A Budding Reporter Makes Her Voice Heard in Changes for Kit

Kit, the star of a series of American Girl books set during the Great Depression, is a budding journalist. Throughout the six short chapter books featuring her, she delights in writing “newspapers” for her family, but in Changes for Kit, the final volume of the series, the spunky 11-year-old decides to branch out by submitting a letter to the editor of the Cincinnati paper.

A couple years ago, the Kit books were adapted into a movie mostly taking into account the first, second, fifth and sixth books, but with substantial changes. In this case, the movie has Kit frequently visiting the newspaper office in hopes of convincing the ornery editor, Mr. Gibb, to make her a cub reporter. In the book, while she dreams of one day joining the journalists at the newspaper, the reason for her frequent visits is her uncle Hendrick, a character not included in the movie.

Uncle Hendrick is introduced in Kit’s Surprise, the third book in the series, which is focused on Christmas. While his disposition is unpleasant, Kit begins to look forward to her afternoons helping him around his house as he recovers from an illness, since they afford her an opportunity to earn a bit of pocket money. In this sixth book, he comes to stay with Kit’s family for a while, and one of his favorite tasks is dictating letters to the editor, which inspires Kit to compose her own, expressing a very different point of view.

Changes for Kit is a fitting conclusion to the story because Kit draws from her experiences in each of the previous books as she decides exactly what she wants to convey to her fellow Cincinnati citizens. The activist tone that is latent in earlier volumes finally comes to the forefront as Kit’s experiences with hoboes and other homeless people inform her desire to make a difference.

Like the rest of the books in the series, this one is written by Valerie Tripp, and she writes in an engaging manner, particularly when giving voice to Uncle Hendrick and Mr. Gibb. Kit’s letter to the editor is polished but also seems as though it could have been written by an 11-year-old. As always, Walter Rane provides illustrations, sometimes full-page paintings, sometimes tiny pictures for the margins, often focusing on objects that might not be familiar to a modern audience.

Changes for Kit works as a stand-alone story, but it’s best read as the culmination of the series. While the events within it are not as dramatic as in the movie, they are a tad more realistic, and the book offers encouragement to pre-teen readers that there are ways to make a positive impact upon the local community even at a young age.