Kit Kittredge

Kit Kittredge, also known as Margaret Mildred Kittredge, is a fictional character in the American Girl series of books, written by Valerie Tripp.^[3] Kit serves as a protagonist and central character to her sub-series, which was set during the Great Depression.^[4] Kit's core series of books was written by Valerie Tripp and illustrated by Walter Rane.

Character design

Kit is first seen in Meet Kit wearing a lavander-pink sweater and cardigan, a floral print skirt and a pair of white canvas sandals. As her family suffered financially during the Great Depression, she was later seen wearing hand-me-downs or used clothing, and at one point during her birthday, her aunt Millie made her a dress from feed sacks, to which she was eventually grateful for. Among the characters from American Girl's historical roster, Kit is the only one to have short hair. To reflect her era, her hair is cut into a bob, although in some illustrations she is shown to be wearing it in a short ponytail or pigtails.

With the launch of American Girl's BeForever revamp, Kit's meet outfit was retconned to that of a bright blue-green sleeveless dress with a white Peter Pan collar, and a flared skirt with floral print.^[5] Kit's old meet outfit, however, is still available for purchase as a separate item.

Personality

Unlike her best friend Ruthie, Kit is a tomboy who cares less about dresses, chores and things that she considers as "flouncy", and is more inclined into baseball, especially Ernie Lombardi of the Cincinnati Reds, adventures such as Robin Hood,^[6] country life, and typing up her own news reports, as she dreams of becoming a reporter one day.

Kit hates change, even though at one point she did long for it to happen, and dislikes being dependent on charities, which spurs her fascination with Amelia Earhart. The books also depict her as being stubborn and somewhat fussy, as she finds chores around the house to be rather boring and tedious, but eventually regrets it after realizing her family's misfortunes, and learns to be more supportive and helpful.

She has a strong sense of pride, but she eventually realises that she is carried away by it and learns to be humble, and tackle her problems with thrift and cleverness. Kit also tends to be easily embarrassed and irritated, like in Kit Learns a Lesson where she is angered by one of her classmates who teased her for her family's sudden descent into poverty.

Kit is also shown to be close to her father, as depicted in the film, and in the aforementioned part where Kit pushed her classmate for his taunts against her father and family.

Character background and history

Kit was born on May 19, 1923 in Cincinnati, Ohio to a well-to-do family, and was named after her mother and her Aunt Millie.^[1] She, however, prefers to go by a nickname given to her by her family, which was taken from both her surname and the song Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag.^[7] Kit's father, Jack, owned a car dealership business in Cincinnati and was a World War I veteran.^[7][8]

In other media

A feature film Kit Kittredge: An American Girl was released to theaters on July 2, 2008, starring Abigail Breslin in the title role.^[9][10][11] Breslin's performance in the film was praised by critics;^[12][13] Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal wrote that she "carries the event-stuffed story with unflagging grace".^[14] Several new items were added to Kit's collection to coincide with the film.

Two video games based on her stories were also developed and published, namely Kit Mystery Challenge for the Nintendo DS,^[15] and the point-and-click adventure game A Tree House of My Own for Microsoft Windows platforms.^[16]

Kittredge was also parodied in an episode of the animated comedy show Mad, where she was portrayed as having a daughter who participated in a parody of Toddlers and Tiaras.^[17]

References