If you were waiting for the hoopla to fade before you ordered Kit Kittredge, the seventh doll in the American Girl collection with a hint of history, we have bad news.

        “She's breaking company records,” said Julie Parks, public relations manager for the Pleasant Co., which began producing the dolls and accompanying books, software, clothes and accessories, in 1986. “This doll is outperforming all of the previous characters in their launch years.”

        The company, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc., has sold 5 million dolls and more than 50 million books in the series.

        Kit, the first character to be Cincinnati-based, was released along with three books in September. Today, she's out of stock and unavailable to buyers until at least Jan. 15, the company said.

        “We're seeing a lot of grandparents and great-grandparents ordering the doll,” Ms. Parks said, “because they still remember this time period.

        Kit, about $90 in doll form, is a 9-year-old aspiring writer who copes with the Great Depression with her parents and her 16-year-old brother, Charlie.

        Author Valerie Tripp, who wrote the Kit books and attended a special Tristate introduction at Cincinnati Museum Center last fall, said the fictional family lived in an old house in Clifton.

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