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According to Kit
If it's not one thing, it's a mother! Kit's life is simple--farmwork, school, and dance--until her beloved dance teacher, Ursula, gets sick and her mother decides to homeschool Kit because of an incident at school. Kit doesn't know how she can possibly deal with her mother, the Lady of Sorrows, and she can't stand not dancing. The senior students take over giving lessons at the dance studio, giving Kit some respite from her daily struggles with her mother. The arrival of Luis and Clara, professional dancers who will serve as substitutes at the studio, transforms her days and gives her hope. Luis is gorgeous, a brilliant teacher and dancer, and very supportive of Kit, even encouraging her to apply to a special dance school in Montreal and volunteering to take her to the competition and personally introduce her to the director. And that is when Kit's life gets complicated.
Finally! The subs are here! Luis and Clara Coll and baby Lola. When we arrive for class they are simply there occupying the studio, no introduction or grande entrance. Luis just says, "Come in, come in, to the barre, sweatshirts off, please, let's see what we have here." … He says ballet is the most royal of dance. In a black T-shirt and tights his body looks royal, exquisite. Lean, carved muscles look powerful as coiled rope, still, waiting to whip into action. Hers too. They make me think of high-class horses. —FROM THE BOOK
Finally! The subs are here! Luis and Clara Coll and baby Lola. When we arrive for class they are simply there occupying the studio, no introduction or grande entrance. Luis just says, "Come in, come in, to the barre, sweatshirts off, please, let's see what we have here." … He says ballet is the most royal of dance. In a black T-shirt and tights his body looks royal, exquisite. Lean, carved muscles look powerful as coiled rope, still, waiting to whip into action. Hers too. They make me think of high-class horses. —FROM THE BOOK
215 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2009
2 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Eugenie Doyle
4 books3 followersEugenie Doyle is a graduate of the Vermont College MFA program. She has published short stories for adults in various literary journals. Six months of the year, she, her husband, her twin sons, and her daughter farm 140 acres, growing mostly hay but also raspberries, strawberries, and garlic. She writes for six months a year, and farms the other six months. Ms. Doyle presents life on a small farm clearly and compellingly, revealing its inherent beauty and worth.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 25, 2021
Well, I originally read Eugenie Doyle’ young adult novel According to Kit about five years ago, but I never managed to post an actual review (since According to Kit was due back at the library and I simply forgot that I had in fact not yet posted what I had enjoyed and what I had not enjoyed about Doyle’s featured text). But no, my forgetting to review According to Kit should also not reflect any major personal negativity with regard to Eugenie Doyle’s narrative either, as I indeed failed to remember posting my personal and literary musings on the latter NOT AT ALL because of a lack of interest or due to major textual annoyances on my part but simply because I had so many reading projects and teaching obligations to complete in August and September 2016 that penning a review about According to Kit, that writing about a young adult novel I had just returned to my local public library simply slipped my mind (and until just recently, in fact, when I came upon a few basic notes I had jotted down about my reactions upon reading According to Kit and how author Eugenie Doyle narrationally handles some rather major teenager and family themed problems and scenarios).
Now while I do actually not recall all too many specific details (and certainly did try to blot out the fact that in According to Kit, the protagonist and first person narrator’s half brother had been killed in a tragic farm accident), from the above mentioned notes I do remember two main points of personal reading considerations regarding According to Kit. For one, I absolutely and majorly do adore Kit’s teenaged narrative voice, and that yes indeed, Eugenie handles the latter’s many often family and education based issues and encountered problems both engagingly and with very much emotional success and tenderness (from detailing the many daily chores Kit has as the daughter of farmers, how Kit has to try to find a suitable balance between this and her cherished ballet classes, not to mention that Kit has also been literally yanked out of school by her hysterical and tyrannical mother to endure substandard homeschooling and with no personal choice in the matter either and this even though she enjoys school, wants to be at school and not stuck at home being “taught” by a patent who clearly has neither a talent nor a desire for teaching and even considers education secondary at best).
And for two, while the episode in According to Kit where she, where Kit is seduced by her new ballet instructor Luis is definitely uncomfortable to read, I do appreciate that Eugenie Doyle paints a realistic feeling portrait of how Kit responds to and handles this (definitely a bit immaturely, and Kit certainly should have been more proactive with regard to letting her parents know about Luis, but frankly, I actually consider how Kit behaves and acts authentic and reality-based in scope and feel albeit of course problematic, and thus I also do much applaud Eugenie Doyle for not sugar coating the sexual interference and seduction Kit experiences or trying to make Kit into some type of heroine).
Four solid stars for According to Kit but I do have to admit that I am left both majorly flabbergasted and totally infuriated that according to Eugenie Doyle’s text, Kit somehow has absolutely NO RIGHTS and NO WAY of officially complaining when her chip-on-her shoulder and clearly emotionally unstable mother categorically states that Kit, that her teenaged daughter will no longer be permitted to attend school, that Kit’s parents obviously have the absolute and dictatorial right to force their teenaged daughter (who clearly enjoys attending school) to stay at home and endure homeschooling that is very clearly depicted and shown as being substandard. For in my opinion, parents should absolutely NOT BE ALLOWED to simply pull their children out of school if or when said children would obviously rather be attending school. And yes indeed, if in the USA, parents do in fact have the right to force their children out of school even if their children strongly object to this, well, I for one really do consider this unacceptable parental overreaching and something that totally and absolutely needs to change.
Now while I do actually not recall all too many specific details (and certainly did try to blot out the fact that in According to Kit, the protagonist and first person narrator’s half brother had been killed in a tragic farm accident), from the above mentioned notes I do remember two main points of personal reading considerations regarding According to Kit. For one, I absolutely and majorly do adore Kit’s teenaged narrative voice, and that yes indeed, Eugenie handles the latter’s many often family and education based issues and encountered problems both engagingly and with very much emotional success and tenderness (from detailing the many daily chores Kit has as the daughter of farmers, how Kit has to try to find a suitable balance between this and her cherished ballet classes, not to mention that Kit has also been literally yanked out of school by her hysterical and tyrannical mother to endure substandard homeschooling and with no personal choice in the matter either and this even though she enjoys school, wants to be at school and not stuck at home being “taught” by a patent who clearly has neither a talent nor a desire for teaching and even considers education secondary at best).
And for two, while the episode in According to Kit where she, where Kit is seduced by her new ballet instructor Luis is definitely uncomfortable to read, I do appreciate that Eugenie Doyle paints a realistic feeling portrait of how Kit responds to and handles this (definitely a bit immaturely, and Kit certainly should have been more proactive with regard to letting her parents know about Luis, but frankly, I actually consider how Kit behaves and acts authentic and reality-based in scope and feel albeit of course problematic, and thus I also do much applaud Eugenie Doyle for not sugar coating the sexual interference and seduction Kit experiences or trying to make Kit into some type of heroine).
Four solid stars for According to Kit but I do have to admit that I am left both majorly flabbergasted and totally infuriated that according to Eugenie Doyle’s text, Kit somehow has absolutely NO RIGHTS and NO WAY of officially complaining when her chip-on-her shoulder and clearly emotionally unstable mother categorically states that Kit, that her teenaged daughter will no longer be permitted to attend school, that Kit’s parents obviously have the absolute and dictatorial right to force their teenaged daughter (who clearly enjoys attending school) to stay at home and endure homeschooling that is very clearly depicted and shown as being substandard. For in my opinion, parents should absolutely NOT BE ALLOWED to simply pull their children out of school if or when said children would obviously rather be attending school. And yes indeed, if in the USA, parents do in fact have the right to force their children out of school even if their children strongly object to this, well, I for one really do consider this unacceptable parental overreaching and something that totally and absolutely needs to change.
March 14, 2010
In ACCORDING TO KIT, the main character lives on a Vermont farm and longs to be a dancer. Obviously, most teenaged readers will not share Kit’s experiences. She shows 4H calves, has seen chickens that have been killed by a fox, and helps milk cows. She also has three dance classes a week at the nearby college with an attentive male instructor. Yet, it seems to me that Kit’s story has a universal appeal and reflects aspects of the lives of many young women. She’s struggling to become her own person and feels underappreciated and misunderstood by her family and even her best friend. She’s particularly alienated from her mother. While being home-schooled on a farm creates its own physical distance, Kit’s internal sense of isolation is familiar to many kids her age.
Although Kit is only fifteen years old, her first person narrative is beautifully written and rings true. The details of farm life – both the hardship and the beauty – are perfectly portrayed. Kit thinks about the farm-related accidental death of her half-brother but also recalls wanting to savor forever the scent of freshly mown hay.
Dance represents all those things that are missing in her farm life – artistic expression, worldliness, and belonging to a community of creative soul mates. These things are absent in her mother’s life as well. Kit’s feelings toward her mother are complicated and their conversations are realistic. All of the characters in Kit’s family are fully developed, and readers will feel the love and connection that Kit has for them even as she tries to leave them behind. There are some lovely, poignant scenes in this story but no sentimentality.
Several other reviewers have mentioned the relationship between Kit and Luis, the dance teacher who is standing in for the beloved older woman instructor who’s struggling with MS. Personally, I felt this was handled very well with just enough foreshadowing to prepare readers for the scene during the trip to Canada. Kit’s reaction and later reflection on the incident give a good indication of the level of self-awareness that she’s developed during the course of her unique story.
I highly recommend ACCORDING TO KIT.
January 6, 2010
Kit can’t believe her mother would force her to stay home and be homeschooled just because a classmate at her high school pulled a knife on another student. She doesn’t want to stay home and spend even more time helping take care of the dairy farm she lives on with her mother, father and grandfather. And when homeschooling turns out to be not much schooling, since no one actually has time to spare to work with Kit on lessons, she ends up on her own a lot of the time.
But at least Kit can lose herself in her ballet lessons she takes at the local college…that is until her beloved teacher Ursula becomes sick and can no longer teach. Graduate students pick up the slack, but it’s not nearly as fulfilling for Kit as Ursula’s classes were. When Luis arrives with his wife and baby to take over the class, Kit is enthralled by his attention to her. Luis sees her potential and encourages her to audition for a prestigious art school in Montreal, Canada, a long drive and a world away from her Vermont farm.
Predictably, Kit’s mother says no, but Kit is full of newfound confidence and a desire to dance. Plus, she wants to live up to Luis’s expectations, and she can’t let no be the answer.
According to Kit by Eugenie Doyle highlights the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship. How much does a mother open up to reveal herself to her daughter? What dreams for her future does a daughter share with her mother? When the two have different visions for the daughter’s life, how can they reconcile their conflicting desires for what’s best?
According to Kit also juxtaposes two very different pursuits—farming and ballet—and manages to show the rewards and challenges of both. It shows Kit’s longing for a mother who will talk to her and share her emotions, not hold everything inside as she carries with her a long-ago personal tragedy. There’s lots to discuss here for mother and daughters. Despite one scene near the end of the book where Luis aggressively comes onto Kit sexually, a scene that seems out of place and under-addressed for its impact, I recommend it for mother-daughter book clubs with girls 14 and up.
But at least Kit can lose herself in her ballet lessons she takes at the local college…that is until her beloved teacher Ursula becomes sick and can no longer teach. Graduate students pick up the slack, but it’s not nearly as fulfilling for Kit as Ursula’s classes were. When Luis arrives with his wife and baby to take over the class, Kit is enthralled by his attention to her. Luis sees her potential and encourages her to audition for a prestigious art school in Montreal, Canada, a long drive and a world away from her Vermont farm.
Predictably, Kit’s mother says no, but Kit is full of newfound confidence and a desire to dance. Plus, she wants to live up to Luis’s expectations, and she can’t let no be the answer.
According to Kit by Eugenie Doyle highlights the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship. How much does a mother open up to reveal herself to her daughter? What dreams for her future does a daughter share with her mother? When the two have different visions for the daughter’s life, how can they reconcile their conflicting desires for what’s best?
According to Kit also juxtaposes two very different pursuits—farming and ballet—and manages to show the rewards and challenges of both. It shows Kit’s longing for a mother who will talk to her and share her emotions, not hold everything inside as she carries with her a long-ago personal tragedy. There’s lots to discuss here for mother and daughters. Despite one scene near the end of the book where Luis aggressively comes onto Kit sexually, a scene that seems out of place and under-addressed for its impact, I recommend it for mother-daughter book clubs with girls 14 and up.
November 9, 2012
Reviewed by Sally Kruger aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com
Kit has lived her entire life on a Vermont dairy farm. Her life is one constant routine. It starts with the morning milking and chores and ends with the same at night. The only variety is her dancing.
Things change a bit the fall she turns fifteen. When a crazy kid in her high school science class takes out a knife and cuts another student, Kit's mother decides she's had it with public education. She pulls Kit from the high school and tells her she will be homeschooling from now on. But homeschooling for the daughter of busy farmers turns into Kit taking care of her own learning.
At first it seems like fun, but things get boring pretty quickly. Math means helping her mother with the farm accounting, science is helping with the chores and milking and listening to her father's schemes to increase revenue for the farm. She reads a lot and decides to keep working on the research she started at school for a project about bats that fascinates her. Physical education is, of course, her dance classes. One benefit of the homeschooling deal with her mother is that her dance classes increase to three times a week.
Being around her parents 24/7 doesn't always bring out the best in everyone. Kit is fairly certain that her mother tries to be as mean as possible by complaining and finding fault in everything. Her father attempts to calm the waters between mother and daughter, but often the only escape Kit can find is heading down to her grandfather's trailer or going up into the haymow to dance away the stress.
ACCORDING TO KIT by Eugenie Doyle is the story of one year in the life of a young girl whose dreams of an exciting future don't fit with her dairy farm lifestyle. As her day-to-day story unfolds, readers get to know Kit and will admire her determination to make her dreams of dancing as important to her mother as they are to her.
Kit has lived her entire life on a Vermont dairy farm. Her life is one constant routine. It starts with the morning milking and chores and ends with the same at night. The only variety is her dancing.
Things change a bit the fall she turns fifteen. When a crazy kid in her high school science class takes out a knife and cuts another student, Kit's mother decides she's had it with public education. She pulls Kit from the high school and tells her she will be homeschooling from now on. But homeschooling for the daughter of busy farmers turns into Kit taking care of her own learning.
At first it seems like fun, but things get boring pretty quickly. Math means helping her mother with the farm accounting, science is helping with the chores and milking and listening to her father's schemes to increase revenue for the farm. She reads a lot and decides to keep working on the research she started at school for a project about bats that fascinates her. Physical education is, of course, her dance classes. One benefit of the homeschooling deal with her mother is that her dance classes increase to three times a week.
Being around her parents 24/7 doesn't always bring out the best in everyone. Kit is fairly certain that her mother tries to be as mean as possible by complaining and finding fault in everything. Her father attempts to calm the waters between mother and daughter, but often the only escape Kit can find is heading down to her grandfather's trailer or going up into the haymow to dance away the stress.
ACCORDING TO KIT by Eugenie Doyle is the story of one year in the life of a young girl whose dreams of an exciting future don't fit with her dairy farm lifestyle. As her day-to-day story unfolds, readers get to know Kit and will admire her determination to make her dreams of dancing as important to her mother as they are to her.
August 15, 2011
Coming of age of a young ballet dancer/cow milker. Quite fun to come across some Vermont-specific details here and there.
September 1, 2010
Lovely novel, lyrical writing, great insights, memorable, well-drawn characters -- and one flaw that ruins the novel for me.
**SPOILER ALERT**
An adult male teacher makes the moves on a 15-yr-old student. She comes to her senses and they both suffer a certain consequence, which she considers punishment enough for him. Oh, wrong! YA readers, teen girls, adult women, all should refuse to let a guy "get away with it." Kit, our young heroine, tells her readers, "I don't exactly blame him and I don't exactly blame myself and I don't want any more trouble."
More is expected, morally, behavior-wise, professionally, of an adult; an inexperienced, naive girl (under our legal system) is not held culpable if someone tries to seduce her; the seducer is punishable under the law.
This novel is literary (a good thing) but a little slow-paced, with an ending that didn't ring true for me, though I wouldn't knock off a star for that. This business of letting the rat fink keep his secrets intact just sent me over the edge. Kit, turn him in! Readers, don't follow her example!
Comment (1) | Permalink | Most recent comment: Jul 23, 2010 11:36 PM PDT
**SPOILER ALERT**
An adult male teacher makes the moves on a 15-yr-old student. She comes to her senses and they both suffer a certain consequence, which she considers punishment enough for him. Oh, wrong! YA readers, teen girls, adult women, all should refuse to let a guy "get away with it." Kit, our young heroine, tells her readers, "I don't exactly blame him and I don't exactly blame myself and I don't want any more trouble."
More is expected, morally, behavior-wise, professionally, of an adult; an inexperienced, naive girl (under our legal system) is not held culpable if someone tries to seduce her; the seducer is punishable under the law.
This novel is literary (a good thing) but a little slow-paced, with an ending that didn't ring true for me, though I wouldn't knock off a star for that. This business of letting the rat fink keep his secrets intact just sent me over the edge. Kit, turn him in! Readers, don't follow her example!
Comment (1) | Permalink | Most recent comment: Jul 23, 2010 11:36 PM PDT
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 6, 2009
This book opens wonderfully, with a strong protagonist and a good supporting cast. Doyle seems to do an excellent job of inhabiting the world of the characters, and that world is very well fleshed out. I also appreciate that there were several points at which she could've taken a conventional route to ending the novel but she chose not to. Doyle also does an excellent job creating a believable world. She avoids cliches, but she manages to bring in aspects of life that resonate with the readers and thus is still able to draw them in.
That said, the ending of this book really struggles. There are too many things happening at once (especially considering the slower pace of the earlier chapters), and there seem to be several different threads that are never quite tied up. They wouldn't necessarily have to be tied up in a traditional, formulaic way, but most of them aren't even addressed. It certainly didn't ruin the book for me, but I wasn't satisfied by the ending.
That said, the ending of this book really struggles. There are too many things happening at once (especially considering the slower pace of the earlier chapters), and there seem to be several different threads that are never quite tied up. They wouldn't necessarily have to be tied up in a traditional, formulaic way, but most of them aren't even addressed. It certainly didn't ruin the book for me, but I wasn't satisfied by the ending.
July 9, 2013
** Spoilers **
The storyline started out slow with a lot of talk of the chores she does on the farm. It got better though when she started taking ballet from Luis and Clara and understanding the families pain from Timmy's death.
Although, I was skeptical about her increasing relationship with Luis because this is not the first book about ballet that the main character hooked up with and/or was in love with an older married man that I have read (I hate these books). Well I was right. It was uncomfortable to read and I still don't understand why Luis did that in first place! Marriage problems? Secret pedophile? I don't know.
I gave this 3 stars because I admired Kit's need for dance and how she fought her way to the audition only to end disastrously but it was uncomfortable to read it and frankly her relationship with Luis just made me mad.
The storyline started out slow with a lot of talk of the chores she does on the farm. It got better though when she started taking ballet from Luis and Clara and understanding the families pain from Timmy's death.
Although, I was skeptical about her increasing relationship with Luis because this is not the first book about ballet that the main character hooked up with and/or was in love with an older married man that I have read (I hate these books). Well I was right. It was uncomfortable to read and I still don't understand why Luis did that in first place! Marriage problems? Secret pedophile? I don't know.
I gave this 3 stars because I admired Kit's need for dance and how she fought her way to the audition only to end disastrously but it was uncomfortable to read it and frankly her relationship with Luis just made me mad.
July 2, 2010
Diary format, but limited audience (ballet/farm/home-school setting).
July 11, 2011
Kit is a fifteen year old dancer who lives on a farm with her Mother, Father and Grandfather. She loves dance and has to find a way to follow her dreams.
August 18, 2016
Ehh ...not sure if i liked it...it was kind of weird but it had a cute ending! The main girl was a dancer so I couldn't really relate much....
March 20, 2010
It was fine until she went to the audition and...
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews