Kit Kittredge: An American Girl -- Film Description:
"Aspiring reporter Kit Kittredge can't resist bringing home strays, whether it's Grace, an aspiring basset hound, or Will (Max Thieriot [...]) and Countee (Willow Smith), a pair of young hobos willing to trade work for meals. Bright, inquisitive and generous, Kit is a natural born leader. But her happy childhood is abruptly interrupted when her father (Chris O'Donnell) loses his car dealership and must leave Cincinnati to look for work. Kit and her mother Margaret (Julia Ormond) are left to manage on their own, growing vegetables, selling eggs and even taking in an assortment of boarders including an itinerant magician (Stanley Tucci), a vivacious dance instructor on the prowl for a husband (Jane Krakowski) and a zany mobile librarian (Joan Cusack). When a crime spree sweeps Cincinnati, all signs point to the local 'hobo jungle,' where Will and Countee live with a group of their impoverished companions. Kit, who always has her antennae out for a good news story, convinces her new friends to take her to see the hobo camp for herself and writes an article that creates a sympathetic portrait of the camp's residents. But when Kit's mother and their boarders become the latest victims in a string of robberies, Kit's loyalties are tested. [...]"
-- patriciarozema.com

Source:
"Patricia Rozema" Patricia Rozema. http://www.patriciarozema.com/. [official site]