Grace's Book Report

Grace's Book Report: Meet Kit (American Girl Novel) by Valerie Tripp

"It's not fair!" In the world of the Great Depression, nothing is ever fair for Kit Kittredge. In "Meet Kit" you follow Kit through the dark days of the Depression. Children are lost in disbelief, and so is Kit.

Kit has big dreams of being a reporter. She even makes home newspapers, but she wants good news, not bad. Kit and her best friend, Ruthie, decide to go to her mother's garden club and see if there is any good news there. They do find some new news, Mother has invited the Howards to stay. Kit is excited and makes an article and a headline, but when her father gets the news he isn't happy and Kit can't find out why.

Once Stirling and Mrs. Howard move in, the Kittredge family must take in more boarders. When the boarders finally come, Kit has to do nothing but chores and house work. On top of that, she has to give up HER room and no one seems to want to help her decorate her new room in the attic. She finds some old stuff in the attic and made it look like Sherwood Forest.

This kind of book is historical fiction. The time period and circumstances are believable and makes me feel like I am part of the book. The setting is 1934 in Cincinnati, Ohio during the Great Depression. Cincinnati is a real city, but the cloud of the Depression has wiped people, jobs, and money away.

Kit, who is the main character in the story, is stubborn, but her curiosity (over half the time) gets her in trouble. It's obvious she's stubborn when she takes something and still is mad over it the next day. For example, when she got curious about seeing Stirling, she gets into an accident and is seemed as if it wasn't fair that everyone was upset with her. She took it to heart and was still mad the next day.

The author of "Meet Kit," Valerie Tripp, wrote half of the American Girl books. She was born in 1951 in Mount Kisco, New York. She also wrote another series of books called "Hopscotch Hill School." An interesting thing the author said was, "We were a noisy, rambunctious, rag-taggle bunch." It's interesting because it's exactly the opposite of Kit.

"Meet Kit" is one of my favorite books, but the Kit mysteries are my absolute favorite. However, this book has background information to help you understand all of the other Kit books. I would recommend this book to girls who like historical fiction or have everyday life problems.