Customer Reviews

Changes for Kirsten (American Girl)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Struggles with money, a wild raccoon, fire, and more! Discover what happens to Kirsten and her family in the wilderness of America!

I was six years old when I first got hooked on the American Girls, and "Changes for Kirsten" was the first book I read from the series. Maybe I'm biased by that, but now that I've read them all I think it is one of the best. In books this short it is hard to develop a character very well, but Shaw does an excellent job, and Kirsten's character comes through here more than in the first five books. Kirsten's well-meaning disobedience causes a terrible fire that destroys almost everything the Larsons own. We see the trials they endure as a result, but also the love that helps them through. Things seem to get worse when close family friends announce that they are moving away. Then Kirsten and her brother make a remarkable discovery in the woods and their luck changes. The Larson family has to start over, but a message of hope shines through, as the end of the book (and the series) brings a world of new beginnings to these brave pioneers.

This is another in the American Girls Short Stories series about Kirsten Larson, a nine-year-old girl from Sweden, whose family has moved to frontier Minnesota of 1854. In this book, Kirsten's father is spending the winter as a lumberjack, to earn extra money for the family. Kirsten helps too, by helping her brother Lars trap animals to sell their pelts. However, when Kirsten's heart overrules her head she brings home a raccoon. Disaster follows that ruins the family's fortune, but Kirsten learns that even through adversity things can turn out well.

This is another wonderful story, that captured my nine-year-old daughter's heart, and my own. With each review I heap praise on Renee Graef's illustrations, and this one is no exception; the illustrations are fantastic. If you have a young daughter, then you must consider buying the Kirsten books.

[For those adults interested in reading a scholarly book on the Swedish immigrants, please consider reading Swedish Exodus by Lars Ljungmark.]

We bought this set for my 8 year old daughter for Christmas. She came to me in the night saying that she couldn't sleep, because of what she had read in her Changes for Kirsten book. She told me that in the story, there is quite a lot of time spent describing trapping - one of the creatures caught in a trap, a baby raccoon Kirsten took home to care for, started a fire in their home and burned it to the ground. Kirsten ends up at a trapper's house who she is afraid will "hurt her", and they find his DEAD body. She and her brother are forced to figure out how to bury him in the morning and she is afraid but has to spend the night in a room with his dead body. "Kirsten! He can't hurt us. He couldn't hurt anyone, even if he wanted to. Old Jack's dead." Kirsten peeked around Lars at the man sitting stiffly on the floor. His face was white. There was no cloud of breath at his lips. His eyes were glazed over. Lars was right-the man was dead." Kirsten and her brother end up taking the trapper's valuable pelts to sell, Kirsten wonders if it is wrong to steal from a dead man, but her brother says it is what her father would do and it is ok.

I would definitely not recommend this to sensitive children. The Little House on the Prairie books are infinitely more well-written, and the children and families are much better role models. Also they more accurately depict how pioneer families lived, they are wonderful stories and my daughters loved them.

Kirsten, a young athletic girl, lives in the West in the past. Kirsten brings a weak baby raccoon to her house after going trapping with Lars and John, her brother and friend. Will the baby raccoon cause any trouble? Kirsten brought it into the house. When it was running, it hit a burning lamp and knocked it over. Suddenly the cabin was on fire!!!!! I think this is a really good book, because it is very exciting. I recommend this book to people who will read it and not take my word for it.