The Doll Book of the Month Club: Books About Black Dolls

  We're still in Black History Month, and I thought I would cover a book about an African American doll. Unfortunately, none of the doll books I have have African American dolls as main characters. I haven't ever found any. So I will lead you to other places to find such posts and/or books.

  I saw the book, The Magic Doll: A Children's Book Inspired by African Art, by Adrienne Yabouza, online. 

  You can read about it and purchase it HERE. 

  I mention it because it seems to be the only book I found online not included in the post done a few years ago by Debbie, over at Black Doll Collecting, on  books featuring African American dolls. You can find that post HERE.

  Then of course there are the books Debbie has written about African American dolls. She has written three books, which she tells you about and where to purchase on her blog HERE. 

  There is also the book "Sitting Pretty, A Celebration of Black Dolls" by Dinah Johnson. It can be purchased HERE.

  There are two books on Black Doll Identification by Mila Perkins. The first volume can be purchased HERE. The second volume is available HERE.

  Next month is Women's History Month. We'll see what book I have for that one then. Stay tuned for the next post on yesterday's doll show! 

Black History Month and the Ida B. Wells Inspiring Women Doll

   This is Black History Month. I am late in getting a post up, but this year it seems more important than ever to focus on and celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of African Americans. I try to keep the blog my 'happy place', but the world has gone crazy, and it scares me.

    I was really wanting to post about the Ida B. Wells doll from the Inspiring Women series. 

I haven't been able to find her in a store though, and the cheapest I could find the doll online was going to end up being over $30, and closer to $40 with the postage, and I wasn't wanting to spend that right now. I have a birthday coming up very soon, and I don't know what Ken may have already bought. Not that he should buy me anything, because I totally failed his birthday. I had several things in mind for him, which I could either not find, or didn't work out for various reasons. I did bake him his favourite birthday cake, (The same kind I showed you that I baked for Lori's birthday. You can see what it looks like HERE.)

  Anyway, I have decided to instead resort to using stock Mattel pictures and telling you a bit about Ida B. Wells. First, the real Ida B. Wells.

  To start with, Ida B. Wells was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, in 1862. Her parents were slaves, although her father was born to a White man and a slave woman. Ida's mother had been sold away from her parents and siblings, and after the Civil war she tried, unsuccessfully, to find her family. Ida was born in the house where her parents lived as slaves. In those days it was called the Boling-Gatewood House. Now it is called the Ida B. Wells-Barnett Museum. (Go Ida! My sister was just today talking about Ronald McNair, who, at the age of nine, was denied the right to check a book out of a library because he was an African American. He sat on the counter in protest, and the librarian called the police and his parents. The police made her give him his books. He went on to earn a PhD. and become an astronaut. (He unfortunately died in the Challenger explosion in 1986.)The library is now named after him. My sister said if she were him, she wouldn't have allowed them to name the library after him. I said I thought it was the ultimate revenge.) When the Civil War ended Ida's father, who had been taken at 18 by his father to Holly Springs to become a carpenter's apprentice, ran a successful carpentry business. Her parents also became politically active in The Reconstruction. Ida attended Shaw, (now Rust), college, where her father was a trustee, until she was expelled for a dispute with the president of the university.  Already Ida was voicing her opinion, no matter the cost.

  Sadly, Ida's parents and baby brother died in a Yellow Fever epidemic when she was 16. To avoid her remaining five siblings being separated and sent to foster homes, she took a teaching job to provide for them. Ida eventually moved her family to Memphis, Tennessee.

   In 1884, after buying a ticket for the First Class ladies car on a train, Ida was told by a conductor to move to the already overcrowded smoking car. Ida refused and was thrown off the train. She hired an African American lawyer, who was paid off by the railroad. She then hired a White lawyer and sued the railroad. She won the case in the local circuit court, and was awarded $500, but lost when the case was appealed and went to the Tennessee Supreme Court.

  Ida was a co-owner of  the newspaper The Memphis Free Speech and Headlight. After a friend was lynched in 1892, Ida became one of the first people to investigate the lynching of African Americans. She published a pamphlet, "Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in all It's Phases", and published articles on the subject. Her articles were carried, across the country, in newspapers owned by African Americans. From her investigations of lynching, Ida became aware of the case of an African American man who was lynched because he was having  relationship with a White woman. She found there were many cases of  African American men and White women in relationships, where the man was lynched as a rapist, to 'save the reputation' of the women. She published an editorial in May of 1892,part of which read, "that old threadbare lie that Negro men rape White women. If Southern men are not careful, a conclusion might be reached which will be very damaging to the moral reputation of their women." Four day later, Ida, who was in Manhattan at the time, was threatened by the newspapers The Daily Commercial and The Scimitar, The offices of  Free Speech were trashed and the printing press burned. Ida's co owner, James L. Fleming, fled Memphis, and Ida herself never returned. At the time, the trains were being watched for her.

  In 1895 Ida married African American lawyer Ferdinand Barnett. They had four children. Ida remained an activist, and travelled abroad to lecture, to spread the word about lynching. She criticized women's Suffrage activists for ignoring lynching, and in turn was ridiculed by Suffrage groups. In spite of that, Ida supported women's rights and was one of the founders of the National Association of Colored Women's Club, which worked to support women's suffrage and civil rights. Although often  mentioned as one of the founders of the NAACP, her role is sometimes disputed. 

    Ida B. Wells-Barnett passed away in March of 1931. In 2020 she received a posthumous Pulitzer Prize citation for "outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious violence against African Americans during the era of lynching".

  There's a great page to read about Ida B. Wells HERE. Of course, there's also the Wikipedia page HERE.

  Now, on to the doll. The Ida B. Wells doll is one of the most recent in the Barbie Signature Inspiring Women series by Mattel, having been released in January. Previous dolls in the series have included Billie Jean King, Helen Keller, Maya Angelou, Florence Nightingale, Eleanor Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony, Sally Ride, Ella Fitzgerald, Rosa Parks, and Katherine Johnson. You can read about those last two, and see the dolls, in my post HERE. (And for those of you who thought I should have just kept Rosa Parks too, even though she was received when Walmart's website switched Ken's order from Katherine Johnson to Rosa Parks without him noticing, and I promised to return her...well, Ken never returned her, and gave her to me for this birthday. He thought I could do a post on her, but I already did that when she was still in her box. Maybe I will do a post showing Rosa free from her box.) 

  The doll uses the Curvy Made to Move body, according to the Mattel website.

  I don't know about her having jointed knees and ankles, but she certainly has jointed elbows and wrists, as we can see from the stock Mattel photos.

  According to Mattel the doll has been 'sculpted in her likeness'.

I don't think she looks much like the real Ida, and looks very like other dolls in the Barbie line.  What do you think? I do think they did a pretty good job of copying the hairstyle.

Compare this to the picture of the real Ida B. Wells above.

  Her dress is wonderful.

The fabric looks to be a really nice quality, and the trims are fairly in scale.  

  And those boots!

These boots are awesome!

Mattel finally did it! These are the boots they should have put on their May Poppins doll, (in a different colour, of course),instead of regular high heels with spats over them.

  She even comes with a tiny copy of her newspaper.

  I really like this doll, even if I didn't know anything about the real lady. I think she's one of my favourites in the series. I think I'd like to have this doll, Susan B. Anthony, Ella Fitzgerald, and Helen Keller.

  I'll be back very soon, because the Doll Book of the Month Club is coming up, plus I have another couple of posts planned, and there's a doll show in two days! Whew! So I'll see you soon.

Review Time! Dianna Effner's Pinocchio By Maru and Friends

  **As of today, 24 February, 2022, get a free outfit with your purchase of Pinocchio! Americana Cool, with it's blue chino pants, white dress shirt, and 2 bow ties,(red with stars and plaid), fits and other Mini Pals dolls. **

 I'm excited to bring you this latest review. Pinocchio is the latest doll from Maru and Friends. He was sculpted by the late Dianna Effner, one of my favourite doll artists. He also has the distinction of being the first Maru and friends doll with articulated elbows! (You may have seen my review of Maru and Friends Pepper a while back, and she has jointed elbows too, but Pinocchio came first.)  We'll get to all the details in a second.

  First of all, I should tell you that this review is courtesy of Maru and Friends, who have provided Pinocchio for review. Having said that, I have to say that this will be an honest review. I'll give you my honest opinions of everything, even if it's negative. 

  Pinocchio arrived in a cardboard box that contained his Maru and Friends box. The older Maru boxes came with plastic windows. The current boxes have no window, and instead, have a flap that closes to keep the dolls safe and clean, and are sealed with a Maru and Friends sticker, and tied shut with a pretty orange gauze ribbon. I'm glad to see they have eliminated the plastic. Some sort of  tab closure would be nice though, as the box doesn't stay closed on it's own once the sticky stuff wears out on the sticker used to seal the box, unless you tie the ribbon back on. Not that most people are going to keep their doll stored in the box, but it's nice, if you do, to be able to make the lid stay closed. That's especially important for the collectable dolls like Pinocchio, which are meant for adults. (Pinocchio's box states that he is 'a collectible doll meant for ages 14 and over'.)

   Pinocchio is held in his box by satin ribbons and protected from the ribbons by foam pieces. The ribbons untie and Pinocchio is a free, (if not 'real') boy.

  Pinocchio comes with a certificate of authenticity, stating he is a limited edition of 250.

He is all vinyl. The smooth Maru and Friends vinyl just feels like a wonderful quality doll.

He has a beautiful flesh look to his vinyl, with very natural colouring.

 

 He has a beautiful Dianna Effner face. 

Look at those chubby cheeks!

   

   I love his natural coloured lips and his skin tone.

His black hair is a removeable wig.

  The wig is nice and smooth.

It's attached with Velcro to his scalp.

  Pinocchio has blue glass eyes and 'real' lashes.

The eyes are a mixture of  blue and brown shades that make them look very realistic.

His eyebrows are made up of separate strokes, rather than a single line, and his lips are a nice, natural colour.

His ears are very basic.

  As I said, he's the very first Maru and Friends doll to have articulated elbows. 

So how well do those elbows work? Well, I had the same reaction that I had to Pepper's elbows and A Girl For All Time Clementine's knees. I feel like they should bend further and hold the pose better.

This is the extent to which his arm can hold the bend.

 Pinocchio's arms can be bent farther...

But they obviously can't hold that pose. They are strung with strong elastic cord, and it pulls the elbow back to a gentle bend.

  So he can't touch his face or anything, but his arms can be bent for some posing.

His arms can only go slightly out to the sides. The picture above shows how far.  The arms also swivel a bit on the elbow joint, for more posing.

But his legs can go quite far out to the side, which can make for more interesting poses, and also helps him stand unaided on surfaces that aren't quite flat.

The stone around this fountain was NOT flat! It was way harder to get him to balance on than you would think. It was windy too, and I was afraid he was going to fall into the algae filled water!

And this stuff was WAY lumpy!

  The pictures of him walking did require putting a small rock under his heel.

His head can tilt up...

...and down.

As well as tilt to either side in cute ways.

The tilt adds to his expressiveness.

His outfit consists of a white linen shirt...

...with an attached blue bow tie.

His shirt closes in the front with Velcro, but lays incredibly flat. I hate thick Velcro that looks very out of scale. 

He has a yellow bolero jacket with red piping.

It has split sleeves and is fully lined.

I was a little annoyed that his short cap shirt sleeves wanted to wad up in his jacket when I put it on.

  He has some red high waisted short pants.

They're a nylonish type fabric that doesn't stretch.  They close in the back with a snap.

He has a pair of blue suspenders that match his bow tie.

They snap to his pants.

He also has a black belt, (Looks like Pinocchio is taking no chances.)

The belt actually unbuckles and can come off, if you think a belt with suspenders is just too much.

  I'm wondering how it would look on Chad's blue jeans!

Of course Pinocchio has his yellow cap, with a red feather.

While the hat looks okay on his head, it does look a bit big when he's carrying it.

  I think if it were me, I might have made his hat out of only one layer of felt instead of two. Ken suggested that that might have left it too floppy, and I suppose he could be right. I would also have put the seam at the back. I supposed most people don't even notice this stuff.

  And he has the typical Pinocchio white gloves.

Looking at them before putting them on his hands, I thought they would be hard to stretch over all those fingers.

But it was actually quite easy. The gloves, (more mittens actually), are quite stretchy. 

  I have always disliked the look of doll gloves unless they are mittens, because doll gloves almost always are mittens. I'm thinking of vintage Barbie evening dresses with elbow length...mittens. I suppose it's necessary, because I certainly couldn't make fingers in gloves that tiny. I just think that if the gloves have to be mittens where mittens aren't appropriate, I'd leave the gloves out. Pinocchio looks fine, I have just never liked mittens where they should be gloves. Just a personal thing. I suppose that's another thing nobody except me thinks about. Anybody?

  A pair of red lace up boots completes Pinocchio's ensemble.

Real laces that you can untie.

They have texture on the soles.

They can be slipped on and off easily without untying them. That's good, because I am terrible at bows. His shoes will stay nice looking this way.

   My main complaint is that Pin's pants are so tight that he can't sit down all the way.

 

His butt's not touching the ground!

I guess that's not that big a deal since he's a collectible doll and not a play doll. But I want him to be able to sit down. I faked it out for these pictures of him relaxing by a stream.

  

 

 I would have preferred his pants had a little give that let him sit down.

  So do I like Pinocchio? Overall, I like him very much. His elbows could bend a little more, but it's not really a problem. He has a beautiful face! I really love his skin tone and his lip colour and his stunning face. 

I like his brightly coloured outfit. I think he looks pretty impressive.  

  As I said, Pinocchio is a limited edition, and he retails for $150. He, and the other Maru and Friends dolls are available on their website HERE.  

  Now for a little background on his photo shoot. You may wonder how he is posing in some lovely sunshine and greenery, when we are in the midst of winter and snow. Well, Pinocchio arrived back in October, the day before I left for Georgia. So he took a little trip. One day while Lori was doing something else, I ran out and spent about an hour shooting the pictures for this review. The fountain was a small fountain by the train that Tammy World showed you in this post.

You can see it in this picture Tammy showed you.

It's just the other side of this train.

  The 'stream' and 'stone wall/bridge' were just down the road in a small park. The 'stream' was a tiny crevice of water where he is shown sitting next to it, so it made the perfect doll sized stream.

  His tiny apple was a real apple.

Pinocchio would have an apple for the teacher.

  

I came across an apple tree in a parking lot while Ken and I were out one day. I picked up some apples, which were small to begin with, and that apple that was the perfect size for Pinocchio. I kept it in the fridge, hoping it would stay good until Pinocchio arrived. Luckily it was still good on the day of his photo shoot. 

  But what do you do with the apple when the shoot is over? Pinocchio! 

You're not supposed to eat the teacher's apple!

  Well that's typical of Pinocchio I guess! And let's be honest: I helped him finish it.

  I'll be back soon with more interesting stuff.