$28.98
Viewer's Annotation: Kit uses her ace reporting skills to help two friends who have been unfairly accused of stealing.
Summary: Kit Kittredge is nine years old during the Great Depression, and determined to be a reporter. There is plenty of news in her world. She and her friends have a treehouse club. Her mom has given work to two hobo children in exchange for food. Her dad has gone to Chicago to look for work. They have boarders living in their house now. Kit still finds time, after her chores to write to her father and to write articles for the Cincinnati newspaper. Then, two of her friends are accused of stealing, and Kit is sure they are innocent. Can she use her reporting skills to help her friends?
Genre: adventure, family, friends, historical fiction, movie
Series : This movie is not part of a series, but it based on the Kit Kittredge books which are part of the prolific American Girl series.
Evaluation: A sweet film with an amazing cast -- even my husband enjoyed it!
Why it belongs in a Tween Collection: Kit is nine years old, so this film may appeal more to younger tweens. Girls fresh from their American Girls years will want to see this film adaptation. It's a great choice for families, and a good way to get a glimpse of life during the Great Depression.
Watchalikes :
- Nim's Island
- Molly : An American Girl on the Homefront
Other Useful Info:
Reviews:
from Newsweek
Three TV movies have been spun off the popular American Girl book series (and the dolls, outfits, accessories and furniture that accompany them). Now we have the first feature film, "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl," aimed squarely—in all senses of that word—at the female demographic that's too young for "Sex and the City" (3-to-12 is the American Girl target audience). The movie, like the books, is both history lesson and inspirational tale, filled with commendable life lessons.
Kit's story is set during the Great Depression, and comes complete with bank foreclosures, soup kitchens, hobos and photos of Eleanor Roosevelt. When the producers (who include Julia Roberts) dreamed up the project, they couldn't have predicted that it would reach the screens amidst the home mortgage crisis, soaring gas prices and NEWSWEEK cover stories on recession, all of which give director Patricia ("Mansfield Park") Rozema's film added resonance—at least for the parents in the audience, some of whom may have to explain to their daughters that the American Doll ensembles are a luxury few in the Depression could have afforded.
Kit, the plucky 9-year-old heroine, is played by "Little Miss Sunshine"'s Abigail Breslin in a blond wig (read an interview with Breslin here). Kit wants to be a reporter: her dream is to convince the cranky editor (Wallace Shawn) of the Cincinnati Register to publish her child's-eye view of the Depression. Over the course of the movie, she gets an eyeful. Her dad (Chris O'Donnell) loses his car dealership and heads to Chicago to search for work, while her mom (Julia Ormond) is forced to take in boarders (and sell eggs) to hang on to their home. The colorful boarders liven up Kit's life (and the movie) considerably: Stanley Tucci's traveling magician; Jane Krakowski's husband-hunting dance instructor; Glenn Headley's prim, censorious mom accompanied by her sensitive, big-eared son (Zach Mills), and Joan Cusack's ditsy librarian. There is also a cute stray basset hound Kit takes in, along with two young hobos (Max Theriot and Willow Smith), who will figure in the tale's mystery. A rash of robberies has been plaguing the neighborhood, and the finger of suspicion--fueled by anti-hobo hysteria—points to the two boys, at which point Kit merges her reportorial expertise with a touch of Nancy Drew to uncover the true villains.
Rozema has a soft, unhurried touch (even the bad guys are more clownish than truly threatening), and Ann Peacock's screenplay, based on the Valerie Tripp stories, takes its sweet, didactic time getting its mystery plot in gear. Whether young girls, used to jazzier movie editing, will find this pokey, is beyond my expertise, but I like that Rozema doesn't condescend to her target audience, and there are only a few moments when the cuteness gets out of hand. Breslin, so pitch perfect in "Little Miss Sunshine," was a little too much the professional kid actress in "Definitely, Maybe": with her wide, laser-beam eyes, she can turn on spunk like a spigot and has to be carefully directed. Here, surrounded by a formidable cast, her go-get-'em energy works well. As role models go, an aspiring journalist with a dawning social conscience beats Barbie any day.
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