Changes for Kirsten: A winter story (The American girls collection)

by Janet Beeler Shaw

Book Overview

Read and discover all about sound and music ... What are sound waves? What type of musical instrument is a koto? This exciting new series of non-fiction readers provides interesting and educational... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0590450840
• ISBN13: 9780590450843
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Scholastic, Inc
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 0.39 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Another wonderful story

This is another in the American Girls Short Stories series about Kirsten Larson, a nine-year-old girl from Sweden, whose family has moved to frontier Minnesota of 1854. In this book, Kirsten's father is spending the winter as a lumberjack, to earn extra money for the family. Kirsten helps too, by helping her brother Lars trap animals to sell their pelts. However, when Kirsten's heart overrules her head she brings home a raccoon. Disaster follows that ruins the family's fortune, but Kirsten learns that even through adversity things can turn out well.This is another wonderful story, that captured my nine-year-old daughter's heart, and my own. With each review I heap praise on Renee Graef's illustrations, and this one is no exception; the illustrations are fantastic. If you have a young daughter, then you must consider buying the Kirsten books.[For those adults interested in reading a scholarly book on the Swedish immigrants, please consider reading Swedish Exodus by Lars Ljungmark.]

Exciting story for any age!

I was six years old when I first got hooked on the American Girls, and "Changes for Kirsten" was the first book I read from the series. Maybe I'm biased by that, but now that I've read them all I think it is one of the best. In books this short it is hard to develop a character very well, but Shaw does an excellent job, and Kirsten's character comes through here more than in the first five books. Kirsten's well-meaning disobedience causes a terrible fire that destroys almost everything the Larsons own. We see the trials they endure as a result, but also the love that helps them through. Things seem to get worse when close family friends announce that they are moving away. Then Kirsten and her brother make a remarkable discovery in the woods and their luck changes. The Larson family has to start over, but a message of hope shines through, as the end of the book (and the series) brings a world of new beginnings to these brave pioneers.

A Sweet Tale

Struggles with money, a wild raccoon, fire, and more! Discover what happens to Kirsten and her family in the wilderness of America!