Full Speed Ahead

Valerie Tripp graduated with honors from the first coeducational class at Yale University in 1973. She received a Masters of Education from Harvard University in 1981. From 1974 to 1980, she was a writer for the Addison-Wesley Reading Program. She then became a freelance writer for The Hampton-Brown Company and ELHI Publishers Services creating educational materials for major publishers.

In 1983, Tripp and Pleasant Rowland decided to write a series of books about girls growing up all over the country during some of the most historical events of the past. Rowland envisioned the books as one of the cornerstones of a new company she had just founded called the Pleasant Co. Tripp's first assignment for Pleasant Co. was writing four of the six books about Samantha, a girl in turn-of-the-century America. Tripp then wrote about Felicity, Molly, and Josephina for the American Girls series. Her other works include the Hopscotch Hill School series.

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