Sunday, December 13, 2020

The Doll Book of the Month Club: The Doll People Series. Plus, A Giveaway!

   I'm way late with this month's Doll Book of the Month Club entry. I'm still coughing, headachy, tiring and running out of breath easily. I don't even have my Christmas tree up yet! As the saying goes though, better late than never. This month's book is actually a series of books, The Doll People series, by Ann M. Martin, (Author of the Babysitter's Club books.), and Laura Godwin, and illustrated by Brian Selznick. (You may remember Brian Selznick as the author and illustrator of  "The Invention of Hugo Cabret", the basis for the movie "Hugo".) There are five books in the series, four chapter books, and one younger children's book. Ivy and I read most of them when she was small. She outgrew them, and I read the 4th one without her, because I loved the books and wanted to know what happened to the characters. 

  The first book in the series is The Doll People. 

  We meet the two doll families we know throughout the books. The first family we meet is the Dolls. They are a family of antique dollhouse dolls, over a hundred years old. They, and their house, have been passed down through the same family for generations. They currently belong to Kate Palmer, but used to belong to Grama Katherine, who lives with the Palmers.  At one point Grama Katherine admits to a curious Kate, that she also thought the dolls might actually be alive when she was a child. Kate's sister, Nora likes to come in and play what she calls 'rancher family' with The Dolls and her own farm animal toys. 'Rancher Family is pretty rough, (One session ends in a talcum powder snow storm that covers everything.), and the Dolls hate it. But, of course, they can't do anything about it: They're dolls. If they are caught moving or talking in front of humans they go into what's called 'Doll State': 24 hours of being unable to move or talk. (The dolls take an oath when they are made, to never give away the lives of dolls to humans.)  Worse yet is  'Permanent Doll State', which happens when a doll does something especially bad to give away the secret lives of dolls. Once a doll goes into 'Permanent Doll State, they will never be alive again. From then on, they are only a regular doll. 

  The main character is Annabelle, perpetually eight years old, with green hair because of a past owner's artistic efforts. Her best friend arrives in Nora's new Fun Craft dollhouse. She's a very modern, plastic doll named Tiffany. The Funcrafts are the other family of dolls the books follow. Tiffany, being a modern girl, and made of worry free, unbreakable plastic, is maybe even more adventurous than Annabel. (Or at least more reckless.)


  Annabelle lives with her parents, her brother, her baby sister, (who was sent by mistake all those years ago, and came from a different set of much larger dolls.), their nanny, and Uncle Doll. Uncle Doll's wife, Auntie Sarah, has been missing for the last forty five years. When Annabelle finds Auntie Sarah's diary, she uncovers some clues, and is determined to find Auntie Sarah. Fortunately, the house the Palmers live in has also been passed down in the family for years, so Auntie Sarah might still be on the premises. 

  Annabelle and Tiffany risks cat attacks, breakage, (Well, Annabelle, at least, is made of porcelain.), and Doll State to find Auntie Sarah. Do they find her? How would her reappearance be explained? Where has she been all those years? 

  The second book, "The Meanest Doll in the World", finds Annabelle and Tiffany eager to see what school is like. 


They hide in Kate's back pack and travel to school. When it's time to return home, the dolls climb into the wrong back pack by accident, and end up at another house, where they meet several other dolls, including Mean Mimi. Mimi follows Annabelle and Tiffany back home, where she threatens everyone's lives by being seen moving. 

  In the third book, "The Runaway Dolls", a package from one hundred years ago is discovered behind a piece of furniture in an old shop. 


It shows up at the Palmers house, but it's addressed to the inhabitants of one hundred years ago, and the Palmers have gone on vacation. Annabelle, ever curious, investigates. She hears a tiny voice coming from inside the package. Is it her long lost baby sister? (Remember, the wrong baby sister was sent with the rest of the family, leaving them with a giant baby that barely fits on her parents' laps. But they love her anyway.) Annabelle can't resist letting her sister out of the package, (What if it gets returned because it's addressed to someone else?!), even though her parents don't believe that's who she is. Since her parents won't accept the new daughter, Annabelle decides the only thing to do is run away. This seems out of character for Annabelle, who usually has more sense than that. Even Annabelle doubts her decision pretty quickly.

  The dolls, (Tiffany came with Annabelle and her sister Tilly.), are joined this time by their brothers. The dolls have many adventures, but I won't spoil the ending. I liked this book just slightly less than the first two. Not that it wasn't good, but the books seemed to be falling into the old sequel trap of not being as good as the original.

  The last full length book, (So far.), is "The Doll People Set Sail". 


I have to say that this story of the Dolls and the Funcrafts getting accidentally donated to charity,(Shades of Toy Story 3!), and shipped to England, is my least favourite of the series. It isn't bad. It's just the weakest of the four full length books. They also lost their long time illustrator with this one, which sees Brett Helquist taking over the duties. 


His illustrations aren't bad, but lack the magic of Selznick's.

  I haven't even seen the short book, "The Doll People's Christmas" in a store, so I can't tell you much about it.

                                               I can tell you I hate the way Tiffany and Annabelle look on the cover.


 The illustrations are by Brett Helquist and are in colour this time. There are 48 pages. Annabel is looking forward to showing Tiffany a traditional Christmas when Kate and Nora decide to use the dolls in a nativity scene DOWNSTAIRS. Will they get back to the dollhouse in time for Christmas?  Can  they get past Captain, the cat? What about the broken Christmas star on the dollhouse tree?

  The reading level for the first four books is listed in one place as 7-10, and in another as 8-12. I think even younger kids could enjoy having the books read to them. Warning though: Mimi is pretty frightening!

  And now for that giveaway! I'm sorry it will only be open to residents of the continental United States, but no fear. In the new year there will be a contest open to everybody. As for this competition, a hardcover, (first edition I think!), copy of  "The Meanest Doll in the World" will go to a winning reader. Comment with your favourite Doll Book of the Month Club post of the year to enter. A winner will be pulled from a 'hat' on December 24th, so get your entries in. I apologize the book won't arrive in time for Christmas, but the original plan was, of course, to have posed this on December first, and give the readers two weeks to enter. Things don't always go as planned.

  As this is the last Doll Book of the Month Club entry for the year, I wanted to remind everyone of a doll book I posted about several years ago. It's one of my favourites from my childhood. You can read about "Merry, Rose, and Christmas Tree June" HERE.

  I'll see you again soon!


10 comments:

  1. My favorite doll book post is the one that featured William's Doll. I love that book. I have it in my small collection of children's books. I also remember hearing it read in the TV program Free To Be You and Me, which was produced by Marlo Thomas in the 1970s (not sure about the date).

    I "read" the first book in the Doll People series. I put read in quotes because I actually listened to it through Overdrive from my local library. I haven't read any of the others.

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    1. I remember watching Free to be You and Me way back then. It was quite groundbreaking in it's day. Your entry is duly noted!

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  2. I absolutely love the Doll People series of books - especially the 1st two. I think the concept is clever and the writing and story is well done. My daughter also really enjoyed these books when she was younger. Fun fact: many years ago when I was teaching elementary library at a private Christian school, my principal made me remove The Meanest Doll in the World from the shelves because she didn’t like the look of the cover and how mean and terrifying Mimi looks in the picture.

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    1. Ha! She was pretty scary, but we all love being scared sometimes, especially so innocently. I have to say, in this house, if the dolls came to life, we'd be in big trouble! There are too many of them!

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  3. I ordered the three Doll People books, Three for Treasure, At the Sign of the Rocking Horse (Three for Treasure's author wrote just two books, this is the second), the Dollhouse Murders (Kindle), Finding Walter (Kindle), The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (Kindle), The Doll in the Garden (Kindle), a book with a free chapter at the end of The Doll in the Garden (that one is not your fault, it sounded interesting - lol) (Kindle) and I have the Doll's House on the way.

    Phew! I didn't spend as much you think, that was over two months and I found cheap used versions on Ebay and Amazon. lol

    Last night I read The Doll People as my before bed book. My only complaint is having to leave my light on to read, does not work as well as reading my Kindle in the dark. Its too jarring. So maybe a book light would help for when I read print books.

    Now for my opinion! Yes, I did actually have a point. lol I loved it! This is not one of the books I had read as a child but I would have enjoyed it then. I enjoyed it now! I do feel sorry for the Funcraft's baby, must be hard to play with no limbs! I envisioned she kind of hopped around. lol

    I will post on each book's post as I read them.

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    1. You've been busy! Well, keep us updated on your takes on the books. I can't stand reading a lit up screen in the dark, I have to read with the lights on. I get eye strain otherwise.

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  4. I read Meanest Doll last night. I actually don't think Mimi's end was scary or even tragic. I am not sure, but I don't think I would have been disturbed by it as a child either. I am going to include some spoilers, but you already read the book.

    I think the difference between PDS and regular DS is intent. The dolls aren't TRYING to get a human to notice them. So my take on it is that you can be put into regular DS an unlimited number of times as long as its accidental. I also kind of the think the cutouts were a bit creepier than Mimi. lol They had like a hive mind and conversed in a sing song way. I loved Carl and thought it was funny when they were trying to get in back in his tank. It was cute they didn't want to hurt him but they also didn't want to touch him. lol

    Anyway, I think Mimi being broken irreparably would have been a scarier end for her. She is no longer alive but she can still be played with once someone claims her from lost and found.

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  5. Runaway Dolls was last night. I have the last book on the way, but I am forewarned it might be lacking.

    You don't have to post these if you want, they all contain big spoilers.

    The first thing I have to say is only Annabelle Doll would run away and end up in a department store! I wasn't fooled by the Mimi scene, the odds of it being the same doll were just astronomical. Tilly is adorable. She alternates between sounding like a grown doll and actually being three. lol

    Of course there is room for both Tilly and Betsy. Tilly is a preschooler, Betsy is a baby! I can understand not wanting to leave a very young doll in a box all alone though. Especially after the poor thing had been trapped for 100 years.

    The funniest part? The adult dolls all ending up in Doll State. One hundred years of admonishing their adventurous daughter and they slipped up. And wow, I can't believe Annabelle took 100 years to be the doll equivalent of grounded. lol

    I did enjoy this one, but I think you can tell where they are losing their strength. This one seemed to be struggling just a bit, but I can't really explain why I felt that way.

    Tonight I will either read one of my Kindle doll books or re-read Three for Treasure. I am looking forward to reading her second book because I didn't even know she wrote it, so I have never read it. I vaguely remember reading The Dollhouse Murders and The Doll House with Tottie, but am still looking forward to re-reading them. The Doll House is still on the way along with the Set Sail one.

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Thanks in advance for your comments.