Margaret Mildred Kittredge faces the hard times of the early-to-mid years of the Great Depression in Cincinnati, Ohio, as her family struggles to adjust to the realities of the economy after her father's job loss.
Kit was named after her mother and her Aunt Millie. 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 toward baseball, especially Ernie Lombardi of the Cincinnati Reds, the great outdoors, such as country life, and typing up her own news reports. Kit hates change, and dislikes being dependent on charities, instead preferring to learn how to catch the big fish herself, which spurs her fascination with Amelia Earhart. She dreams of becoming a reporter one day. The books also depict her as being stubborn and somewhat fussy, as she finds chores around the house to be rather tedious, but eventually regrets it after realizing her family's misfortunes, and learns to be more supportive and helpful.
Kit's core series of books was written by Valerie Tripp and illustrated by Walter Rane. A feature film Kit Kittredge: An American Girl was released to theaters on July 2, 2008, starring Abigail Breslin in the title role. Many new items were added to Kit's collection as product tie-ins to the movie. Two video games based on her stories were also developed and published, namely Kit Mystery Challenge for the Nintendo DS,[16] and the point-and-click adventure game A Tree House of My Own for Microsoft Windows platforms.[17]
