Kit's Short Story Collection

American Girl: Short Stories

by Valerie Tripp, Philip Hood (Illustrator), Susan McAliley (Illustrator)

This keepsake anthology contains the short stories Kit's Home Run and Kit's Tree House. as well as three brand-new adventures: Kit's Winning Ways, Kit Uses Her Head, and Kit and Millie Ride Again.

Kit Kittredge's family has gone from rich to poor virtually overnight because of the Great Depression. Now that Kit's father has lost his job and the family has turned their home into a boarding house, Kit is doing extra chores and going without the things her family can't afford. Making do isn't easy--or fair. With each adventure, Kit is determined to make a difference for her family and her community.

The collection includes "Looking Back" essays and a ribbon bookmark.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Short Stories, Childrens, Historical, Middle Grade, Fiction

241 pages, Hardcover

First published August 21, 2006

About the author

Valerie Tripp is a children's book author, best known for her work with the American Girl series.

She grew up in Mount Kisco, New York with three sisters and one brother. A member of the first co-educated class at Yale University, Tripp also has a M.Ed. from Harvard. Since 1985 she has lived in Silver Spring, Maryland. Her husband teaches history at Montgomery College.

Right out of college, Tripp started writing songs, stories, and nonfiction for The Superkids Reading Program, working with Pleasant Rowland, the founder of American Girl. For that series, Tripp wrote all the books about Felicity, Josefina, Kit, Molly, and Maryellen and many of the books about Samantha. She also wrote the "Best Friends" character stories to date, plays, mysteries, and short stories about all her characters.. Film dramatizations of the lives of Samantha, Felicity, Molly, and Kit have been based on her stories. Currently, Tripp is writing a STEM series for National Geographic and adapting Greek Myths for Starry Forest Publishing. A frequent speaker at schools and libraries, Tripp has also spoken at the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, The New York Historical Society, and Williamsburg.

Reviews

[Panda Incognito · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of the highlights of my whole year. Granted, it's 2020, so it doesn't have a lot to compete with, but still, this is glorious, because it's a Kit anthology that contains three stories unique to it. Because I discovered this in my pursuit of used American Girl books to complete my sets, I got to read new material about one of my all-time favorite fictional characters! It was so surreal, and so wonderful, and seemed like the kind of thing I would have a dream about and wish was real afterwards.

To make this even more surreal, the first short story was about quarantine. Yes, really! Kit, Stirling, and Ruthie got scarlet fever, and had to entertain themselves despite the fussing and criticism of an uptight nurse. They decided to do writing projects together, and the story includes the list headline "10 Fun Things to Do In Quarantine," which makes this even harder to believe that this isn't one of my vivid dreams. What a WILD experience. It was a great story, too, even aside from its connection with our current cultural moment.

I enjoyed the other stories as well. I never cared for the tree house one that was published independently, since Kit had such a bad attitude and was so unfair, but I disliked it less as an adult, and I really enjoyed all of the others. Also, the one about tennis involves Kit's brother, Charlie! This was so exciting and surreal, since he has a relatively small role in the series but is one of my favorite fictional older brothers. Also, another story was about Aunt Millie and Kit traveling to share school library books with families in Kentucky!

This book makes me so happy. When I began my Great American Girl Reread of 2020, I never imagined that it would lead me to new material about Kit, and it's honestly one of the best things that has happened in my entire reading life in a very long time. I can't get over the fact that this actually happened, and will cherish my lovely, like-new copy from Thrift Books for the rest of my days.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's really such a shame these short story collections were available for such a relatively short time, because this is a really lovely edition. The size and shape are just so satisfying to hold in your hand, the illustrations are beautiful, there's even a little ribbon bookmark. Just, A+ production. A few notes on the stories:

Kit Uses Her Head
Kit and her friends all get scarlet fever and are quarantined together. Lots of detail about how that was done in this period, which is both interesting and mildly triggering in the COVID era. The trio manage to put their time to good use - writing newspaper columns, of course.

Kit's Winning Ways
When Ruthie asks Kit to be her partner for a tennis tournament, Kit agrees reluctantly. Everyone pitches in to make it possible, and Kit throws herself into practicing all week, even though her court, racquet, etc. are in pretty bad shape. Media savvy adults will guess what happens next, but it's still very sweet.

Kit's Home Run
Obviously this is about Kit's love for baseball, but it also turns out to be a sweet tale about Mrs. Howard's talents at caring for others. She doesn't always come off well in Kit's core series, so it's really nice to get a little insight here into what makes her tick. It's not just us the readers who come to understand her better: Kit does too. And best of all, Kit immediately translates her new understanding into action - one of Kit's best characteristics.

Kit's Tree House
Kit and Ruthie have been talking about building a tree house for a long time - it's established in Lesson, possibly in Meet. So naturally, they've had time to dream up some really amazing tree houses, and now with Stirling's artistic skills, they can draw out exactly what they have in mind. There's no way reality could ever keep up.

So even though Kit knows how she should react to the tree house Dad and Stirling build as a surprise, she can't help being disappointed. It's utterly relatable. But time to think, and a chat with Stirling help to shift her perspective enough to appreciate it for what it is.

Kit and Millie Ride Again
We've seen Kit navigate her own pride when it comes to accepting help from Ruthie. Here, we see her navigate others' pride when she tries to start a mobile library using books from Aunt Millie's classroom. And just as we see in Kit's Surprise, the key is finding ways for everyone to contribute something of value. This also turns out to be set-up for the Kit mystery Midnight in Lonesome Hollow.


More Kit babble

Meet Kit | Kit Learns a Lesson | Kit’s Surprise | Happy Birthday, Kit | Kit Saves the Day | Changes for Kit

Really, Truly Ruthie

Kit’s Home Run | Kit’s Tree House | Kit’s Short Story Collection

Danger at the Zoo | Midnight in Lonesome Hollow | A Thief at the Theater | Missing Grace | Intruders at Rivermead Manor | The Jazzman’s Trumpet | Menace at Mammoth Cave

[Jennifer Rasmussen]

I like this book because it has lots of stories and all of them are funny. My favorite story is Kit Uses Her Head.
Review by Elena age 7

[Joey Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very cute selection of short stories, I liked some and others not so much. It showed a lot more of the realities of Kit’s era of the depression and the tough ways they had to cope.

Kit Uses her Head: Kit, Ruthie and Stirling all come down with Scarlet Fever and get quarantined together. As soon as they felt better they mess around being so bored and being unable to do anything, but that gets them in trouble with their nurse. As they get letters from friends at school they come up with the idea to write to them, finding something fun to do while stuck in bed.

It was actually a really interesting story I really liked this one. Though the nurse was kind of annoying and repetitive, but the kids made the most out of a bad situation which was fun to read. (3/5 rating)

Kit’s Winning Ways: Ruthie had been entered into a tennis tournament and knew she wasn’t a very good player so wanted Kit’s help. Kit was nervous going back to the country club and playing as she hadn’t played in a long time. With help from her brother she practices hard, but when a bully distracts her making her feel angry she doesn’t think she can play at all. But her brother gives her advice that helps her participate in the whole match.

It was an okay story, didn’t overly hold my interest though but I’m not really into tennis and that was literally the whole story. (2/5 rating)

Kit’s Home Run: Mrs. Howard doesn’t like Kit and Stirling playing baseball together and her persnickety fusspottery always comes out wanting to keep them safe. But when Kit hits a home run playing with her friends and has to go to the hospital due to the injuries she has she sees a side of Mrs. Howard she didn’t know existed. She uses her knowledge to help Mrs. Howard get a job, by doing so Kit gets a reward from her.

This was actually better than I expected it to be and found it actually fascinating and I liked that Kit was always fed up with Mrs. Howard for who she was until she was able to realise she just hadn’t found her place yet. (3/5 rating)

Kit’s Tree House: All Kit wanted was a wonderful tree house high up on the branches of the tree, but though dreamt about it never imagined it would happen. She has to go and babysit for a family each day, a chore she didn’t enjoy as the children drove her crazy. One day she comes home and a tree house had been made for her as a gift, though it isn’t quite what she expected.

I didn’t overly enjoy this story at all. It also didn’t explain Kit’s sudden change in her tree house, one second she hates it the next she love it didn’t make much sense as no explanation as to why she changed opinion. (2/5 rating)

Kit and Millie Ride Again: Kit is staying with Aunt Millie and her Friend Myrtle in the mountains of Kentucky. When she goes into the shut down school she sees all those books not being read and wants to find a way of getting the books to the people that live among those mountains. After her first plan fails she has to think again and soon finds the perfect solution to help each other.

This was really sweet, I liked that she was determined to get everyone reading and to not waste all the books from the school. She really used her mind in creating a clever plan of getting the books to the people and convincing them to be reading. (3/5 rating)

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kit will always have some of my favourite stories, and these are no different! My favourite one is Kit Uses Her Head.

[Little Seal]

I really loved all the stories in this collection!

[Rubi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kit's short stories are full of life lessons and history and heart. Absolutely loved them and learning about American lives during the great depression.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a fun collection!

[Bulk Reviews]

This one FINALLY came in! I have now finished all of the short stories! For the exclusives:

Kit Uses Her Head: 4/5
The first time I read this story, I'd just been in quarantine myself. It was interesting to see what was different in the 1930s and what was the same (assuming this story is 100% factual.) The Looking Back section mentioned a father who thought quarantine inside his own house was stupid, and climbed up and down a ladder to his window everyday simply to fool the neighbors. That attitude definitely has not gone away! And neither has taking so many precautions based on lack of knowledge about scarlet fever. Little did we know when this story was written how relevant it would be only 14 years later.

Kit's Winning Ways: 3/5
This story is about Kit playing tennis with Ruthie, and I did not remember it at all for some reason. Roger makes a return in this story, and him going out of his way to bully Kit was honestly ridiculous. This kid is by himself; he doesn't even have an audience, but he has nothing better to do than hang outside a fence and make fun of someone for being poor. I did like how Kit practicing on an ancient tennis court was initially seen as a negative, but actually enabled her to become a better player, though.

Kit and Millie Ride Again: 3/5
This is an okay story objectively; it has a plot based around history, it incorporates characters from the series, and Kit visits a new location (that I think is actually used again in one of the mysteries.) The story is that Kit and Aunt Millie become "traveling librarians," using a mule to deliver books to people in rural Kentucky. However, people are too proud to accept the books until they can give something in return. I thought the Kentuckians were aggravating, although the Looking Back section confirmed that this attitude was factual. But it still irritated me that the traveling librarian thing was an actual institution in certain counties of Kentucky, and the story makes it out like Kit and Millie made it up themselves. Wut?

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-read 2022: I think I liked some of these stories more the second time around, read right with the main series. The first and last stories were my favorite. Reading about quarantine was interesting in 2022. I think most readers will identify with this story a lot more now than when it was first published. The last story does a version of rural horseback librarians, starring Kit's Aunt Millie. I loved this story, partly because I really like Aunt Millie, but mostly because it's a good story. It's nice to see a story set in Appalachia that doesn't concentrate on the poverty, though that is a factor. It doesn't exactly go into the culture of the region, I guess because of page count, but it does communicate a sense of respect. The middle story is sort of about baseball, but much more about Mrs. Howard. It's kind of nice to see her finally get some character development, even if I'm still more than half convinced that she's experiencing Munchausen by proxy. The second story is sort of about tennis but really mostly about bullying, and it doesn't do a great job with either subject. And then there's Kit's tree house story, where she acts weirdly bratty about her tree house not looking perfect until she suddenly decides she loves it. I really disliked this one, and it feels kind of out of character for Kit, who is generally very practical and not at all fussy.

[Karol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kit's Short Story Collection is a nice resource to introduce the Great Depression to children.
Kit has a real go-getter personality. She is capable of picking herself up and dusting herself off when faced with challenges.
The Looking Back essays included at the end of each story provide easy to comprehend history lessons that touch on health issues, homeless camps called "Hoovervilles", President Roosevelt's Work Progress Administration (WPA), the Cincinnati Reds and the start of night games, women's tennis and baseball league, and the Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project.
Kit's Short Story Collection shows the impact and the personal struggles of going from rich to poor overnight.

[Sarah Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the short story call "Looking Back Quarantine" It talks about how in Kit's time Scarlet Fever was uncureable. It also talks about how to keep from there being an outbreak they would have special places to quarintine the children based on their illness. The pictures in this book are either cartoon like or actual real pictures.This is a good book for children 3rd to 5th. it is a great tool to use if you are looking for a quick short story that is during the time of the depression.

[Marya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very professional. The stories themselves are written well enough, which is surprising given how each one wraps up a subplot from Kit's main series. It may be corporate, but it is the best of what corporate can be. Having Valerie Trip as the author of all of Kit's books probably helps.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This tomboy gal is the one Madelynn chose to own, first based on what she looks like, and then because her character is none too girlie. She's a tough cookie and a real go-getter.

[Amanda Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This little set of Kit stories is just darling. I love the attention to detail and the spirit of Kit. Valerie Tripp is American Girl.

[FrozenWhovian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought it was great and i loved it!