not knowing how to read.
  • Miss Dunn for averting Adults Are Useless and being able to curb the "Girl World" politics in her classroom; she also grew up a slave like Addy and Sarah and is now an educated teacher, it's no wonder the girls love her so much.
• Happy Birthday, Addy!
  • Cool Old Lady M'Dear is one sitting Moment of Awesome in person: she's blind yet strengthened her other senses and has a high sense of self-worth and autonomy that she shares with Addy and Sarah.
  • Poppa finding a job as a carpenter.
  • The end of the Civil War is announced and celebrated with the whole city celebrating and Addy picks that day to be her birthday.
• Addy chases after a thief (a taller girl) at the fair in "Addy Saves the Day", she manages to fight over the carpetbag and is soon found out to have several money boxes from other booths.
• The elderly Auntie Lula's bringing herself and baby Esther to Philadelphia before she dies. She and her husband Solomon, who lived their lives in slavery, have died free and away from the plantation they lived at.
• Addy reading the Emancipation Proclamation aloud for her church in Changes. Keep in mind, this is a girl who couldn't even spell or read her own name at the beginning of the series.
• Anytime someone gets Harriet to shut up, especially when it's a Reasonable Authority Figure like Miss Dunn or the Minister's wife.
• Momma explaining her "jumping the broom" wedding to Poppa in Addy's Wedding Quilt is one of heartwarming defiance
  Momma: I had more sad days in slavery than I can count, but that day was one of the happiest. I cried because I was happy and because I felt free. I felt free.
  • She then reads the inscription Addy wrote on the quilt square, in the beginning of the series she couldn't read or write her own name.
  Ruth and Ben Walker. Wed January 28, 1866.
• Sam settling down a wild horse in Addy's Little Brother. Keep in mind, this is a vet with one arm.
• Shadows on Society Hill features a former Union spy who teaches Addy the tricks of the trade while hiding until she can make it safely to Canada to evade Confederate assassins; this helps them foil a secret by a woman who is desperately trying to "pass" as white and save the Walker Family's livelihood when the woman had demanded they get fired.

Samantha (1904)

• Samantha: An American Girl Holiday:
  • Eddie gleefully gets her and Nellie in hot water for sleeping in the boathouse. They repay him by dumping his entire money jar into the church collection plate.
  • Samantha's presentation near the end:
  Americans are very proud of being modern. We are proud of our progress, and we are proud of the machines in our factories, and the products that they make. But Americans are proud of being truthful, too. Last week, I went to a factory... And what I saw was nothing like what I have been told. There were children, younger than I am, working from early morning until after dark. They were dirty...They were cold...and they couldn't leave. They don't have time to go to school and they're too tired to play. Children are hurt in those places. I know! I saw one! If our factories can hurt children, then we have not made good progress in America. These words are not the words I had written, but are the words that I need to say. Americans are good and kind... and good and kind people take care of children, even if they are not on their own. And once we do that, we can truly be proud of our factories and of our progress.
• If the reader insert ends up working in a thread factory in Samantha's My Journey book, we see her standing up to the manager, who's locked them all in and refuses to give them breaks, and screaming "I quit!" before pushing past him and running.
• In the mystery The Curse of Ravenscourt, Samantha and Nellie are about to be attacked when Cornelia appears out of nowhere and demands, "Get your hands off my daughters." The fact that Cornelia so plainly refers to the girls this way, even though it's not a biological relationship, doubles as a Heartwarming moment.
  Or, by heaven, I'll split your skull.
  • When the girls take Miss Raven, the owner of Ravenscourt's daughter, to her father's tenements to see the wretched conditions and if there is a connection between the weird happenings, dangerous incidents, and a "curse" that was put on Mr. Raven. When they visit the family of the deceased curse giver (Mr. Raven was a harsh landlord that demanded money despite whatever financial straits the tenets were in, her infant grandson died from the cold, and she cursed him when he stopped by), they see two little, starving girls with visible lice and those girls get interrogated by Miss Raven about if they don't have enough money for coal, how can they have enough for the rent? The older little girl answers back "Of course we do! Mr. Raven would kick us out if we didn't!" defiantly; a little, preschool aged girl tells off the daughter of her parents' wealthy and harsh landlord and makes her smell the roses, given the issues of class in The Edwardian Era, this little girl invoked an equivalent of Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?.
    • This later jumpstarts the renovation of the tenements after Mr. Raven comes home from his business trip.
  • Previously, Nellie and Samantha visit Miss Eloise Raven to alert her about the odd incidents in the apartment-hotel and Eloise makes a flip comment about the curse, a comment that Nellie doesn't take kindly to.
  Eloise: People are saying my father was cursed by one of his tenants, some silly old lady. It's all complete nonsense, of course. My father takes good care of his properties—even though his tenants are often lazy and undeserving.
  Nellie: (cheeks flushing with anger) Excuse me, Miss. It's not all nonsense. and the people who live in those buildings do the best they can, but Mr. Raven is a hard landlord.
  Eloise: How dare you speak about my father like that!
  Nellie: I once lived across from one of your father's buildings. (gesturing at parlor they're situated in) Whole families lived in rooms smaller than this. There were always rats in that building. And the old lady you talked about was Grandma Kildany. She wasn't silly. She was half-sick with sorrow because her grandbaby had died and nobody cared—your father least of all. All he cared about was his rent.
  Eloise: That's a lie! He may be strict with his tenants, but he's a respectable businessman—and a good father. (gesturing towards the door) Perhaps you should leave now.
  Nellie: (Nods, gets up with Samantha and turns back to Eloise) Mr. Raven may be a good father, Miss. But everything I've told you is true. You should see it for yourself.
  • Eloise really taking charge in her father's absence when a servants and cargo elevator crashes, an old-fashioned one her cheap father bought, ordering all service elevators to be replaced with the new safety elevators while the staff uses the front elevators. This is the turn around needed for her father's business affairs.
  • Nellie charging at the antagonist when he man-handles Samantha, kicking him in the shin. And this was before Cornelia's Mama Bear moment.
  • The antagonist getting arrested by a Pinkerton Detective (who was working under him), and confessing he was responsible for the recent incidents and paid by Mr. Raven's rival Enderby
• Samantha Learns A Lesson: Nellie and later, Samantha, exposing the privileged residents of small town Mount Bedford to the atrocities of child labor in factories. For Nellie, it might have been traumatic and painful to bring up such memories just to educate her sheltered friend about the price of progress and cheaper thread.
  • How Grandmary handles the Gossipy Hens talking shit about Samantha and Nellie, it's The Edwardian Era equivalent of the "bitch face".
• Nellie has a creative one in Samantha's Winter Party: the book's own conflict revolved around how Nellie doesn't have much money to give Samantha and their friends presents for the party, later after she receives new ice skates from them, she leads them outside where there were pine cone ornaments and candles arranged by her to transform the skating lake into a Winter Wonderland.
• In Samantha Saves the Wedding, Cornelia's youngest sister (Alice) destroys what turns out to be her wedding veil; in a rush, Samantha convinces Uncle Gard they can drive to Mount Bedford and back so she'd retrieve her late Mother's veil for Cornelia to wear. Also counts as a Heartwarming Moment.
• Nellie and Samantha's search for the eponymous pearls in Samantha and the Missing Pearls.
• Grandmary coming around to Samantha riding her bicycle and wearing bloomers, she seems to be coming forward from her Victorian mindset.
• How Cornelia manages to state her progressive views despite Grandmary's objections, she manages to state her views in a polite manner and later makes a speech about how Women's Suffrage is needed and it manages to convince Grandmary, who praises the logical and well-reasoned argument! Plus their relationship is far from Obnoxious In-Laws.
• Samantha's Special Talent: Samantha organizing a talent show to fund the local library and succeeds, she's even noted for having a talent for leadership.
• Samantha, Agnes, and Agatha keeping the Admiral comfortable (he was injured while looking for them) and rowing back to Piney Point in a storm, in a rocky passage. The same passage and storm where Samantha's parents died 5 years earlier. Not bad for three 10 year old girls.
• Samantha helping Nellie and her sisters escape from the Orphanage of Fear.
  • Samantha's movie adds to this particular awesome moment. Cornelia reports Miss Frouchy's abuse of the girls to a friend and generous donor, who then gets Miss Frouchy removed from her job, partially for abuse and partially because she was misappropriating donations. Cornelia, Gard, and the donor also all stand up for Samantha when she is accused of stealing said funds herself.
• Nellie finally telling off her Uncle for neglecting and abandoning her and her sisters, just to get him to sign the adoption papers.
• The Stolen Sapphire
  • After several chapters of putting up with the snotty, condescending, very wealthy and uncouth Billingsley Family, especially young Charlotta's snotty attitude towards Nellie and the French tutor for not being born into the same social class as Samantha; Samantha gives her a rich Shut Up, Hannibal! comeback.
  Charlotta: You really shouldn't associate with inferior people, Samantha. After all, how do you know that Nellie didn't help Mademoiselle Etienne steal the sapphire? Nellie used to a be a servant, didn't she? Everyone knows that servants steal.
  Samantha: Nellie is my sister and my best friend! She's never stolen anything in her life. And if you say she has...well, then you're the inferior person, Charlotta Billingsley!
  • Samantha and Nellie solving the eponymous mystery when they realize that it might be in the ship's mail, managing to clear their tutor's name.
• Clue in the Castle Tower
  • Lady Florence Frothingham, the goddaughter of the Admiral's friend Sir Charles, finally gets to publish her first article (focusing on a ghostly mystery at her godfather's estate). Pretty badass given that it's the late 1900s when it was verboten for women, especially women from the gentry, to have a career. She is now headed to Egypt to write a series of articles for A Visitor's Guide to Egypt, something that even gets her parents happy.
  • Grandmary has one. Upon receiving information from Mabel about how Lady Stallsworth was struggling with writing a letter before she passed away, Samantha and Nellie with Sir Charles's twin nephews start looking for a secret compartment where the letter might've hidden. When the adults come in, Grandmary finds the compartment, given that the writing desk is similar to her own at home, and procures the letter. Thus solving the mystery of what happened to those rare books, Lady Stallsworth gave them away.
  • The twins' tutor, Mr. Fisher, convincing the reluctant and tradition-bound Sir Charles to let his nephews study engineering by appealing to the Stallworth family pride.
• Danger in Paris
  • Grandmary's deaf maid Doris is ready to take down any burglar or anyone out to cause her and the girls harm.
  • Samantha and Nellie's gumshoe activities usually are, especially since they would deal with people who can cause harm to them. But this time, they're in a country where the language isn't English, they have a deal more of suspects, and there is some pre-WWI espionage involved! Plus they've sneaked into the apartment of two women posing as a maid and her wealthy employer who literally Kick the Dog too. Then when they're trapped in the hotel room when the women abandon their dog, Nellie uses one of the chocolates she saves for them to make a sign to call out for help (window room) on the curtain. And while the culprits weren't immediately caught, they are however going to be chased by the police and be checked out at all train stations and seaports and eventually get caught. As they are wanted by three countries.
    • Nellie's guesstimate about them taking a sea voyage due to the seasickness pills that was demanded by one of the thieves was right are likely heading to Greece where they'll be arrested.
  • When Ingrid's charge Bertie ice skates out of her reach and ends up on thin ice (the sign was in French) with one of his feet in the breaking ice, Frederick (who was struggling with his skating) calls out for the boy to stretch out over the ice as if making a snow angel and with his cousin's help (William holding his legs while Frederick crawls to Bertie on his knees to form a human chain), uses his coat to drag the boy to the solid ice.
  • Grandmary: Combination of Silk Hiding Steel, Iron Lady, and Never Mess with Granny.
  (upon reading Nellie and Samantha's sign from the window and rushing over to where they're trapped while with her husband's colleague) Don't be absurd! I know my granddaughters are in here. Now step out of my way. Monsieur Andreyev, please restrain these women!
  • The Admiral's secret letter mission was successful, enough to get Russians to sign it with thanks from the Admiral's home country: England. He protected the letter by hiding it in a hollow cane.
• Samantha sticking Eddie's chewing gum in his hair when he makes a derogatory comment about Nellie In Meet Samantha.
• In light of the setting, Gard and Cornelia taking in Nellie and her sisters becomes this. Samantha becoming their ward/daughter isn't too surprising, given Gard is her blood uncle and one of her favorite people besides, but the other three girls are immigrants whose only tie to Gard and Cornelia is Nellie's friendship with Samantha. Are Gard and Cornelia bothered by the latter? No way!
• It's actually really neat that somebody as stuffy as Grandmary was able to hook up and remarry.

Rebecca (1914)

• In Meet Rebecca, the family finally makes enough money to buy tickets for their relatives in Russia, thanks to Max finally becoming a full-time film actor, Papa's earnings, and Rebecca's selling her trousseau lace.
• Rebecca and Ana had the girls, after Ana has been struggling with her English sing "You're a Grand Old Flag" at a school show beautifully and with Ana's sick older brother finally returning and recovering from his leg infection.
• Rebecca and the Movies has Rebecca star in her first (uncredited) film role and she aces it, not bad for an amateur 10 year old.
• In Rebecca to the Rescue, Rebecca's cousin Ana disappears to ride the Ferris wheel and prove she isn't afraid of it. When the Ferris wheel breaks down and Ana gets stuck on it, Rebecca volunteers to climb a ladder much taller than she is to rescue Ana—and successfully does what grown firemen could not. Awesome indeed.
• In Changes for Rebecca, Ana helps Rebecca see the harsh reality of working in a sweatshop. Rebecca makes it her mission to stand up for laborers' rights. Not only does she sneak out to join a picket line, but she gets up on a soapbox, makes a stirring speech, and is hit in the head with a rock for her trouble. This does not stop her crusade—she gives the rest of the speech while bleeding, and is later publicly honored for it.
  • The wives of the factory workers, including Ana's mother Fannie, bring their hatpins when they hear of the strike and use them against thugs stopping them.
  • Rebecca, Max, and Lily watching the feature film they worked on during the spring with Ana. This marks the first time Max was in a starring role and one of the first times they started crediting the names of screen actors. Also Max and Lily are married, a far cry from when he was pining for her just months ago.
  • Even though Rebecca's uncle and cousin have been fired from the factory they worked at, there are improvements being made to how employees are treated there. Tikkum Olam (Repair the world).
• Rebecca catching two kidnappers and preventing herself from being kidnapped in A Bundle of Trouble and then her friend Francesca's older brother, Luigi, physically captures the kidnappers when they run away. Keep in mind they're both under 15.
• Rebecca, with her older sister Sadie and cousin Josef, catch some shady dealings at the pawn shop where they find out a thief was working with the fortune teller Madame Verona on stealing and tricking people out of certain valuables. Josef even gets physical with the thief!

Kit (1934)

• In the film Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, when Kit, Ruthie and Stirling find the money and valuables stolen by Mr. Berk, Miss Bond and Frederich, the children hide from them in the camp of hobos they befriended earlier. Mr. Berk first lies about looking for his lost children, but even when he offers one hundred dollars in exchange for the kids, they refuse. Even while penniless and ostracized by society, the hobos were exactly who Kit said they were: good, decent people.
• At first, Mrs. Kittredge's idea of converting her home into a boarding house was just to shock her Scrooge-like Uncle. But she decides it's a good idea and the business works very well, especially with her using her posh homemaking skills to create a lovely atmosphere. Silk Hiding Steel indeed.
• Stirling invoking Beware the Quiet Ones on an obnoxious classmate, who's picking on Kit for her father paying off all his employees with his own money and for being unemployed along with the fact that Stirling's father left, by attaching some homemade turkey feathers to his rear and getting the others to tease him.
  • Stirling's hidden strengths are this. He even managed to get a job as a newsie even if his mother fusses about his fair skin and he still looked "a bit like a pip-squeak".
• Ruthie's explanation for loving fairy tales in Really Truly, Ruthie and for why she is such a sweet, kind, and optimistic person.
  I don't really believe that life always works out happily like fairy tales do....and the wishes-come-true and the happy endings aren't the only reasons I like fairy tales. I like them because they show that no matter what happens to us, it's how we act along the way that matters. We still get to choose what kind of people we want to be. And, well, I guess I'd rather be foolish but hopeful about people than smart but stingy and distrustful.

Nanea (1941)

• Despite it bringing sorrow and anxiety to their families, many of the young men enlisted right after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
  • On that note, many Hawaiian residents pull up their sleeves (or rather, "dip their paddle in") for the war effort: Nanea's grandparents' market gives out supplies to the Military, her Mother volunteers for the Red Cross, and Nanea organizes some efforts for the war effort, like collecting bottles for blood donations or dancing the hula for soldiers with her dog.
• Nanea getting to take inventory at her grandparents' grocery store, finally being taken more seriously.
• Nanea crafts a Christmas tree out of a palm branch, thumbtacks, red nail polish, and a lei.
• The fact that Mele, a dog, can perform the hula with Nanea or any record being played.
• Nanea's school soon raises money for their Minuteman flag for the war effort.

Molly (1944)

• On the whole, how the McIntires get through about 3 years without the father, whether it's working and taking on the role of disciplinarian along with becoming less shyer (Mrs. McIntire), learning to create their own Christmas surprises, developing a sense of strength or Growing the Beard, or even taking upon jobs that Dr. McIntire usually did when he was home.
• In Molly Takes Flight, her Aunt Eleanor takes Molly to fly on the WASP plane, the niece is soon awed.
• Meet Molly had Molly and her friends plan a revenge prank on Ricky, though mean-spirited, Ricky soon admits it was a pretty good plan and it was better to be his little sister's ally rather than enemy.
  • Molly's mother's speech about why she won't abide mean and petty tricks in her household, about how it leads to war and creates more problems than it solves. There may be a war she can't stop, but Mrs. McIntire is making it known she is in control of her and the kids' sitch.
• Molly Learns a Lesson: the 3rd grade girls winning the Lend-A-Hand contest and sending out 100 bottle caps to the Boy Scouts' scrap metal drive and a knitted blanket to an English hospital.
• Molly and the Movie Star has Molly lose some important War Bond money in a sock, just before Molly is presented to this movie star entertaining on behalf of the War Effort, Mrs. Gilford comes riding in an army jeep holding the sock up....like a boss.
• Molly's Surprise: just the fact that Dr. McIntire showed up on the radio to wish a Merry Christmas to his family is a CMOA alone.
• Susan in Molly's A+ Partner creates a stunning and near-authentic costume for George Washington and demonstrates her knowledge of the man and why he's "the Father of Our Country".
• It's worth noting that Molly Marches On features Sacagawea as an example and a admired heroine for Molly to follow...in the 1940s.
• Molly Saves the Day features a few moments:
  • Susan's poor rowing skills spare her and Molly from being captured in the camp Color War; these are later used when they need a distraction for Molly to save the rest of their teammates.
  • Molly swimming to get to the Prisoner's camp...UNDERWATER...the same Molly who nearly drowned when they started camp. She also kept a tin can of worms in her blouse, used the worms to freak out her friend/Color War opponent and free most of her team (excluding the Know-Nothing Know-It-All leader kept in a different location).
  • Molly helps her team come up with a plan to win the Color War, after being inspired by newsreels of D-Day, they build a chain of their canoes to get to a very discreet and narrow location. When they make it, they find most of the area is covered by poison ivy, Molly encourages them all through and they win the Color War.
  • The end has Molly's letter to her Dad: It contains a picture of her and the girls carrying the flag (Molly at the lead) in the Fourth of July parade. She pulled off the look of triumph despite being covered by a rash and calamine lotion.
• Molly and her friend Anna Schulz in A Spy On The Homefront investigate to find out who has been framing Anna's older brother Max and Molly's Aunt Eleanor with distributing Nazi Propaganda and who is the "Silver Shirt", they do this even at the risk of getting caught and trapped (as what happened in a hangar), the culprit turns out to be Aunt Eleanor's boss Mr. Kay.
• Molly doing a complicated tap dance routine without her glasses in "Changes for Molly", she deserves to be Miss Victory, curls or not.
  • The letter announcing the homecoming of Dad is this and a Heartwarming Moment; even the illustration covers the triumph.
• Emily playing "America the Beautiful" on flutophone with Molly on the tambourine, Linda with the triangle, and Susan with the cymbals to hide Emily's mistakes; Emily takes the moment from the applause she's receiving to ask the audience to make canned food donations to the Red Cross in her usual polite and stereotypically English Rose manner.
• The Light in the Cellar: Molly, Ricky, Ricky's friend, Linda, Susan, and Emily catching a thief who has been stealing rationed goods like rubber tires, sugar, and flour (as these items can be used for baking cookies for the US Os in the area and tires for the army vehicles).
  • Also the Catharisis Factor that the culprit was a Mr. Laurence who threatened the Polish refugee Marta's job at the hospital where Emily's Aunt Primrose was staying and where Molly and Emily were volunteering.
• After several books and a few years (in-universe): Dr. McIntire comes back from the war.

Maryellen (1954)

• Maryellen sticking up for Angela (who's shunned for being Italian) and mending her friendship with some of the other girls.
• Maryellen also gets one for her idea for a show to spread awareness of the new polio vaccine, this show manages to convince a few parents to contribute to March of Dimes and get their kids vaccinated.
• Mrs. Larkin's reason for turning down a leading role in aircraft carrier construction back in the 1940s? Because her fellow Rosies were being fired after the war and she won't stick around to work for very narrow-minded bosses who'd fire capable women just because of a Stay in the Kitchen attitude.
• Maryellen managing to find her lost dog and help Joan (after she sprained her ankle) during an evening at Yellowstone Park, with some wilderness skills she picked up from viewings of Davy Crockett.
• Maryellen walking off and starting her own science group with her friends, after she was insulted by the tyrant, 6th grade head of the group for being a girl and contributing ideas for their own rocket. Her boy friend Davy joins, after telling off the leader that they don't need a "stuck up sixth grader" bossing them around, along with their classmate Wayne. They end up winning a prize for creativity at the fair and end up on television.
• The Finders-Keepers Rule has Maryellen and Davy tackling and catching a grown man with just a fishnet, to keep him from looting from a wreck her brother-in-law, Jerry, was working on. Not bad for two 10-year-olds.

Melody (1964)

• How Yvonne returned from her first semester of college as a socially conscious student who rocks an afro (a few years before it became mainstream) and brings her knowledge to get her family more involved in the movement.
  Mrs. Ellison: I'm not sure how many young women are as radical as our Yvonne.
  Melody: What does "radical" mean?
  Yvonne: It means somebody who's willing to raise her voice.
  Mrs. Ellison: Willing to raise her hair too!
• After it turns out that Yvonne was turned away from a position at the bank where Melody keeps her allowance because of her race (the manager didn't even look at her application and told her the position was filled yet a white girl of the same age was allowed to apply), Melody takes her money out of the bank even telling a bank teller why she's withdrawing all her money.
  Melody: My sister is really good with money and numbers, but this bank wouldn't let her apply for a summer job because she's black. That's not fair.
  Confused Teller: Do you understand, dear, that if you withdraw everything you'll close your account?
  Melody: Yes. I understand. This bank discriminates against black people. I don't want to keep my money here anymore.
  • Her mother shows her pride later:
  Mrs. Ellison: Good job. You know, your daddy says voting is a way to speak up for what we believe. Money has a voice, too. What we do with it says a lot about what we believe.
  Melody: Thanks, Mommy.
  Mrs. Ellison: I'm proud of you, Melody.
• The glee and amazement that Melody's cousin Val, who left Alabama with her family for Detroit, that the North isn't as segregated as the South... even entering through the front doors!
• Dwayne going after his dream of having a music career, even if it goes against his parents' wishes, and becoming rather successful even after a few months on the road.
  • His vocals are good enough for a family friend to mistake his voice for an actual Motown record. He later records an actual Motown record.
• Melody singing "Lift Every Voice and Sing" at the concert at the end of the book.
  • In the next book, her older sister Yvonne told Melody that she was proud of her for not letting "fear turn you around" and for being responsible.
  • For her part, Yvonne decided to volunteer as a Civil Rights worker in Birmingham after the bombing.
• Melody's school teaching "Negro History" in 1964 is this.
• In the My Journey book, one path has Melody and the reader insert take part in a protest to prevent the Moores' performance hall from being torn down. When the wrecking crew pushes forward anyway, the viewer insert (after slipping away from the Ellisons with a promise that she'll be safe and return to her family) runs into the hall, dodging angry guards and demolition workers, just making it to a piano she can use to escape forward in time.

Julie (1974)

• Meet Julie
  • Julie's efforts to win girls the chance to play on the all-boys' basketball team is pretty darn awesome, considering that she walked all over San Francisco to get petition signatures and also pieced the petition back together when the blowhard coach threw it in the trash.
  • Mrs. Albright is the only mom to show up for Career Day and she manages to get new business along with being the most popular parent in one day.
  • Hank, the war vet, is putting up a petition to revive the veteran center to city hall; this is what gives Julie her idea to start her petition.
• In Julie Tells Her Story, after anxiously poring over her "The Story of My Life" assignment from school and about how she doesn't want to be embarrassed about her parents' divorce, she finally talks about that divorce IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE CLASS.
• Happy New Year, Julie
  • Julie and Ivy get lost in Chinatown and manage to find their way to Ivy's family when Julie overhears some mah-jongg tiles, where Ivy recalls her grandfather was playing that game in a hall with his friends. Pretty smart girls.
  • Captain Albright's story of how he was in China in 1971 (when travel to China was banned for Americans): He was flying the U.S. table team to Japan, when they were unexpectedly invited to China and was asking to be the backup pilot on the charter flight from Tokyo to Peking. That is pretty awesome.
• Julie and the Eagles
  • Julie manages to spread the word about the plight of the Bald Eagle, which is enough to get her on a local news station!
    • In fact, this soon becomes enough to raise money to build a hack tower for the eagles to come out of the science center.
  • The eagles, Shasta and Sierra, fly after a long time of being in captivity.
• Julie's Journey
  • The story of Julie's great-great-great-grandfather Elijah "Lightning" Kelley, a rider on the Pony Express. He was only 17 when he started working, rode a horse "like nobody's business" and braved robbers, snowstorms, and mountain lions on the way. After his horse got swept away while crossing a river, he grabbed the saddlebag carrying the mail over his head and made it OK without a lost letter before he met up with his horse 3 miles downriver.
  • After an incident where Julie falls off the horse Hurricane, she gets back up and starts to truly ride him.
  • Julie riding Hurricane and getting back a scroll she was carrying that was stolen by a man traveling with the wagon train.
  • Julie getting the chance to meet and shake hands with the President and handing him the scroll.
• Changes for Julie
  • Julie's campaign for student body president is awesome in several ways:
    • She's gutsy enough to go up against the most popular guy in school, whose ideas such as Pizza Fridays are sure to win him tons of votes.
    • She's the first fifth-grader to run for the position.
    • She's likely the first girl and goes through the first debate, one that she suggested would be a good idea.
    • She chooses her friend Joy as a VP even though many classmates make fun of Joy, doubting she can do the job because she is deaf, and when Joy herself tries to get Julie to chose another VP, thinking (not without reason) that having her as a VP will hurt Julie's chances of election, adamantly refuses.
  • Julie's friend Joy Jenner gets her own Moment of Awesome in Changes for Julie. During the book, a clique called The Water Fountain Girls makes fun of Joy, imitating her voice and mocking sign language. The class' Stern Teacher Ms. Duncan wants to give the girls detention, but Julie points out they will retaliate against Joy if they are forced to write sentences, which is the traditional detention task. Instead, Joy and Julie get the teacher's permission to give the girls sign language lessons in an effort to promote understanding of Joy and her disability. It works out so well that the girls sincerely apologize to Joy and request more "detention."
  I know I'm different. I know I talk funny. I can't hear what you hear because I'm deaf. But everybody feels different sometimes. And even though I'm deaf, I promise to listen to you. I hope you'll give me a chance.
  • Another CMOA and CMOH for Julie: she calls out the Water Fountain Girls for their Alpha Bitch tactics and stands up for Joy.
  All you think about are yourselves. Did you ever stop to think for one minute about Joy—that I might be doing something for her, not for you?
  • Julie politely and effectively tells Mrs. Duncan that handing out detention demerits and having the kids re-write sentences isn't effective in teaching them to behave better at school (case in point this one kid got 43 detentions and hasn't got any better) and then makes her suggestion of teaching sign language.
    Mrs. Duncan: After twenty-three years of teaching, I just might be learning something new.
  • Mark's VP pick has a small one when he asks the sexist Mark why he's afraid of debating a girl.
• Good Luck, Ivy
  • Ivy manages to get a lost little boy together with his Chinese-speaking mother, proving how handy her Chinese language lessons are and how much she's learned.
  • Ivy's mother argues with Ivy's father over whether Ivy should skip the gymnastics competition and head to the family reunion (Him) or go to the tournament anyways since Ivy worked hard on it and the team is counting on her (Her). Ivy's mother wins the argument and proves why she's qualified to be a lawyer.
  • Ivy wins 4th place in vaulting, 3rd place on the beam, her team given 1st place, and the all-city team goes to her team.
  • The story of Ivy's family and how they achieved the American Dream.
    • Great-Uncle Henry, who always talks about how he won a color TV on The Price Is Right, talked about immigrating out of China and making a journey to the Gold Mountain (California in the old days), and he wasn't much older than Ivy's 12 year old brother Andrew!
  America is the land of opportunity and freedom—and free televisions!

  • Ivy's great-great grandfather worked on the railroads, Uncle Wan was a scribe, Auntie Verna worked in a sewing factory, and Auntie Lu was a great acrobat in China where she balanced dishes.

Courtney (1986)

• Courtney's mother Maureen running for mayor — the first woman to try in their town. She doesn't back down when she is dismissed or ignored going door to door, even when a man says to her face she's a maid picking up garbage and slams the door in her face. She tells Courtney some people still aren't used to women "doing what men have always done," and her response to Courtney asking what to do about his actions?
  "Go to the next house. Knock on the next door. Keep going."
• Courtney speaking up against the sexist questions her mother is asked by the anchors on Good Morning Orange Valley, in part because she is normally so shy and quiet.
• After Courtney apologized for accidentally breaking a figurine that belonged to Tina's late mother and Tina has been mean to her no matter how hard Courtney tries to be understanding of her Freudian Excuse, Courtney tells Tina to her face that she makes it hard for her to be nice to her. This spurs Tina to behave a lot better and stop acting like a Bratty Teenage Daughter.