On a visit to Cincinnati from rural Kentucky during the Great Depression, Aunt Millie impresses Kit with her money-saving cleverness. Includes information on life in America during the Great Depression.

While staying with her Aunt Millie in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky in the summer of 1934, Kit tries to discover who is sabotaging a visiting folklore researcher.

In 1934, during the Depression, Kit's cantankerous uncle comes to live in the Cincinnati boardinghouse run by her parents, enlisting her aid in transcribing his complaining letters to the editor of the local newspaper and inspiring her to write a different kind of letter of her own.

A young man has a lifelong love of rock collecting that eventually leads him to work at a science museum.

When Kit's family has to take in boarders, it seems as if they may be able to keep their house although her father lost his business, but the changes put a strain on Kit's friendship with Ruthie, especially as Kit spends her days helping cranky Uncle Hendrick.

In 1930 Abby Nichols is an eight-year-old girl growing up in Maine, but as the Depression deepens, and her mother dies, the responsibility of taking care of her family falls to her, and she has to put her dreams of going to college and becoming a writer on hold.

In 1934, eleven-year-old Terpsichore's father signs up for President Roosevelt's Palmer Colony project, uprooting the family from Wisconsin to become pioneers in Alaska, where Terpsichore refuses to let rough conditions and first impressions get in the way of her grand adventure.

Before Kit can write a news story about an upcoming sold-out jazz concert, sinister pranks threaten to cancel the show and Kit is falsely accused of stealing a valuable trumpet. Includes an "Inside Kit's World" essay about the popularity of jazz and swing music during the Depression.

During the Depression, three young sisters get one baby doll for Christmas and must find a way to share.

In 1932, during the Depression in Ohio, thirteen-year-old Rudy, determined to help his family weather the hard times, hops a train going west to California and experiences the hobo life.