Tag Archives: doll

374O: Doll family loses grandfather in garden

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This is a book from the 1990’s because I remember buying it for my son who was born in 1989.  It was about a doll family, or a tiny statue family who lived in the bathroom (?) and a child played with them when they took a bath.  At some point one of the statues/dolls gets lost– grandfather or grandmother and they think it blew into the garden when the window was open. They all decide to go look for the missing statue, and have adventures in the garden.  They find the statue and it ends with the grandma and grandpa dancing together.  Beautiful colored illustrations.d

371H: Girl Loses Doll on Bus Trip (Solved!)

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I’m hoping someone can help me find the name, and maybe the author, of a children’s book. It wasn’t very thick, had illustrations, I believe it was published in the 1960s and was aimed at readers ages 6-10. I read it between 1969-1971. 
A young girl was allowed to take a bus trip by herself once school was done for the summer. She may have been visiting her grandmother. She took her doll along. I seem to remember the doll was made of cloth and wore a dress and pinafore. The bus stopped for a rest break, and the girl took the doll with her. She had a chocolate bar at one point and may have bought it during the stop. She got back on the bus but didn’t notice until after it left the rest stop that she left the doll behind. I don’t recall if she got the doll back.
I would appreciate any help finding this book as the memory of it has always stayed with me.

369G: Father on Quest to Find Daughter’s Missing Doll

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I am hoping you can help me find a picture book. I may have had a copy as a child (or borrowed it from the library), so it was available in the 1960s/70s. 
The story was about a lost doll. A little girl loses her doll and her father goes out into the night in a storm/snowstorm to find it. The story is emotional and there is a sense of danger to his quest. The setting seemed to be an older time, turn of the century maybe. Russia or Eastern Europe?  
The illustrations were beautiful, dark, and very impressionistic. When I see art by Edvard Munch, it reminds me of the book and I wish I remembered the title or author. My mother was a bookseller, so it bothers me even more that I can’t find it.
Here’s hoping someone remembers.

367P: Victorian Dolls Get Beautiful New Clothes

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I have been trying for a long time to remember the name of a book I loved as a child in the 1960s or very early 70s. In the book, Victorian-era dolls were outfitted with beautiful new clothes, shoes, and in one case, a muff. There was velvet involved, and the descriptions of the clothing and care the dolls received were beautiful (at least in my child’s mind). The dolls’ hair was fixed up as well. The colors of the clothing were rich. One of the dolls was a boy. The central character of the story was a little girl. There may have been a shop window or house with windows on the cover, but I have looked at so many books in trying to identify this one that I could be confusing this! It is also possible that this was a chapter book or series in which a particular doll needed to be repaired, as I recall multiple dolls with various problems that needed attention, and each was treated individuallly.

363U: China Doll Buried in Earth Years Ago (Solved!)

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I am not sure where to start. First of all, I think it was one of those books where a little girl is sent to a relative for the summer. This book would be from the 1980’s at the earliest. Not sure on that. But during the time she is wherever she is – and it IS in the country – she finds out about a doll that’s been lost for a long time. It’s a china doll and I am pretty sure there’s a silver or pewter tea set. Again, not positive, but I think the doll was buried to protect her from something real or imaginary. Somewhere in the story there was a bunny salad bowl with a hole in one of the bunny legs. A map or directions of some kind were wadded up in that hole. I am nearly sure it was a Scholastic book.

I think it was something about the British coming and the little girl was worried about her doll. Then years later this little girl comes along and hears the story and tries to find the doll. It could be as much difference as 80+ years later. The mystery was solved a great many years after the doll was buried. Her cloth body was gone, it was just her china parts. And the bowl with the bunnies decorating it was important to the mystery. It might have been a bunny platter or big plate instead of bowl, but there was a hole in a rabbit’s leg and the map was wadded up in it.

There is no magic or otherworldly parts to this book. I THINK the little girl learns about the doll through either an old letter or a diary she reads. I THINK the doll doesn’t get found for a long time because the girl that buried her years ago moved.  I really wish I could remember more. Its a chapter book and was probably for tweens, so we are looking for a paperback. Although it could have come in a hardback. But its not a picture book.

363P: The Doll in the Attic

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In 1958, I used a bookmobile for the first time. I was unfamiliar with the terms of borrowing a book.  I was in the middle of reading a book when I learned I had to return it.  I had not yet finished it. I tried in vain to re-borrow it.  The story was about a young girl who had a doll in her attic. It was not a picture book. The book did not have illustrations.  It was a chaptered book.  It seemed like it was an “old” book at the time. I’m guessing it was written on a 4th or 5th grade reading level.  I do not remember any dollhouses. I think the protagonist, a young girl, was hiding the doll from some danger. The character seemed to be a loner. It was not scary.
I would guess the book was from the 40’s.  Any help?

358L: “Baby” Doll Can Be Adopted After All

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I’m looking for a young adult book about:

Young mother with 2 girls, they lost their house to a fire, and therefore lost everything including their dolls and toys. I remember these phrases “Maybe a mouse in a box of matches”, and “I’ve got both my girls.”  They stay with relatives/friends and the girls have to sleep on an old sofa that due to the springs it is uncomfortable and creaks.

The mom finds a job as a cleaner in a motel/hotel.  They find a new home.  Outside their new home is a crab apple tree where the girls play catch with an apple. Somebody tells them about a place where they can borrow dolls and if they take good care of the dolls, they can adopt them.  They walk with their mom to find this place. Just when they are about to give up, they find it.  

The younger girl finds a doll and names it “Baby.”  Both girls are happy and one of them says “There is so much to do now”.  The mother sews the dolls new clothes and the girls are happy. However, a neighbors dog licks off the face of “Baby” and the younger girl runs back to the place where she borrowed it from to return the doll, knowing she won’t be able to adopt it.

So, now she won’t be able to join her sister in the adoption party. At the end of the story, the doll “Baby” is returned to the younger girl, all fixed up with a new face.  The man said because the younger girl showed responsibility with the doll by immediately bringing it back to the place where she picked it out, she is allowed to adopt it. This happened at the very end of the adoption party.

358B: Boy Loses the Smallest Nesting Doll

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Looking for a children’s book about a boy who snuck and took a nesting doll. While he was sitting on the curb he dropped the smallest nesting doll in the storm drain. I believe he took the doll in a lunchbox? Maybe tried to go to show and tell? He had to tell his mom he lost the doll. My mom read it to me in the 80’s when I was little.

351R: Doll Runs Doll Hospital (Solved!)

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– published in 70s-80s, not that old

– cover was a cool tone color?

– girl doll runs hospital where she takes care of all the toys, she is in charge but they are all friends
– there is a china doll that comes in which is sick and running a fever
– all dolls/stuffed animals belong to girl who is terminally ill, she is involved sometimes but the point of view is from the toys’ perspective, maybe 3rd person
– there is a bunny or bear of some sort
– some animals have to have surgery, be patched up/sewn back together
– they are in a closet or something, there are beds where all the patients are
Any help would be great.