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Kit Learns a Lesson: A School Story (American Girl: Kit #2) by Valerie Tripp

 

Summary (from the publisher): In 1934 Kit finds that she has hard lessons to learn about the Depression both at home, where she is helping her mother run a boarding house while her father looks for a new job, and at school, where a fight spoils the preparations for the Thanksgiving pageant.

Review: It's 1934 and the middle of the Great Depression for Kit and her family. Kit is annoyed at the boarders who now live in her home and the extra chores they bring. Despite the changes to her home and her father having lost his job, Kit doesn't really grasp the severity of the reduced circumstances of her family until she finds out where her father has been going every day when he leaves the house. 

A lot of the plot of this book centers around the feelings of shame and despair that come along with having to accept assistance when you are down on your luck. I read this with my kids and I think they understood why this was hard for Kit and her father, but probably less so my youngest, who is only 4. While Kit is lucky in that she is still in her home and not destitute like many, I did sympathize with her having to give up her bedroom for boarders and move to the cold attic and have her home and private family space invaded by boarders. 

I felt so much sympathy for Stirling, the young boy who is a boarder in Kit's home. He is such a pitiful figure, and we learn a lot more about him in this book. While Kit is less than gracious to him on multiple occasions, I do think she has renewed appreciation for him and what he is going through by the end of the book. 

Stars: 4

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