Happy Birthday Kit: A Springtime Story, 1934 (American Girl Collection)

As her tenth birthday approaches, Kit knows that there won't be a party since her father doesn't have a job and money is tight, but when her Aunt Millie comes to visit, her thriftiness and good ideas make for an excellent birthday celebration! Simultaneous.

Reviewed with Valerie Tripp's Kit Saves the Day.

Gr. 3-5. Children reading the Depression-era series about Kit from the American Girls collection will welcome books 4 and 5. In Happy Birthday , Kit has mixed feelings when Aunt Millie comes to live with her family. On the one hand, she enjoys Aunt Millie's affectionate, cheerful manner and thrifty ideas. On the other hand, Kit is sometimes embarrassed by her elder's lack of concern for appearances. In Saves the Day , readers get a glimpse of the darker side of Depression life. When a young hobo befriends Kit's family, she forms a romanticized view of life in a hobo camp. Kit revises her opinion when she visits the camp, hops a freight train on a dare, and ends up in jail. Appealing color illustrations help establish the period, which is considered in greater detail in the appended "Looking Back" section of social history. Two entertaining entries in a popular series. Carolyn Phelan
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