Summary: When her father's business closes and her family is forced to make changes because of the Great Depression, nine year old Kit responds with resourcefulness.

Kit is a girl who is growing up during the Great Depression. She always hears about the bad in the news so she writes about life at home. Mom has a man and his son stay with them and the boy causes Kit nothing but trouble. Dad loses his job and Mom wanted to find out a way to make money. She decided to let teachers and nurses use rooms in the house and pay for staying. Kit moved to the attic and made it her own room.

I liked this book because it showed what people and what extremes they had to go to to get money to survive on. I liked how it talked about what kids did at home during hard times like these and what they went through.

I would use this if we were talking about any sort of history. I could also have each student write what they would do in their spare time if they only had what she had during that time.

This Story is about a 9 yr old girl whose name is Kit Kittridge. she loves news, but Kit does not like all the bad news so Kit decides to make up her own stories. Kit writes about anything. She loves something that exciting happens, but when her dad loses his job her mom comes up with a great new idea.

my personal reaction to this story is that i love American Girl. ive read it since i was young and it seems that everyone who reads it can rteally get into the story.

In the classroom i could use this when talking about historical fiction but besides that this is just a book that every young girl would love to read.

The setting for this book is in 1934. The United States has experienced the depression. Kit and her friend Ruthie loved to write newspapers to Kit’s father using a typewriter. Kit’s father would always come home with a newspaper, so Kit decided to write a newspaper for him with the events that happened at home or around their neighbor. A family friend looses his job and Kit’s mother invites them to live with them not knowing her husband will loose his job to. Kit’s mother has the idea of opening their home as a boarding house. For now it’s the best job they can find.

Even though this book is “An American Girl” book, I think that boys and girls can learn from it.
These series of books provide great short stories that tell experiences of girls that happened during different time periods in history. This particular book focused on a time during the depression, but at the same time the events that happen could also relate to experiences that families are having today. The last few pages in this book have pictures with facts of the depression era.

This series of book would be good to read during social studies time or maybe after recess when the students need some time to sit quietly and settle down. This would also be a good series to recommend to students if they are having trouble finding a book from the library to read. It’s not a very thick book and it’s easy to read.

Extension Ideas:
1) Students can make up their own newspaper. They can choose what ever theme they want. Some ideas: their family, their favorite sport, a vacation they had, or what a school day is like. After the students have made a draft of their ideas, have them create the newspaper with a computer.
2) There are a few things mentioned in the book that the students might have questions about. Divide the students into groups and give them each a topic from the book to research. Some topic ideas: What is a typewriter? What year did the depression begin and what are some of the things that happened? (This could be assigned to more than one group and each group could lookup two or three things). What is a boarding house? ( )

This is a double of a book in my classroom library. Kit is just a normal girl facing the Great Depression, writing newspaper headlines about everything that happens to her, when her father’s car dealership finally closes down. She has to move to the attic so her family can take boarders, but she discovers that it isn’t entirely a bad change: she finally has a place she’s created. ( )