Tag Archives: doll

344U: Grumpy Doll in Dollhouse

• children’s book read in 2006-2011. Could have been quite old by then
• a new doll came to live in the doll house and didn’t trust the human caring for them, she stole things like a coin and a piece of hair to try and cast a spell on them
• the human returned from a trip and gave the doll something nice like a new rug or bed spread and it made the doll realize she was wanted and loved
• this was a traditional dollhouse – old and beautiful. The human was fixing it up and making it nice again. She was very thoughtful towards the dolls.
• this is not The Dolls’ House by Rumer Godden
• might have had a pink cover. It was a chapter book but not very lengthy

341L: Little girl’s doll makeover at her father’s Doll Hospital (Solved!)

Looking for a child's fiction/picture book circa 1950's-1960's, maybe even 1940's -Hardcover - Colored pictures drawn like doll wigs of different colors, new clothes in tissue paper, clothes accessories, etc. Pictures are not 'cartoony'; more true to life.

Story: Little girl has been asking her father to fix her doll but he has been too busy at his shop. Finally, on the little girl's birthday, he closes his doll hospital early and dedicates the rest of the day to fixing up her beloved doll with new eyes, face and clothes that she gets to pick out all by herself.

340I: Girl Wakes Up Inside Dollhouse (Solved!)

I read this book in 1995 from a middle school book fair. It was a children’s/young adult book. The cover had an evil doll with brown hair and looked like the doll was bursting through the cover. I remember the main character was a girl probably 10-12 years old. There was something about a dollhouse and waking up inside the dollhouse. Maybe she and her family had just moved to a new house? There was a part where the main character begins to realize she is inside the dollhouse because she finds a wide tooth comb and describes it as very large like someone would use if they had dreadlocks. Why I specifically remember that, no idea. I managed to lose the book over the years but it was a nostalgic favorite of mine. Hopefully you can help.

338O: Girl searches for spinet-playing doll (Solved!)

I’m looking for a book that was written probably in the 1960’s, possibly early 1970’s.  I think the title contained the words “secret friends”. It is about a girl and her best friend who stumble across a mystery involving 2, or maybe 3, mechanical dolls. Her father owns an antique store. He has one of the dolls, a girl sitting at a desk who dips a pen in an inkwell and writes. The other is a girl playing the spinet. I remember the clue to the mystery was found inside the doll.

330Y: World Girl History Series, Including Dolls (Solved!)

I’m looking for an early-to-mid-90s “American Girl”-style series of short illustrated chapter books about girls living in different periods of world history, each with their own 18-inch doll.

I am definitively NOT remembering Pleasant Company’s own “Girls of Many Lands” series. Believe me, that comes up every time I try to Google this series and it’s not the one I’m thinking of.

The line may have launched with one book for each doll, then gone out of business before publishing more books; I only remember the first book for each character, most likely obtained through the Scholastic Book Fair.

The characters and books were, as well as I can recall:
– An English girl in the 1100s who was into falconry. Name may have been Elinor/Eleanor. Vivid recollection of the cover: a blond girl in a dull blue dress reaching out to touch a falcon.
– An African (I want to say Igbo?) girl from the 1400s. Vivid recollection of her helping her older sister put on makeup before her wedding, including interior illustration of her applying the makeup. (I remember being surprised that they had makeup way back then. For some reason, that’s what stuck with me.)
– A French girl in the 1700s who wanted to be a ballet dancer. Name may have been Marie, or Marie-Something, or Something-Marie. Cover showed her dancing on a Parisian street.
– An Irish immigrant girl living in San Francisco in the late 1800s. Name may have been Bridget or some other extremely Irish name. Cover may have featured her holding a book to her chest and gazing meaningfully off into the distance. She had curly red hair because of course she did. I believe she also had a Chinese immigrant friend or potential friend who barely showed up and whom I hoped I’d read more about in later books. Vivid recollection of one scene in which she and another girl bond over how much they loved “Little Women” and cried over “the part with Beth.”

There may have been more; those are just the four I remember. On the last page of each book was a perforated card with a photograph of the dolls on it. You could tear out the card and send it away with a check to order a doll. They looked very much like American Girl dolls, so much that even as a child I could tell right away, “Oh, these people are totally ripping off American Girl.” But I could forgive them because hey, history’s a lot bigger than just America! Someone’s gotta fill that niche!

Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!

330F: A Demanding Doll

I am wracking my brain and cannot for the life of my remember the name of a book I read as a child/pre-adolescent. The premise was that there was a blonde doll who was actually “alive,” and demanded all sorts of things from the nice girl who owned her—like a car, clothes, etc. And the girl would try to explain what she could and couldn’t afford. Later I think a brown-haired doll who is nicer replaces her? I remember the hard cover of the book being a teal color and there being a photo of the blonde doll on it.

325W: Doll Smuggles Secrets Or Medicine During Civil War

I am hoping you can help me find a book a elementary school teacher read us aloud in class. It was probably 1987 when we were read the book, and I think it was historical fiction written about a doll that was used to smuggle war secrets or medicines during the Civil War. It would have been appropriate for fourth/fifth graders. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!!

292Q: Little girl moves and leaves doll behind

I read/was read this book in the 60s.  It is the story of a little girl who leaves a doll behind when her family moves. I believe the doll is left on a shelf in the closet. I think they are moving from the city to a house in the suburbs, but the focus is on the loss of the doll. I don’t think she ever recovers it.