The beginning of this book starts very interesting, Kirsten and her family are on a ship to Minnesota. I always enjoyed the pioneer time, I just like how things were back then, except the diseases. So far I have only read all of Felicity's books and the first two of Josefina, I am enjoying Josefina's books but I just really like the colonial times which is when Felicity is set so I think that is part of the reason I enjoy her so much. So I started to read this book and I actually really enjoyed it.

Okay so I kind of feel like reading these American Girl Books are cheating because I can read them like super fast but my sister just got the Kirsten doll so I decided to start reading her books to know if I want to slowly buy her from her. Overall, this was a solid start to the series and I'm interested in seeing how it evolved over time. This doesn't deter me from reading anymore books from the series, but at least I know not to expect much as I continue my read through the next books. There were parts of the story that I needed to reread because I frequently lost interest in the narrative. It's clear that the standard of children's literature has changed over time. What Didn't Work: This wasn't the best writing and parts of it were quite boring. The backmatter serves as additional support in sharing information related to the immigrant experience, particularly those who came from Sweden. While true to history, a part of me wasn't expecting the series to get so dark so quickly. There were definitely aspects of this story that were more sad than I anticipated. What Worked: I truly enjoyed learning more about the immigrant experience through Kirsten's perspective, from their experience on the boat to what they encountered once they made it to the United States. Kirsten's books focus on her experience immigrating from Sweden to the United States. Meet Kirsten: An American Girl is the first in the long line of American Girl books that looks at the historical experiences of young girls. CW: discrimination of immigrants, death of character It's been years since I've picked up any of the American girl books and I thought that it might be a fun idea to start from the beginning.

Meet Kirsten by Janet Shaw