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Changes for Kirsten: A Winter Story (American Girl: Kirsten #6) by Janet Beeler Shaw

 

Summary (from the publisher): A tough Minnesota winter brings many changes to Kirsten's frontier life, including the new responsibility of helping her brother Lars set his traps and a move into a new house for her family.

Review: In this sixth and last installment in the original Kirsten books, the Larsen family is deep in the middle of a harsh Minnesota winter. Her father has gone to spend the winter working in a logging camp to raise money, leaving Kirsten's mother alone with the four children. Kirsten is tasked with tagging along with her older brother Lars to help set traps in order to harvest furs that they can sell, as the family is saving up to buy their own farm. 

I don't want to spoil the whole plot, but the family suffers a huge setback in this novel and are lucky they have Aunt Inger and her cabin nearby for safety and security. They also have a huge windfall when Lars and Kirsten stumble upon the cave of a solitary trapper. It's wild that a children's book includes children slipping alone in a cave with a dead body and all the furs from dead animals he collected but these books are nothing if not accurate about the realities and responsibilities of life on the frontier for children during Kirsten's time period. I did wonder what happened to the little racoon that Kirsten begs to rescue early on in this book, since it is never mentioned again after a certain point in the story. 

Overall, this book has a happy and uplifting ending for the Larsen family. I loved re-reading this with my girls, although they were disappointed that there wasn't more baby content revolving around Kirsten's baby sister. I loved that each book in the series includes a short overview chapter highlighting what real life in the 1850s was like, including pictures. These books were not only a great introduction to historical fiction but also the real history behind the stories. 

Stars: 4

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