This collection explores the influence of girls' series books on popular American culture and girls' everyday experiences. It explores the cultural work that the series genre performs, contemplating the books' messages about subjects including race, gender, and education, and examines girl fiction within a variety of disciplinary contexts.

This collection is the first of its kind to interrogate both literal and metaphorical transatlantic exchanges of culture and ideas in nineteenth-century girls’ fiction. It initiates conversations about how the motif of travel in literature taught nineteenth-century girl audiences to reexamine their own cultural biases.