More Info on Kit Kittredge: An American Girl

The Story: Budding ace reporter (and American Girl doll) Kit Kittredge lives in Depression-era Cincinnati where times are tough and foreclosures among the well-to-do are common. When the family business goes under, Pa Kittredge leaves for Chicago to find work, while mother and daughter make do at home taking in wacky boarders including a dance instructor, a mobile librarian, and a magician. When a crime spree labels hobos the bad guys, cub-reporter Kit and friends set out to find the real culprit and earn Kit her first official byline.

Good If You Liked: Newsies, Captain January, Pollyanna

Heads Up: Not much. Even a treehouse club bonding ritual -- usually achieved through some sort of blood-brother thing -- was lightened with a water-bowl initiation. There's one allusion to an un-G-rated idea (Stanley Tucci's magician answers a question about whether he's ever levitated a dance instructor with, "Once, but that's another story.") and curious kids will want to know what's so funny. The theme of financial woe was not lost on the kids, and many came out asking questions about the Depression.

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