The Doll Book of the Month Club: The Noble Doll

  Happy new year! This month's Doll Book of the Month Club entry is "The Noble Doll", by Newbery Award winning author, Elizabeth Coatsworth, and illustrated in black and white and colour by Leo Politti.

  I found this book recently at an antique store. It had interesting, colourful pictures, and was not expensive, so I decided to buy it and share it with all of you.

  The story begins with Doña Amalia, an elderly lady, living alone in her formerly grand house that is now run down. Doña Amalia's family had once been well to do. now, Doña Amalia is the only one left. She is very old, and her only means of income is the mending she does. Her eyesight is failing, and Doña Amalia wonders how long she will be able to earn a living with her mending.

  One day a lady appears at Doña Amalia's door with a little girl. The lady explains that she is the daughter of  Doña Amalia's former cook, and  Doña Amalia immediately recognizes her as the little girl who used to live in her house years ago. The lady explains that she was very happy living in Doña Amalia's house, and that she has brought her daughter Luisa to live with Doña Amalia, and serve her, as her own mother and grandmother served Doña Amalia's family.  She asks for no wages for Luisa, merely room and board, saying it would be an honour for Luisa to serve Doña Amalia.

  I was kind of disturbed by this. For one thing, the woman is just giving her daughter to this woman. Later in the story we find that Luisa goes home for visits when she can, but STILL! Also, Doña Amalia can barely feed herself. How can she care for the little girl? Her house is in disrepair. It would have made way more sense for Luisa's mother to have taken Doña Amalia into her home and cared for her in her final years. Whether or not Doña Amalia would have accepted the offer is another thing, but if she wasn't too proud to take this woman's daughter even when she couldn't properly provide for her, maybe she would have accepted. Just a point, but this book was originally published in 1961, and from what we learn in the ending, I don't think it was set in olden times. So it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

  Doña Amalia and Luisa come to care a great deal for each other. Luisa does the marketing, cleaning, and helps Doña Amalia by threading her needles. She loves to listen to Doña Amalia tell stories of the past while she sews. 

 

Luisa, at the bottom of the picture, does the marketing.

 Doña Amalia tells Luisa how she would love to take Luisa to see the large ranch that she owns, out in the country. The buildings were burned down long ago, but when Doña Amalia was growing up, her father owned the ranch. Now it belongs to  Doña Amalia. She has  a lawyer who has been trying to sell it for years, but no one wants the land because it is so far from town, and there is not enough water there. 

  At one point Doña Amalia fondly mentions someone named Rosita. She speaks of Rosita with such affection, that Luisa wonders who Rosita is, (Does she live somewhere in the huge house?), and if Rosita is more loved by Doña Amalia than herself.

  Doña Amalia loves having Luisa with her, but she wonders how she is going to provide for Luisa, and what will become of her crumbling mansion.

  As the Christmas season and Posada arrive, Luisa helps Doña Amalia set up the creche Nativity.

  Doña Amalia has been working on a large stack of mending for a wealthy client. She tells Luisa that when she is paid for the mending she and Luisa will have money to pay for the food for the coming year, and maybe Christmas treats. But when the wealthy lady arrives in her big car, she makes little Luisa carry it out for her, where she examines the clothing, and decides that the mending will not be good enough for her to pay the full agreed upon price. She gives Doña Amalia only a few coins, and tells her that most of the mending will need to be redone by someone else. Before she speeds off in her big car, she gives Luisa a few pesos out of guilt, to buy Christmas sweets.

  Doña Amalia is devastated. How will she buy food? What will happen to her, and to Luisa?

  Finally, Luisa meets Rosita. Rosita is a doll, and she and two other dolls are brought out for the holiday. Doña Amalia explains that the two other dolls were bought new for her, but Rosita has been passed down from Doña Amalia's mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. She is the most beautiful doll, grandly dressed and well cared for.

   All the dolls are tied in their chairs so they don't fall out and break. This was a relief, because I thought Rosita was going to get broken! I thought that was the big thing that was going to happen. I'm a pessimist, I guess!

  Rosita is displayed in the front window of Doña Amalia's home. Luisa suggests that Rosita be dressed as St. Francis, so that maybe St. Francis, being the patron saint of the poor, will look kindly on her. So Doña Amalia sews a plain brown robe for Rosita. 

  One day a gentleman appears, admiring Rosita, and offers Doña Amalia a great deal of money for Rosita. Doña Amalia turns him down, but feels inside that when he returns she must accept his offer, as there is no other way to buy food and take care of Luisa. She is heartbroken.

  If you're interested in reading the book, and don't want any spoilers, skip to my final thoughts on the book, below the second set of spoiler warning starts below. But if you want to know what happens to Doña Amalia, Luisa, and Rosita, read on.

**********************************The rest of the story************************************************

  Just when all seems lost, and Doña Amalia will have to sell Rosita, at the point in the Posada song where the door opens, she and Luisa get a sudden visit from the lawyer, who brings a huge swan Pinata and some really good news.

  The lawyer tells Doña Amalia and Luisa that the new airline company has bought her property for a new international airstrip, and they have offered such a good price that Doña Amalia will be comfortable for the rest of her life, and be able to give Luisa a very nice dowry. So everything ends happily, and Doña Amalia will NOT have to sell Rosita.

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  Author Elizabeth Coatsworth attended Vassar College, graduating in 1915, and got her Master of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1916. She won the 1931 Newbery medal for her book, "The Cat Who Went to Heaven". She was a great traveler who took interest in the cultures of the places she visited. She wrote many books of poetry, and over 90 books for children, including "Runaway Home", one of the series of  school readers known as The Alice and Jerry Books, and the 'Sally' series of historical fiction books. (You can see all the titles in the Sally series and read their synopsis' HERE.)

   My kids always tease me that a lot of the books I loved as a kid were about somebody having to save a house. (Some of them you may have read about here on the blog, like Sea View Secret, The Ghost of Dibble Hollow, Magic Elizabeth, and Ginnie and the Mystery Doll. So this book would have fit right in with a lot of my favourites. It is a nice warm book, with a Christmas theme and a happy ending. If you don't think your child would be upset by Luisa's mother basically giving her away, I think it could be enjoyed by small children. It's a short book of only 47 pages, and an easy read.