Happy Birthday, Kirsten: A Springtime Story

American Girl: Kirsten #4

by Janet Beeler Shaw, Renée Graef (Illustrator)

You'll see that some things about growing up have changed, while others like families, friendships, and feelings--haven't changed at all. This is the American Girls Collection. (Kirsten)

Genres: Historical Fiction, Childrens, Fiction, Historical, Middle Grade, Juvenile, Young Adult

58 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Miranda Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Last year my Aunt Sadie had twins. Only one of the babies lived, and Aunt Sadie died after they were born."

There's so much happening and Kirsten doesn't know how to feel. Her Mama is expecting a baby but childbirth is always fraught with danger, as her friend Mary pointed out. And there's so much work to do to prepare for the baby!

"Why did a baby need so many diapers? Surely three or four would be enough."

There's tornados in this new country, a new barn being built on Uncle Olav's property, and one of the cats had kittens and Kirsten is so worried about the tiniest kitten.

"That one's so little it will never live," Peter said....
"Be quiet, Peter," Kirsten said. "You don't know everything." She tried to guide the tiny gray kitten to its mother.

And then there's the things that Kirsten wants and knows that now's not the time for wants... And yet, she can't help but to want to learn to quilt with her friends or go to school instead of staying home to help Mama, but she knows that she needs to be with her family right now.

And on top of all that, her birthday is coming up...and Kirsten knows with so many serious things that she shouldn't hope for too much.

Mama, Papa, the kittens...and yet, a small, secret part of her heart wants a nice birthday party - or any birthday celebration at all.

Whew. This was a wonderful addition to Kirsten's story.

In book 1, she travels across the world. Book 2 has her learning about her new country. Book 3 focuses on how she did her best to keep old traditions alive in the new world. And book 4 is about finding her place in America.

When you consider each of these books is about 50 pages, that's a lot of character development over just a handful of pages and yet it feels very grounded and realistic.

I was impressed by how the author was able to bring such tension to the story - Kirsten's worry about her Mama was so relatable, especially when given the context from other characters regarding childbirth in that time period.

Miss Winston has switched from a scary and intimidating figure to a kind person in Kirsten's eyes. I don't think it was a personality flip-flop but moreso Kirsten getting a chance to get to know the teacher beyond those first few stressful weeks at an all-English school.

I also really appreciated the connection to the past - we learn about the importance of quilting to girls of that era and the friendship bonds that can develop from shared activities.

I wish we got to know some of the side characters a bit more but like I said earlier, it's only 50 pages per book and hopefully there's more in the companion books.

Overall, a great addition to the series!!

[Abigail McKenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

this one miiight be my favorite. the aesthetic is everything.

[Panda Incognito · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an excellent picture of pioneer life, and portrays the challenges and joys of being a family during that era. I remember liking this book especially as a child, and it probably is still my favorite in the series. However, one marked difference in my reading experience now is that I spent a lot of time thinking about what Kirsten's parents must have been thinking, instead of just connecting with her.

I especially like her mother, and this story about adding a new sibling to the family gave me so much more respect for her. What a woman, giving birth on the frontier with just family to help, and still investing in and supporting her relationships with her other children. Even though Kirsten has to do lots of work around the house after her mother gives birth, her mother acknowledges and appreciates her sacrifices, and it is a beautiful picture of love from both of them.

Kirsten's connection with her cousins and friends also plays a significant role in the story, and I enjoyed the subplot about quilting, which is one of my hobbies. The detail of signing part of the friendship quilt also reminded me of something sweet I did many years ago. Before I moved into the youth group in seventh grade, I sewed a patchwork pillow and got the other girls in my fifth and sixth grade Sunday school class to sign the blank, back portion before I sewed the pillow together. My teacher was thrilled, and I'm glad that this book gave me the idea. It was nice to remember this, too. I usually remember what a basket case I was at that age, and it's nice to remember that despite all my problems, I was a good kid.

I enjoyed reading about Kirsten's birthday party again, and the picture of her and her dad dancing under the frame of the new barn is still one of my favorite American Girl illustrations. This book is lovely, meaningful, and ages well for an adult reader, and I'm so glad that it exists.

[Olde American Spirit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was action-packed with a tornado, new family additions, celebrations, and more ways for Kirsten to step up. She and Blackie saved the day again!

Really liked this one.






✨📚☕💙☕📚✨More in-depth reviews on my Youtube Wrap Up videos.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this with my Grandaughter. She enjoys this series quite a bit. Recommended for readers who enjoy Wilder’s Little House series.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kirsten is getting ready to turn ten years old, and her mother is also about ready to give birth to another baby. The book opens with a tornado passing through. The family hides in the root cellar to wait out the storm. While waiting, Miss Winston tells them the story behind the quilt that she brought into the cellar with them. Everyone pitched together to help make the "Friendship Quilt" for Miss Winston before she left her home to be a teacher on the frontier. This inspires the girls to make a quilt, and Miss Winston offers to teach them.

Kirsten's cat, Missy, just gave birth to kittens, and Kirsten realizes one is much smaller than the others. Kirsten keeps her eye on the small kitten. Meanwhile, Kirsten's mother goes into labor! Kirsten takes Blackie and races off to bring her family in to help her mother. Kirsten is nervous because one of her friend, Mary, told her about her Aunt Sadie, who died after giving birth to twins. Only one of the babies survived, and Mary's family raises her as their own child. Kirsten does not want her mother to die! Luckily everything is alright and Kirsten now has a new baby sister. With the baby, means more chores for Kirsten to help out with, and she does not have time to work on her portion of the quilt. As a reward for her extra help around the house, Kirsten ins given the full day to play with her friends on her birthday, and they have a wonderful surprise for her!

I find this series to be dull compared to some of the others I have read (with the exception of the first book). The family does experience several things on the frontier that so many did during the time, but yet I felt this book was lacking a little. Perhaps it is the author's writing style. I am not drawn to Kirsten like I was Samantha and Caroline or even Felicity. I am using a few of these books for a book discussion. I think the author does hit on some great topics though. Childbirth in the 1850s was much more risky than today. Also, the threat on tornadoes and how people protected themselves is not all that different than today. Girls from this time did a lot of sewing as well, something not many girls today know how to do.

[Rebekah Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story was fun. I loved all the details like beating the rugs, and taking care of the animals and Kirsten not being able to go to school because of needing to stay home and help her mother. I loved the gift the girls gave Kirsten.

[Olivia · Rating 2 out of 5]

{March 2025 Reread}

springtime vibes are, always and forever, the best vibes

[Julia Kerrigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one made me a little weepy. It’s set when Kirsten is at a crossroads between the role of a girl and the role of a woman because Britta has just been born. She has to stay home from school and away from her friends while she attends to the needs of the home. Devastating quote from the back: “Although Kirsten's childhood sounds strict, she had much more freedom as a girl than she did as a grownup. In 1854, girls were allowed to show their lively spirits. They could play and go to school. Women had to control their spirits and be gentle and quiet. They spent their time keeping house and raising children.”

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me cry because of how horrific being a girl or woman on the frontier must have been.

Kirsten can’t even go to school anymore because she has to stay home and do all of her mother’s work while she recovers from having a baby. Thank god the baby is a girl so Kirsten can hopefully share these responsibilities with her sister in the future.

[RaspberryRoses · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was just a lovely book. I can't decide between a 4 or 5 star rating, so I decided to be generous as a gift for Kirsten's birthday. I do think it stretches belief to call this a "springtime" story, though.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another lovely entry in the Kirsten series.

[Morgan's Endless Bookshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this one, too! Kirsten was so precious, helping out so much after the baby was born, and I loved her friends, too!

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

had to read this for Kirsten's birthday ❤️

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very sweet story with a lot of involvement. Very good book. One of my favorites of the AG series.

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kirsten is perhaps slightly more self-sacrificing than is purely realistic for a ten year old. She seems to take it awfully well that she expects her mother to have forgotten her birthday for a girl her age, which is at least rewarded when her mother later tells her how fondly she remembers the day she was born.

[Aria Main · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect book to read for my birthday. So much nostalgia for all the American girl doll books, but Kirsten's will always be my favorite.

[Avery · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite so far! Featuring kittens, quilting, and flower crowns

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rereading as an adult, here's what stands out:

This one's all about beginnings: new baby, new barn, new kittens, new quilting skills - and Kirsten's new friendships in her new home.

"Why did a baby need so many diapers? Surely three or four would be enough," Kirsten thinks. HAHAHAHA. Not sure that line holds up to close scrutiny - she'd have been five when Peter was a baby, and surely their community in Sweden had plenty of babies - I don't buy that a ten-year-old with her background doesn't have a pretty clear picture of how much work a baby is.

And OF COURSE Mama's irritable as the birth gets closer. It's scary now with IVs and epidurals and transfusions and antibiotics. She doesn't know what she's missing on that front, of course, but she's definitely missing the friends and family who helped her when the older children were born - who are all back in Sweden.

I love the tender conversations between Kirsten and Mama in both this one and Kirsten's Surprise.

Just two books ago, Kirsten was entirely intimidated by Miss Winston and dreaded her coming to Uncle Olav's, but now she hates the idea that she might leave sometime soon. Miss Winston is definitely less scary now, but it also speaks to Kirsten wanting some stability in her life after the huge changes in the past year.

It bugs me that the illustrations of the quilt don't match the description. The pictures show a fairly large quilt, and never include the blank squares for writing on.

The scene where the other girls give Kirsten the quilt is so sweet, especially when they've known her less than a year. We don't see this friend group much - but six short books are never enough to develop ALL the relationships in a girl's life AND also have space for plot and character growth. If the girls are willing to put all this work into something for Kirsten, I'm willing to believe that these are strong new bonds - and take it as a sign that she has really and truly become part of this community.

And that, I think, marks the end of Kirsten's main arc. In these first four books, Kirsten travels to her new home, begins to learn English, brings an old tradition to her new home, and finds that she has been embraced by her new community. Without giving anything away, the last two books are both driven by concerns about money - legitimate for the family's situation, but they could just as easily be "further adventures of Kirsten Larson" rather than part of the main narrative.


More Kirsten babble

Meet Kirsten | Kirsten Learns a Lesson | Kirsten’s Surprise | Happy Birthday, Kirsten | Kirsten Saves the Day | Changes for Kirsten

Kirsten on the Trail | Kirsten and the New Girl | Kirsten Snowbound! | Kirsten and the Chippewa | Kirsten’s Promise | Kirsten’s Short Story Collection

The Runaway Friend

[Gil-or (readingbooksinisrael) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Kirsten books aren't my favorites. Things seem to happen and move on, and it is especially notable in this book, as well as the whole series. Still, it had a good story, good illustrations, and is inspiring me to do more things, just like I remember these books doing when I was a kid.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to say that I always give AG books 5 stars! I can't help it. But out of all of the Kirsten books I've read so far, this is my favorite!

[Gina]

Finished 2/24/16

[Marissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Re-reading the American Girl books in quarantine to feel something 4/6]
Not me getting choked up when Kirsten’s friends gave her the friendship quilt

[Sarah Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fourth book in the Kirsten series. Kirsten's family is a bit more settled in their new home in Minnesota. But the family has welcomed a new baby and with it more work, keeping Kirsten busy and home from school to help with chores. Kirsten worries about missing out with friends but is happy to have her tenth birthday party and barn raising celebration to look forward to.

I have loved rereading these books as an adult with my own daughters, who are currently five and seven. They way they both literally raised up out of bed in excitement upon learning that Kirsten's Mama was pregnant was a sight to behold. Clearly, this new plot development was a great thrill for them. I liked that the book made the new addition a realistic one. Kirsten has to help shoulder the weight of added duties like sewing, and later washing, cloth diapers. She worries about her mother laboring alone without trained medical care. And as the oldest daughter, she is kept home from school to help with household chores whie her mother recovers from childbirth. This was all very realistic and helps illustrate for modern readers the differences between now and then.

Despite the drudgery of this period of Kirsten's life, the book still manages to make the story exciting between the buildup to the new baby's birth and in anticipation of the community get together to raise the barn, which happens to coincide with Kirsten's tenth birthday. It was nice to see Kirsten get to have fun with friends after not being able to do so for some time. My daughters were disappointed the new baby didn't feature more prominently and its name was not revealed in this book.

[HadenXCharm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had a more uplifting feel to it, and such precious moments between Kirsten and her mother. Her mother letting her know how special she is to her, and Kirsten getting her perfect birthday was just wonderful. The conversation between her and Mama where she tells her about the day she was born and the line "Of course Mama had remembered her birthday. How foolish of her to think she would forget" honestly made me tear up. And at the end of the book when Mama tells her, I'm glad to have two daughters but YOU are my only Kirsten, omg the tears lol.

Kirsten has been kind of beat down by how much work she has to take over now that Mama is pregnant. She's become little mom to everyone, doing all those chores, and she has to miss school because of it-- but in the end she gets such a special gift from her friends on her birthday, it was so sweet.

I found the looking back chapter so sad, discussing how often women died in childbirth and how often the children died, life was dangerous! Also there was this heartbreaking line, "Children in the 1850's never dreamed about what they would be when they grew up. Girls knew they would be housewives and mothers, and boys knew they would be farmers like their fathers." Your path in life was already decided for you, essentially. It seems like at least Anna has dreams of becoming a teacher like Miss Winston.

[Pixie 🍜 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kirsten’s mum is pregnant and she’s worried her mum won’t survive.
She and her friends learn how to make a quilt at school and their teacher tells them about her friendship quilt she got from her family.
Due to her mum being pregnant Kirsten has to stay home from school a lot and do housework and cook dinner etc.
her mum has the baby early but everything is okay.
when it’s her birthday they have a barn raising and her friends gift her the quilt since she wasn’t able to be at school much and they make it a friendship quilt.
The book also touches on tornados hitting the plain.
There are also some kittens and Kirsten ends up taking the small one that the mother rejects to look after herself.

The afterwards explains that Kirsten and most children didn’t have much choice about what they’d do and so they were trained to help with household tasks from an early age. By 16 Kirsten would be able to get married.These books have a good grasp of historical context and provide it well for younger readers.

[Joey Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a busy time for Kirsten and her family, her mama is having a baby and that means she has to do double the work at home. That means she has to miss school and making the quilt with her friends. But as her birthday approaches her mother hadn’t ever forgetting the gift of her beautiful daughter. On the day of the families barn raising Kirsten is given a wonderful celebration for her birthday and gets some wonderful surprises from her family and friends.

This was so sweet, Kirsten was such an incredible girl through this hard time for their family. Not once did she complain about her hard work she had to do or that she was missing out on everything. It was so sweet reading that her hard work didn’t go unnoticed.

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kittens and hand sewn friendship quilts? Sign me up! This one was fun- again, a really interesting look at what it would have been like to grow up in the Midwest in the 1850's. There is just something so nostalgic about her stories, about the simpler times. As a crafty gal myself I loved reading about how all Kirsten wanted to do for her birthday was sit with her friends and sew <3 And now that I know her birthday is coming up I, of course, have to get my hands on her birthday dress!

[Laura Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fun and interesting adventure with Kirsten. Ms. Shaw does a good job of showing how much responsibility pioneer children undertook. I do like the way Kirsten seems to be maturing. Even though she longed to go to school and be with her friends, she understood that her mother needed her at home and she didn't complain or whine. And the gesture her friends made at the end was sweet.

[Heather Mayle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book about me beginnings and growing up. Again, I'm amazed at what I forgot about these books since I read them so much as a child, but I totally forgot her mother had another baby! How great wrenching it would be too know how scary it could be to have children back then for the child and the mother! Makes me truly treasure my children even more.