Full Speed Ahead: My Journey with Kit

Full Speed Ahead: My Journey with Kit
The cover of Full Speed Ahead
Kit's Series
Published	2014
Author	Valerie Tripp
Illustrator	Juliana Kolesova Michael Dworkin
ISBN	1609584619
Setting	September 1933
In relation to Kit's Series	Between the events of Kit Saves the Day and Changes for Kit

Full Speed Ahead: My Journey with Kit is a My Journey Book that focuses on Kit Kittredge.

Characters

• Kit Kittredge
• Jack Kittredge
• Margaret Kittredge
• Charles Kittredge
• Stirling Howard
• Louise Howard
• Miss Hart
• Miss Finney
• Hendrick Frosbythe
• Roger
• Millie Morrison
• Myrtle Peabody
• Mrs. McCorkle
• Robert McCorkle
• Thurgood

Only in Full Speed Ahead

• Lucille
• Buddy
• Lucille's Mother
• Ann
• Mrs. Schultz
• Mr. Birdseye
• Lucias
• Mrs. Finch
• "Ginger Rogers"
• Hungry Boy
• Mrs. Littlefield
• Eli Littlefield

Present Characters

• Protagonist: A girl who travels back into the past with a vintage camera she finds in her suitcase. The protagonist wants a pet, though her Mom believe she isn't responsible enough to take care of one. She lives in a high-rise apartment building with her Mom, at the top floor. Her room is really messy as the protagonist isn't well-organized; her mother says her room often looks like a cyclone hit a combination library and sporting-goods store, and it's why she can't find anything. Her hobby is going to thrift stores and buying older, vintage clothing. She is interested in fashion, fabrics, and clothing; with vintage items she either chooses to either keep them as they are or cut them apart and reassemble them into something new. She knows a lot about fabrics from her thrifting. She does not like "creepy-crawlies" like bugs or worms. One of her favorite movies is The Wizard of Oz (which can lead to a moment of mistake when she states it's a movie while back in time; the movie was not released until 1939). She's addressed by Kit as Lulu (either as her relative Lucille or as a hobo child) through the events of the book.
• Mom: the protagonist's mother. She works long hours at a science lab and is a single parent, which does not leave much time to spend with her daughter. Mom believes that her daughter's not ready to own a pet, due to her irresponsibility. It is just her and the protagonist living together and no father is stated.
• Isabel: the protagonist's best friend. She lives in a small house with her big family of multiple sisters and has a pet rabbit named Pippa. The protagonist calls her "Izza."
• Sophie: the protagonist's teenage babysitter. She stays with the protagonist while her mother works. She has a dog from a rescue shelter named Braveheart who is shy and little. The protagonist ignores her mostly until her experiences make her consider Sophie as someone she can get to know.
• Harry Sharma: A boy at the protagonist's school. He attended a science day camp with the protagonist. She views him as being a jerk and finds him repellent. Isabel teases that he has a crush on the protagonist.
• Aunt Shelly: The protagonist's aunt. She complain-brags often about the cost of her son's tuition and once insulted the protagonist by saying she needed a manicure.
• Jayden: The protagonist's cousin, who is in college (to the tune of $45,000 a year in tuition). The protagonist thinks he's a lunkhead and mostly spends his time skateboarding to the point it ought to be his actual major.

Opening and Potential Plot Events

The protagonist receives a picture of Isabel's pet rabbit on her phone. She calls her and expresses her desire for a pet, though her mom believes she isn't responsible enough to care for one. Isabel insists that she had been responsible and asks if the protagonist had started her essay, discussing the most important idea she learned during the summer. She has not.

After talking to Isabel, the protagonist wanders in the kitchen and, after waving to her babysitter Sophie, turns on the kitchen light. She admires the surrounding view before opening the refrigerator, finding a dish wrapped in plastic and a note from Mom. She then returns to her bedroom, sits on the floor with her laptop (as her desk is too messy) and attempts to begin her essay. Feeling cold from the air conditioning, the protagonist grabs a coat from her project suitcase, which is filled with old clothes and things she has purchased thrifting.

In her suitcase she also finds an old camera and, after peering through the viewing slot, presses the shutter button. The protagonist then find herself transported back in time, standing on the Kittredges' front lawn with a golden retriever puppy next to her. Kit runs up to her, greeting her as a distant cousin, Lucille. The protagonist adopts the name "Lulu" (whether as a hobo or as Lucille) and, after telling Kit her desire for a pet, names the golden retriever puppy Buddy.

After this opening, events vary according to choices made.

• As Lucille, the protagonist and Kit board the trolley. After Buddy separates from the girls, the protagonist can either run after him or stay behind on the trolley with Kit.
• As Lucille, the protagonist and Kit pay a visit to Uncle Hendrick. Upon receiving an invitation to stay with Hendrick, the protagonist can either accept it or decline to stay with the Kittredges.
• As Lucille, the protagonist and Kit enter Uncle Hendrick's house to retrieve Lucille's suitcase. When a neighbor catches them and mistakes them for hoboes, the girls can either run away or be escorted to the hobo jungle.
• As Lucille, the protagonist accompanies Kit to the soup kitchen. They meet Mrs. Schultz and distribute their donation of clothes between four girls.
• As "Lulu", the protagonist assists Kit in the garden, watering the plants and protecting Kit from being bitten by a copperhead snake.
• As "Lulu" the protagonist can alter an old dress of Margaret's for Kit, which Kit greatly appreciates. As Kit's showing off the remade dress to her family, a well-off-family with a daughter named Ann pulls up and recognizes Buddy as their dog, Scooter; Ann's father pays the protagonist twenty dollars in reward and offers Kit a job watching Buddy while they're out of town. The protagonist is heartbroken to let "Buddy" go and runs to the attic; Kit comforts her, telling her about holding on and finding small moments of joy in hard times. When she returns to her own time, the protagonist starts to write her due essay about gratitude and appreciating what she has; she is so engrossed she does not stop until her mom opens the door. Mom gifts her the puppy she had asked for--which she of course names Buddy.
• As "Lulu", the protagonist and Kit visit the hobo jungle and are chased by a man who accuses them of theft; they then board a train boxcar headed to Kentucky and encounter an elderly hobo, Mr. Birdseye. They're caught by railroad bulls and can either be escorted to the jail in Lewis Falls (and later picked up by Charlie and Hendrick), run away from them and escape to Lewis Falls, or go to Mountain Hollow nearby in online endings.
  • If the girls go to the jail, a lady steps forward before they can be put in the jail, calling them babies. She takes the girls in her care and gives Kit a nickel to call someone to pick them up. The only person she can call is Uncle Hendrick, and she does; he's mad but he and Charlie come to get them. The protagonist says she should go, but Kit begs her to come back with her to Cincinnati rather than being left with Buddy at Lewis Falls. While they wait they discuss Uncle Hendrick, Charlie's work with the Civilian Conservation Corps, and how both Kit and Charlie want to go to college but can't afford it now (and shock the protagonist, as her cousin Jayden goes to an expensive college) and how Kit will find a way for Charlie to go. Charlie pulls up driving the car with Uncle Hendrick in the back and teases Lulu upon meeting her. On the return trip Hendrick scolds them--for their actions, "Lulu's" ridiculous name, the family's finances, and how Charlie is likely to be a common laborer since he can't get a job at home (angering Charlie). When Kit argues Charlie will go to college, Hendrick says he never will. The protagonist argues the Kittredges will find a way for it through resourcefulness and Hendrick is shocked at her talking back before he rants that Charlie's job isn't a real job, merely a "make-work boondoggle" made by FDR (calling him a lunatic and Eleanor a busybody) who will be gotten rid of because he's ruining the country. The protagonist knows that FDR will be elected four times, and uses this knowledge to make a bet with Hendrick: if FDR is re-elected, Hendrick will then pay for Charlie to attend college--and if he's re-elected twice after that, he'll pay for Kit to attend. (If she's wrong, she adds, then Kit and Charlie will instead do chores for Hendrick for a year.) Hendrick takes the bet with Kit and Charlie as witnesses, believing that FDR is a terrible president likely to be impeached rather than re-elected. At his house Hendrick says he'll go no further as he doesn't like to drive; Kit then finagles a job for Charlie to drive Hendrick around for the next two weeks before his return to Montana and Hendrick agrees. Charlie thanks Kit for getting him the job, and thanks Lulu for standing up for him even if it's unlikely the bet will go through. The protagonist says not to be so sure and dust off his books--and that college is in Kit's future too. They return home and while Kit and Charlie are telling their parents about the job and bet, she chooses to return home; she then speaks to Sophie to try and get to know her better.
  • If the girls run away and escape, they come across a general store; Kit asks for work to earn train fare from the owner, Mrs. Finch, which is done by by scrubbing greasy frying pots and pans. (The protagonist hates it.) During this work, they find a scrap of bacon, which they consider giving to Buddy but instead give to a hungry little boy at the back door. They also encounter a young woman the protagonist compares to Ginger Rogers whom they give advice on fabric to make a working woman's suit to and that she can board at Kit's house. They will earn four nickels, and can either give all of them to the hungry boy and be given a ride back home with Mrs. Finch's husband, or give the boy half (still generous) and so pay their way back to Cincinnati. When they return (regardless of the way they arrive back) Margaret lets them know that "Ginger" will be boarding with them and thus help cover their mortgage. When the protagonist returns home, she and her mother talk and agree to go somewhere that weekend and adopt a puppy.
  • If going to Mountain Hollow (online endings), they are let go by the railroad bulls by Mr. Birdseye's suggestion and walk to Mountain Hollow. Here they take the long trek and will visit a resident, Mrs. Littlefield, before being escorted to Aunt Millie who is living with Myrtle Peabody. From there they can either help persuade people to come to the books in the schoolhouse by organizing a swap party or taking the books to the people of the area via muleback. (This latter is a modified retelling of the library events from Kit and Millie Ride Again, including visiting Mrs. McCorkle, exchanging information and hospitality for books, and doing the same with other residents to preserve their pride at not wanting something for nothing.)

Regardless of the ending that is arrived at, the protagonist eventually returns to her own time using the camera (or it's stated that she will soon), and returns at the exact moment she left. She makes proper goodbyes to Kit and often others she has encountered, and generally says she has to go back to her family after missing them. The protagonist returns with a new-found appreciation of her current life. This often includes finding gratitude for her mother's hard work; appreciating her own privilege and family's financial security; learning how to become responsible, cleaner and more tidy rather than letting things be left everywhere; letting go of things desperately wanted but not practical for now like a puppy (even though many endingsh ave her get the asked-for dog anyways); reaching out to others with kindness and friendship and making connections with people one doesn't expect to; and being grateful and more appreciative of what she has (and how much of it) and how to make the best of it.

About Kit's Time

Discusses life in America during the Great Depression. Topics covered:

• Ways people were affected by the Depression, with millions being put out of work and people not being able to afford food, clothing and other essentials.
• Hoboes and tramps, people who wandered the country in search of work or a place to live, and why more than half of them were youths.
• The use of symbols, marked on houses, fences and sidewalks, by hoboes to inform other hoboes what they may find.
• The dangers hoboes face when they snuck onto trains and "rode the rails", such as jumping on or off while a train was moving or facing violent railroad guards.
• Ways hoboes were assisted by other people, giving them food and payment in exchange for clothes, or handing down unneeded clothing.
• Franklin Roosevelt, who launched new programs as part of his 'New Deal" after being elected as the president in 1932.
• The skeptics who didn't approve of President Roosevelt or his programs, and Roosevelt's later success by being re-elected three more times.

Trivia

• As the events of the journey books are considered loosely part of the character's canon stories (often set at a time that doesn't contradict with events of the series), and FDR was re-elected all three times as president, then Hendrick will likely end up paying for both Kit and Charlie to attend college.