Welcome to Kit's World, 1934 : Growing Up During America's Great Depression (The American Girls Collection) [Hardcover]

Harriet Brown (Author), Walter Rane (Illustrator), Jean-Paul Tibbles (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Series: American Girl

Through photographs, illustrations, and both factual and fictionalized anecdotes, shows what life was like in the United States during the Depression.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Scrapbook History Two titles in the American Girls Collection provide a unique perspective on history with a handsome square scrapbook presentation, including vintage-style postcards and pullout souvenirs. The first, Molly's Route 66 Adventure by Dottie Raymer, illus. by Nick Backes, takes readers for an eight-state ride, from Illinois to California, along the Main Street of America. In Samantha's Ocean Liner Adventure also by Raymer, illus. by Dan Andreasen, readers can imagine a turn-of-the-20th-century cruise aboard the S.S. Londonia. Welcome to Kit's World 1934: Growing Up During America's Great Depression by Harriet Brown, illus. by Walter Rane, Jean-Paul Tibbles, Susan Moore, Susan McAiley and Philip Hood, in an oversize volume, provides a well-researched and engaging account of the era. (Mar.)
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-6-An attractive, accessible presentation. The book starts with the 1920s and the dawning of the hard times that began with the stock market crash of 1929 and ends with a hope for a better future, although the war, which ended the Great Depression, is barely touched upon. The focus here is clearly on everyday life during these dismal times. Each topic is covered in a spread ("The Roaring Twenties," "Hard Travelin'," "Outdoor Fun," "Fashion," etc.). "A Depression for All" describes additional hardships faced by African Americans during this period. The oversized spreads are well designed, each with a liberal assortment of quality photos, many of them archival, of scenes and artifacts; reproductions of book and magazine covers, movie posters, and cartoon illustrations; drawings; or a painting. Kit Kittredge from the "Kit" series (American Girl) and her fictional environment make several appearances. There are no sources listed, and there is no index. Although italicized words are defined in the text, there is no glossary. This is a good introduction to this period, but will appeal primarily to readers of the series.
Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WI
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 64 pages
• Publisher: American Girl (March 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158485359X
• ISBN-13: 978-1584853596
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 10.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #306,731 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Harriet Brown is an eclectic and curiosity-driven writer whose work appears in the New York Times Magazine, O, Health, Glamour, Vogue, and many other publications, on subjects ranging from fat acceptance to forgiveness. A frequent contributor to the Tuesday New York Times science section, she specializes in writing about issues that affect the lives of women and children. Her latest book, Brave Girl Eating: A Family's Struggle with Anorexia, recounts her family's efforts to help their oldest daughter recover from anorexia nervosa. Brown is the editor of two anthologies (Feed Me! and Mr. Wrong), and several other nonfiction books, including The Good-Bye Window: A Year in the Life of a Day-Care Center. Her radio essays can be heard on NPR's "All Things Considered" and "To the Best of Our Knowledge." She co-chairs Maudsley Parents, a website of resources for families struggling with eating disorders (www.maudsleyparents.org), and is a member of the Academy for Eating Disorders. Brown is an assistant professor of magazine journalism at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in Syracuse, New York, where she created Project BodyTalk, an audio project that collects commentaries about people's relationship to food, eating and their bodies (www.projectbodytalk.com). She lives in central New York with her family.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History, scrapbook style, June 2, 2004

By 

A. Ryan "Merribelle" (Westminster, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Welcome to Kit's World, 1934 : Growing Up During America's Great Depression (The American Girls Collection) (Hardcover)

I bought Welcome to Kit's World: 1934 last year when I was faced with a challenge: I was trying to assemble a credible family scrapbook that would feature pictures and stories from the early 20th century - particularly the 1930s - but I realized that I understood very little about that important decade in American history other than what I knew from a few books like Steinbeck's. My grandpa's stories about growing up were priceless, and deserved pages that honored both the look and feel of their time. I needed a quick way to "catch up" on the Thirties (and a source for collage photos to scan).

Thank goodness for Pleasant Company. If you haven't heard about their American Girl books and dolls let me tell you that they may be this generation's solution to getting girls ages 7 to 12 interested in history. Kit is a fictional character in a series of books written to appeal to girls in that age range. Growing up in the 1930s, she deals with issues typical of that generation as well as everything young people from any time deal with, so modern readers can truly relate to her.

Kit is made more real in the mind's eye when put in the context of this Welcome To book. The book's organization takes us from the prosperous late 20s that set it up, through the Depression and onto the New Deal at the end. We find hundreds of era photos of people, places and things that made up the fabric of life back then. Richly supplemented with illustrations, the visuals are grounded with chapter introductions and short blurbs that contain interesting trivia. I can see how it would be a good resource for school reports in grade school, but it's arranged in a fun way for kids so that they'll read it even when they don't "have" to.

Worth owning if you have a grade school child in the house. Check out the other Welcome To books for some of the other fictional girls: colonial times, pioneer days, Victorian era, 1940s, etc; history will come alive for them.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard times with a human touch, March 19, 2006

By 

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Welcome to Kit's World, 1934 : Growing Up During America's Great Depression (The American Girls Collection) (Hardcover)

This is not the book I would normally buy but I'm interested in the Depression years in the US and I'm also a publication designer. Using the neat Amazon facility 'Search Inside' the book convinced me this would be a good addition to my design library. The book's production really is first class, so a tip of the hat to Will Capello who art directed it.

Don't be put off by it only being sixty pages long because there is a lot of information in words and images, all presented in an elegant, creative way. The four chapters are divided into themed spreads and each of these uses a scrapbook design style to display the photos and graphics, for instance, pages sixteen and seventeen about the 1932-33 Winter of Despair has a short introduction and ten images with detailed captions. To avoid the feeling that history might come across as being distant and remote a really nice touch is the use of paintings showing Kit and other girls relating to the events described on many pages. If I have a criticism it is that there is no further reading list. The text is such that it will certainly arouse any reader's curiosity to find out more.

'Welcome to Kit's World 1934' is a visual delight and gives a human touch to the dramatic events of the Depression years.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a quick overview, March 2, 2008

By 

Lorio42 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Welcome to Kit's World, 1934 : Growing Up During America's Great Depression (The American Girls Collection) (Hardcover)

This is a nice, basic overview of the depression era that is perfect for introducing grade school children to that time in history. The book is filled with pictures and tidbits of info not only about how people coped, but also how they entertained themslves during the course of the depression. I enjoyed it as much as my children did!