Book-It 'o14! Book #15
The Fifty Books Challenge, year five! ( 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013) This was a library request.
Title: Meet Kit by Valerie Tripp with illustrations by Walter Rane
Details: Copyright 2000, Pleasant Company Productions
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "Kit Kittredge is a nine-year-old girl with a nose for news. But since most of the news is about the hard times of the Depression, Kit writes her own newspaper stories. She reports on the happenings at home-- like the day Mother invites fussy Mrs Howard and her son to stay with them. Kit is excited to have a boy her own age to play with, but Stirling causes Kit nothing but trouble. Then, when Dad loses his business because of the Depression, Mother gets a brainstorm that turns the Kittredge household upside down."
Why I Wanted to Read It: Remember my remembrances of the American Girl franchise? And my resolve to delve back in (although I'm not going to review books I've read before, as that violates my self-imposed rules of this challenge) with an adult's critical eye?
I picked the collections (at least, the six-book collections) of two characters in particular, largely because the eras attracted me and also they show the stretch of the company (one character was created largely under the same "administration" I remember, whereas the other is newer and reflects a different book structure).
A few things that I am keeping in mind:
Although "young adult" books are nothing at which to sneeze and I've read some brilliant ones right here on the challenge, these are still "committee-written" (although they have but one author) and while I eschew the crass belief that they are "written just to sell the dolls and merchandise", they are expected to stick to a certain format.
While it's tempting to go easy on historical accuracy in a young adult/children's book series, this is a franchise that was founded and is centered largely around the "educational" aspect of the books/dolls and the idea of teaching history in a way that's accessible (seeking common experiences in girls despite the decades or even centuries between their lives) and fun.
First character and her book collection to review is Kit Kittredge, who I picked as she was apparently the last to have the six book structure I remember ("meet" book, book about school, book about holiday season, book about birthday, book about summer, book about winter) and it's a time period in which I'm fairly well versed.
How I Liked It: The author is apparently an American Girl vet, having written the full six-structure stories for four historical characters (including two from my childhood, Molly and Felicity) and three (or half) of the books for Samantha.
"Meet" books have a lot weighing on them, but given how aggressively (judging by the cover marketing) the company now markets these as a series, creating a connection with the characters initially is more important than ever.
Tripp, well-practiced in these, does a fairly straight-forward job of creating a relateable, relatively likable character. Kit doesn't have her "American Girl" moment (what I define, to paraphrase Peggy Orenstein, as conquering what tests her through pluck and ingenuity, and fulfilling her destiny as a feisty, independent heroine) until fairly late in the book, and compared to some of the other heroines American Girl has produced, it's more of a mumble than a well-placed speech (that comes far later in her series), but it's undeniably there. Whether it was intentional or not that Kit didn't have as big a moment as the other historical characters (at least as far as my admittedly faulty childhood memory extends) to make the individual books less, well, individual and more series-oriented, is fairly debatable, but the "sneak preview" of the next book firmly attached to all the books (save for the last) in the series makes one wonder.
The other characters in Kit's world are relatively vivid (keeping in mind that this book is intended to come from a nine-year-old's point of view) save for the one-note Uncle Hendrick, Kit's rich grumpy uncle who is utterly unsympathetic to her family's plight (although we can't help but get a touch of Scrooge-matter-of-time-before-we-break-him air).
The illustrations are bright (if a touch stage-y looking for ones intended for realism) and the "Peek Into the Past" section of the book (a historical overview of the real world at the time; a more straightforward history lesson) is a decent and age-appropriate introduction to the period.
From the first book, Kit's world appears to be a solid one in which to enlighten children to its era.
Notable: Given, as I said, that this franchise's bread and butter is historical education, accuracy and idiosyncrasy-watch are high priority.
I caught one, but it's relatively small.
In an effort to keep their house, Kit's mother decides to take in boarders. This means that Kit has to surrender her bedroom and will now be living in part of the attic. Attempting to cheer her up, Kit's friend Ruthie (a big fan of fairytales and princesses), notes the attic's resemblance to Sara Crewe's in The Little Princess.
“Kit felt very impatient with Ruthie and her princesses this morning! "Sara Crewe's room was transformed for her by that Indian guy," Kit said crossly. "Remember? He made it beautiful. He was practically magic about it."” (pages 51 and 52)
"Guy" takes you right out of the period. "The Indian man" would've been much more accurate.
Tiny, but still a fluke.
Title: Meet Kit by Valerie Tripp with illustrations by Walter Rane
Details: Copyright 2000, Pleasant Company Productions
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "Kit Kittredge is a nine-year-old girl with a nose for news. But since most of the news is about the hard times of the Depression, Kit writes her own newspaper stories. She reports on the happenings at home-- like the day Mother invites fussy Mrs Howard and her son to stay with them. Kit is excited to have a boy her own age to play with, but Stirling causes Kit nothing but trouble. Then, when Dad loses his business because of the Depression, Mother gets a brainstorm that turns the Kittredge household upside down."
Why I Wanted to Read It: Remember my remembrances of the American Girl franchise? And my resolve to delve back in (although I'm not going to review books I've read before, as that violates my self-imposed rules of this challenge) with an adult's critical eye?
I picked the collections (at least, the six-book collections) of two characters in particular, largely because the eras attracted me and also they show the stretch of the company (one character was created largely under the same "administration" I remember, whereas the other is newer and reflects a different book structure).
A few things that I am keeping in mind:
Although "young adult" books are nothing at which to sneeze and I've read some brilliant ones right here on the challenge, these are still "committee-written" (although they have but one author) and while I eschew the crass belief that they are "written just to sell the dolls and merchandise", they are expected to stick to a certain format.
While it's tempting to go easy on historical accuracy in a young adult/children's book series, this is a franchise that was founded and is centered largely around the "educational" aspect of the books/dolls and the idea of teaching history in a way that's accessible (seeking common experiences in girls despite the decades or even centuries between their lives) and fun.
First character and her book collection to review is Kit Kittredge, who I picked as she was apparently the last to have the six book structure I remember ("meet" book, book about school, book about holiday season, book about birthday, book about summer, book about winter) and it's a time period in which I'm fairly well versed.
How I Liked It: The author is apparently an American Girl vet, having written the full six-structure stories for four historical characters (including two from my childhood, Molly and Felicity) and three (or half) of the books for Samantha.
"Meet" books have a lot weighing on them, but given how aggressively (judging by the cover marketing) the company now markets these as a series, creating a connection with the characters initially is more important than ever.
Tripp, well-practiced in these, does a fairly straight-forward job of creating a relateable, relatively likable character. Kit doesn't have her "American Girl" moment (what I define, to paraphrase Peggy Orenstein, as conquering what tests her through pluck and ingenuity, and fulfilling her destiny as a feisty, independent heroine) until fairly late in the book, and compared to some of the other heroines American Girl has produced, it's more of a mumble than a well-placed speech (that comes far later in her series), but it's undeniably there. Whether it was intentional or not that Kit didn't have as big a moment as the other historical characters (at least as far as my admittedly faulty childhood memory extends) to make the individual books less, well, individual and more series-oriented, is fairly debatable, but the "sneak preview" of the next book firmly attached to all the books (save for the last) in the series makes one wonder.
The other characters in Kit's world are relatively vivid (keeping in mind that this book is intended to come from a nine-year-old's point of view) save for the one-note Uncle Hendrick, Kit's rich grumpy uncle who is utterly unsympathetic to her family's plight (although we can't help but get a touch of Scrooge-matter-of-time-before-we-break-him air).
The illustrations are bright (if a touch stage-y looking for ones intended for realism) and the "Peek Into the Past" section of the book (a historical overview of the real world at the time; a more straightforward history lesson) is a decent and age-appropriate introduction to the period.
From the first book, Kit's world appears to be a solid one in which to enlighten children to its era.
Notable: Given, as I said, that this franchise's bread and butter is historical education, accuracy and idiosyncrasy-watch are high priority.
I caught one, but it's relatively small.
In an effort to keep their house, Kit's mother decides to take in boarders. This means that Kit has to surrender her bedroom and will now be living in part of the attic. Attempting to cheer her up, Kit's friend Ruthie (a big fan of fairytales and princesses), notes the attic's resemblance to Sara Crewe's in The Little Princess.
“Kit felt very impatient with Ruthie and her princesses this morning! "Sara Crewe's room was transformed for her by that Indian guy," Kit said crossly. "Remember? He made it beautiful. He was practically magic about it."” (pages 51 and 52)
"Guy" takes you right out of the period. "The Indian man" would've been much more accurate.
Tiny, but still a fluke.