Literate Parents

A parents' guide to quality, age-appropriate children's literature

  • Home
  • All Reviews
  • Forums
  • About
  • Contact Us
Home

Meet Kirsten

Submitted by admin on Thu, 09/17/2009 - 4:02pm
Printer-friendly versionSend to friendPDF version
Image of Meet Kirsten: An American Girl (American Girls Collection)
Buy at Amazon
Author: Janet Beeler Shaw
Publisher: American Girl Publishing Inc (1986)
Binding: Paperback, 61 pages

While I would not characterize the American Girl stories as particularly quality literature, when factoring in the historical information at the end, they certainly are. This one gives an account of an immigrant family voyaging from Sweden to Minnesota. The trials of this journey are presented through a child’s (Kirsten's) eyes, including the loss of her dear friend, Marta, from cholera.

The book is a good introduction to the topic of immigration and is presented in an approachable way. I would consider all American Girls books as starting points for developing a child’s interest in a given period of history.

Best Audience: 
Girls ages 4-10
Parts that might raise objections: 
death of a child
Ideas you will want to discuss: 
family, immigration, moving, pioneers, death, friendships
Discussion Questions: 

What would you have done if you were lost in NY like Kirsten was?

Which part of the sea journey sounded the most difficult to you?

Would you want to move and start a life in a new country like Kirsten did?

How would you have responded to Papa and storing Sari if you were Kirsten?

Your rating: None
Tags:
  • Death
  • Family
  • Friendship
  • Girls
  • Moving
  • Age 4
  • Age 5
  • Age 6
  • Age 7
  • Age 8
  • Age 9
  • Age 10
  • Age 11

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options

Follow Us

fbtwitter




Recent comments

  • favorites
    44 weeks 4 days ago

Tell Your Friends

Click here to tell your friends about Literate Parents

Book Categories

Gender

  • Boys (1)
  • Boys & Girls (30)
  • Girls (17)

Ages

  • Age 4 (13)
  • Age 5 (29)
  • Age 6 (30)
  • Age 7 (37)
  • Age 8 (42)
  • Age 9 (43)
  • Age 10 (42)
  • Age 11 (35)
  • Age 12 (21)
  • Age 13 (11)
  • Age 14 (7)
  • Age 15 (4)
  • Age 16 (2)

Themes

  • Adventures (6)
  • Adversity (1)
  • Animals (2)
  • Babies (1)
  • Babysitting (1)
  • Being Different (6)
  • Blessings (1)
  • Bravery (1)
  • Breaking the Law (1)
  • Bullying (1)
  • Camp (1)
  • Character (1)
  • Christianity (1)
  • Confidence (2)
  • Conformity (1)
  • Cooking (1)
  • Curses (1)
  • Dating (1)
  • Death (8)
  • Determination (2)
  • Disabilities (1)
  • Divorce (1)
  • Eternal Life (1)
  • Fairytales (1)
  • Family (13)
  • Famous People (1)
  • Fathers (1)
  • Free Choice (1)
  • Friends (1)
  • Friendship (13)
  • Generosity (1)
  • Good v Evil (1)
  • Growing Up (3)
  • Honesty (2)
  • Honor (1)
  • Humor (1)
  • Hunger (1)
  • Illness (1)
  • Imagination (3)
  • Jealousy (1)
  • Kidnapping (1)
  • Learning (1)
  • Lonliness (1)
  • Magic (2)
  • Manners (1)
  • Mistakes (1)
  • Moving (3)
  • Mysteries (2)
  • Mystery (1)
  • Nature (2)
  • Neighborhoods (2)
  • Nursing (1)
  • Obedience (1)
  • Orphans (4)
  • Poverty (3)
  • Racism (1)
  • Religion (1)
  • Running Away (1)
  • Sacrifice (1)
  • School (5)
  • Secrets (1)
  • Segregation (1)
  • Senior Citizens (1)
  • Shyness (1)
  • Siblings (10)
  • Suffering (1)
  • Talents (1)
  • Trust (1)
  • War (1)
  • Work (1)
  • Worry (1)

Search

Search Amazon


Shopping Cart

User login

  • Request new password

RSS, XHTML, CSS

Drupal Themes Design by SEOposition.com