Meet Kit: An American Girl 1934 (The American Girls Collection, Book 1) [Paperback]

Valerie Tripp (Author), Tamara England (Editor), Walter Rane (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2000 | Age Level: 8 and up

Kit's world turns upside down when Mother's friends come to stay with them and Dad loses his business. Will life ever be the same again?

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-4-Set in Cincinnati, OH, during the Great Depression, these books introduce fourth-grade Kit. In Meet Kit, her father must close his car dealership and join the large number of unemployed. In an effort to make ends meet, her mother takes in boarders; Mrs. Howard and her son Stirling settle into Kit's newly redecorated bedroom, while the girl makes the best of her new space in the attic. In Kit Learns a Lesson, her older brother gets a job rather than attend college, and Kit helps her mother clean. Additional boarders have moved in and there is more work than ever. When a classmate's taunts lead to an altercation, Stirling, Kit, and her best friend are punished. They must deliver food collected by the students to the local soup kitchen, and Kit is shocked to see her father on line for lunch. Still, this is a somewhat idealized portrayal of the Depression. Full-page color illustrations and spot art appear throughout. Photos, reproductions, and explanations of the period follow in each of these transitional chapter books.
Debbie Feulner, Northwest Middle School, Greensboro, NC
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 3-5. The year is 1934 and the name is Kit Kittredge, the newest character in the popular American Girls series. In Meet Kit , she's pounding out a newspaper on the typewriter in her room and longing for some news fit to print. As the Great Depression comes closer to home, news pours in: first, Mrs. Howard and her son come to stay with Kit's family when Mr. Howard leaves for Chicago to find work. Then Dad loses his job and Mother takes in boarders to make ends meet. Kit Learns a Lesson deals with the effects of the Depression on the household and on the community at large. The last section of each book fills in social history of the period, with clearly written texts and black-and-white photographs. Full-color paintings by Walter Rane illustrate the texts. Two short, fast-moving, and involving stories in the tradition of the series. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 70 pages
• Publisher: American Girl (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584850167
• ISBN-13: 978-1584850168
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.3 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,215 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great story, with a lesson, March 16, 2001

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Meet Kit: An American Girl 1934 (The American Girls Collection, Book 1) (Paperback)

This is another in the American Girls Short Stories series about Kit Kittredge, a nine-year-old girl living in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is 1934, and the Great Depression is deepening. Fortunately, Kit's father has been able to keep his car dealership afloat, and her family has not had to suffer the losses so many other people have. However, disaster strikes when Kit learns that her father's dealership is now bankrupt, and he is joining the ranks of the unemployed. Instead of feeling like the center of everyone's world, Kit now finds that she must stay out of the way, and do what she can to help the entire family.

This book really surprised me (so far my daughter has been reading the Kirsten books). This story is hard, but shows children that sometimes there are hardships that have to be borne, rather than simply gotten around. I enjoyed Walter Rane's illustrations, which tended to be small but plentiful. My nine-year-old daughter enjoyed this book, and I enjoyed the lesson that it taught.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Meet Kit: An American Girl, October 27, 2001

By 

Terri (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Meet Kit: An American Girl 1934 (The American Girls Collection, Book 1) (Paperback)

Tripp wrote a lovely story depicting a nine-year-old girl, Kit, going through the Depression in Cincinnati. She and her family face a very difficult situation when her father, a man she deeply admires, loses his job.
This book conveys an important message to other young girls who do not understand what the Depression was all about, or the impact it had on so many people. Kit is your typical nine-year-old and she comes from a typical middle-class family in Cincinnati. This allows young girl readers to identify with this fun-loving character. Tripp's use of description helps paint a picture for the reader. For example, when Tripp describes Kit's mother she writes, "Mother looked as cool and slender as a mint leaf in her pale green dress."
This is an excellent book to read, especially for 8 - 12 year olds. Girls will definitely enjoy it more than boys since Kit, the main character, is a girl; however, she enjoys baseball and not the frilly things, so boys may enjoy this too.
Meet Kit will help reluctant readers want to read due to its easy languague. Then the reader can pick up the next book to learn even more about Kit.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not bad for younger readers., August 30, 2000

By 

Rebecca Herman (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Meet Kit: An American Girl 1934 (The American Girls Collection, Book 1) (Paperback)

I read this book only because of that fact that when I was young, I absolutley loved the American Girls more than anything else in the world. And I'm glad I did, because they got me interested in history. Reading books like these will encourage young girls to move onto more challenging and realistic historical fiction as they grow older, such as the Dear America series. This book "introduces" the newest American Girl, nine-year-old Kit Kitteradge (who thought up that name, anyway?), who lives with her family in Cincinatti during the Depression. (Again, problem: the cover says the setting is 1934, the historical note says 1932. Not that little girls are going to notice.) Kit and her family are affected by the Great Depression, but her concerns are petty next to the larger problems facing most citizens of the country. Her dad loses his business. Her mom opens a boardinghouse. Kit has to give up her room to paying borders and live in the attic. Not so harsh when there were kids not much older than her living off their own wits. Kit wasn't exactly the most well-developed character, either - she's just defined as liking and disliking various things, and often acts selfish and spoiled, before suddenly realizing her mistakes. Still, I give the book five stars because it is sure the entertain the audience it is intended for.