The Doll Book of the Month Club Twofer! : Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, and Little Plum

 I'm making up for missing last month's Doll Book of the Month Club by giving you TWO books this month. They are "Miss Happiness and Miss Flower", and it's sequel, "Little Plum", by Rumer Godden.

  Ivy always had a special love for Rumer Godden's book, "The Story of Holly and Ivy". (You can read my review of it HERE.) So we looked for other books written by Rumer Godden. We came across these two at a library sale or thrift store I think, or maybe one of each. I read the first one at least to Ivy, and we thought it was okay, good, but not "The Story of Holly and Ivy" good. I don't think we ever read the second one though. So I have read it now. But let's start with the first one.

  I have seen this book described as ' a children's book for adults', in that, adults can enjoy it too. Miss Happiness and Miss Flower are two Japanese dolls. 

They have been sent to a little girl named Nona, who has been sent from her home in India to live with her aunt and uncle and cousins, (including Belinda, who is a year younger than Nona), in England. 

She feels out of place, so she feels sorry for the dolls, being so far away from home. As she and her cousins make a Japanese house and accessories for the dolls, Nona begins to feel more at home too.

   

Belinda is a crabby character who makes life hard for Nona, but that gets straightened out as well. And throughout it all, we get to hear what Miss Happiness and Miss Flower are thinking, for they can hear each other, but, of course, can't be heard by humans. 

  It's a sweet story, and there are details for how to build the Japanese house in the early editions of the book, that I think are left out in later ones. And by the end of the book, there is another Japanese doll in the dollhouse.

 

  The book gets some complaints these days for not being  politically correct in some of it's terms and stereotypes, but it means well. I think it's still readable these days, and those things can be discussed with the child at the time.    

  "Little Plum" is a Japanese doll too, but she doesn't belong to Nona, or her cousin Belinda.

In fact, there isn't nearly as much of Miss H and Miss F, or their thoughts, or even Nona, in this book.  This book centers around Belinda, and her war with the new girl next door. 

  The new girl is named Gem Tiffany Jones. Okay. Let's forgive Rumer Godden for that one. Belinda and Gem can't seem to get along. What is worse for Belinda is, Gem has a Japanese doll too, but she doesn't play with hers. Day after day the doll sits alone and forlorn in Gem's bedroom window. This riles Belinda no end, and she decides the doll needs some things, and Gem needs scolded. Add into the mix that Belinda decides to hand deliver the items to Gem's bedroom window sill via tree, not only because she has been told by Gem's snooty aunt not to come to their house. (Belinda is 'too rough' to be allowed to play with Gem.) It's made clear that no child except Belinda would or should even think of doing such a thing. Good save Rumer.

  The gifts Belinda begs Nona to make for Gem's doll, whom they name "Little Plum", sound wonderful. The fate of the gifts, well...And do Gem and Belinda, who at one point beat the tar out of each other, ever become friends? Does Little Plum ever get to be played with? You'll have to find out for yourselves. 

  I enjoyed this book actually. It's not as, shall we say, dry, as the other one. The other one is good though. I don't think you necessarily have to read the first one to enjoy the second one, but I think you'll want to.

The Doll Book of the Month: The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Become Real

   I am finally catching up with last month's Doll Book of the Month! It's a book I have mentioned a few times on the blog. It's The Velveteen Rabbit.

  This is Fuzzy's copy of The Velveteen Rabbit, rescued from a box on the bottom shelf of the book case that burned halfway down. It had been a little wet and had to be cleaned off, but it's pretty nice, especially considering it's ordeal. Emma has a more modern copy, which we read to her when she was little. But this edition has the original illustrations by William Nicholson.

  The Velveteen Rabbit was written in 1921, which accounts for the flowery speech, by Margery Williams. It was first published in Harper's Bazaar, (with illustrations by the author's daughter, Pamela Bianco.), before being published as a book in 1922. This was Williams' first children's book. I have reviewed another of Margery Williams' book on the blog, "The Little Wooden Doll". I'm not sure if I still have that book, as it would have been next to Fuzzy's room when the fire happened. A lot of my books got packed away and sent to storage. I'm just hoping they weren't wet at the time, as I have found things in storage that Ken packed up wet and they were molding.

  I described the trouble Ken and I had reading this book to the kids. The book, which is beautifully written, is sad in parts, but mainly it's just so heartbreakingly touching. I specifically remember reading this book to Emma on our couch, with Emma in the middle, and me on one end, and Ken on the other. We took turns reading because we'd be crying so much we couldn't continue. I'd read until I was crying too much to read further, and then I'd pass the book to Ken. He'd read until he was crying too much to read, and then he'd pass it back to me. So let's see what brought on all that crying.

Beware, because spoilers await all ye who enter here.

  The story begins with the Rabbit being given to the Boy one Christmas, in the Boy's stocking.

  The Rabbit lives in the nursery with the other toys, including The Skin Horse, who is very wise. 'Skin horses', and other animals were a real thing back in those days. It just meant a leather horse, often on a platform with wheels, so it could be pulled. 

One day the Skin Horse explains to the Rabbit how toys become 'Real'.

 The Skin Horse explains that the Boy's uncle made him Real, years ago.

  The Rabbit is thrilled when one night the Boy declares to his nurse that the Rabbit, "isn't a toy! He's REAL!"

  After that the Rabbit has a wonderful summer, playing outside with the Boy. But one day he is discovered by two real real rabbits, who tease him for not being real. The Rabbit doesn't understand, pleading that he IS Real.

  The Rabbit is very hurt when the rabbits won't play with him and run away. But the Boy continues to love the Rabbit, so much so that what the Skin Horse said about being loved until one is worn and shabby happens to the Rabbit. But the Skin Horse was right about something else: when you are Real, it doesn't matter.  

  Is it just me, or is anybody else getting a human equivalent from this? Like when you love someone and you grow old together, and they don't notice how old you're looking, because they love you so much? I'm not crying! You're crying!

  But one day the Boy becomes sick. He has Scarlet Fever, which in those days was a very serious illness. In fact, Fuzz got Scarlet Fever as a kid, and it scared me to death. My aunt had Scarlet Fever as a young woman, and was ill and recovering for a year or more. But when Fuzz had it I found out that it isn't a big deal these days. Antibiotics take care of it. Most people only get strep throat, which is connected, but not actually Scarlet Fever. But in the era this book was written, it was considered very dangerous and contagious. As the Boy recovered, the doctor ordered all his books and toys, including the Rabbit, who had weathered the Scarlet Fever storm with the boy, upon his pillow, to be burned. Fortunately the servant who hauled it all to the heap to be burned was a lazy sort, who decided to leave it until morning. The poor Rabbit lay on the heap sadly, wondering what was to become of him. He is so sad, in fact, that a real tear falls from his eye. Where it falls a flower suddenly grows. The flower opens, and out steps a fairy.

The fairy explains that she takes all the toys that are old and worn out, and no longer needed by children, and makes them Real. The Rabbit is confused, because he thought he was 'real'. The fairy explains that he was Real to the Boy, because he loved the Rabbit. But she will make him Real to every one. She takes the Rabbit into the forest, and introduces him to the wild rabbits, kisses him and puts him down. The Rabbit is told to 'Run and play'.

But he doesn't run, because he remembers that his rear is made all in one clump, because he is a toy, and he can't run. But then he has an itch, and without thinking, raises a foot to scratch it. He discovers that he has hind legs! The Rabbit springs around in joy. When he finally stops to look for the fairy, she has gone.

  Months later the Boy was playing outside, when two rabbits come out to look at him. One of them has strange faded markings, just like his old stuffed bunny. That last line! I am NOT crying!

  Oh my goodness, this book! Beautiful and sad, probably more to adults than kids, who haven't lived through this stuff yet. It makes me cry, partially for the same reason as Jessie's song in Toy Story 2. Ahhh!!! Sadness for the toys that are loved so much and then forgotten, sadness for lost years, sadness for children growing up and away. And it's all written in such a beautiful way. I do highly recommend this book, but have your hankies ready.

  That's the book for August. Don't forget to also check out today's doll post. See you tomorrow. 

The Doll Book of the Month Club: Secrets From the Dollhouse

   I have been promising you the Doll Book of the Month Club book for May for a few days now. I totally lost track of the end of the month once again, and then I was busy with preparations for Emma's birthday, which was Saturday. I spent ages wrapping birthday presents, tidying the room we are staying in, doing some cleanup of the apartment, (I even scrubbed the toilet), so Emma could have a nice relaxing birthday. On Friday, we went to the ice cream place to check on an ice cream cake, because that's what Emma said she wanted. They had them, but they were regular flavours, like Oreo. But the place she wanted an ice cream cake from was the place that sells Indian ice cream flavours, and that's what Emma wanted. So in the end, I bought two flavours of ice cream, (rose, which Emma likes, and the flavour I thought most likely to pair well with rose and not overpower it, green tea), and layered them with lady fingers myself. It worked. Today Emma asked me to help her with a project I'll explain soon, so we worked on that. But now I am getting this book post done. It's a book that was Emma's when she was a kid, so I guess it's a fitting book to post around her birthday. It's "Secrets from the Dollhouse" by Ann Turner. You may have read my review of another Ann Turner book about dolls, "Finding Walter". If not, you can go HERE.

  See that melted spot on the cover just under the 'house' in 'dollhouse? I had been planning to do this book as the book of the month at some point, so I had taken it out of Emma's room and left it on the landing. Well, we all know what happened to the landing, don't we boys and girls? That's a melt mark! I don't know how only that little spot melted, but the workings of that fire still have me baffled. The inside of the covers were speckled with ash too.

  The illustrations are by Raúl Colón. They're very soft and pretty. Google Raúl Colón and look at some of the other  stuff he's done. It's gorgeous.

  When I opened the book I remembered why I would have bought this book for Emma.

The character telling the story is a doll named Emma. Emma always loved books with characters named Emma, and we bought her quite a few. This Emma reiterates the standard law of dolls: they can move, but not when anyone is watching.

They don't trust the cat and are kept awake by mice. Foreshadowing!

Also in the story are Emma's sister and Mama and Papa, and baby sister.

  Emma tells of a few events, like being taken outside by 'Girl'.

Emma ventures outside in Girl's pocket.

The family is gathered together, but for how long?

The baby is discovered to be missing! The family immediately blames the cat. This part may actually be a bit frightening for small children.

  But just when the dolls think the mouse is going to eat the baby, she is rescued by none other than...the cat! I guess they shouldn't judge a book by it's cover! The cat has only been curious about the family because it likes them.

  And in the end the family cozies up together, just the way I loved to do when the kids were small.

  But there's one more event to be told about.

  It's a sweet book with lovely illustrations. The age recommendation is for ages 5 to 8.

The Doll Book of the Month Club: Twilight Tales

   This month's Doll Book of the Month is one of my childhood favourites. I still love it as an adult. The book is called "Twilight Tales".

  This isn't a Golden Book, so it's not as well known as some of those titles. This one is a Rand McNally Tip-Top Elf Book. It's by  Miriam Clark Potter, and the beautiful, soft illustrations are by Dean Bryant.

  My sister had this book as a kid, and so it was there when I was a kid. I borrowed it to read to my kids when they were little. Somehow I seem to have forgotten to return it...

  In any case, I loved this book. It's sweet, and gentle, and somehow magical in every day situations. (If you can call stories about anthropomorphic animals 'every day'.) The book contains three stories...I thought. Be careful when buying a copy of this book. I needed a copy for this post, and mine is somewhere packed away at The House of Fire. I was super lucky a couple of days ago, to find a copy at an antique mall. I gasped and snatched it up. Hey, maybe someday my sister will remember and ask for hers back. It's good to have a back up. Anyway, I laid it up when we got back to Emma's, and today when I took it out of it's plastic to photograph it...HORROR! There were only two stories! And neither of them was my favourite, the one that makes this book eligible for The Doll Book of the Month Club. I thought it must have been torn out, but no. It didn't look like anything had been torn out, and in researching I found that there are various versions of this book, with different covers, and with and without the third story. Lucky me. I found one without it. I thought this book was different when I took it out of the plastic today. Ours was smooth and shiny, and this one has a textured cover.

  So let's carry on. The other two stories are lovely. It's not that I didn't like them. I did. It's just that I loved the other story so much. The first story is "Mrs. Hen's Red Hat".

  It's about Mrs. Hen and her three 'butter yellow chicks'. Mrs. Hen says she would like to have a red hat, and her one of her chicks tells her that if she wants one, she should have one. So Mrs. Hen takes her 'golden corn money' out of the pink sugar bowl, and she and her chicks go shopping for a red hat. Sadly, they can't find one anywhere. On the way home one of the chicks points out that Mrs. Hen has always had a red hat: the red comb on her head. "But that grew on me." responds Mrs. Hen. "But it's beautiful all the same and you look good in it." says a chick. So Mrs. Hen puts the golden corn money back in the pink sugar bowl and says, "I have you and you have me, and we have saved our money." It's a simple story, but warm and cozy and loving. 

  The third story,(since I remember 'my' story being the middle one.), is "The Big Noise at Half Past Three".

  This story concerns a loud noise heard in the forest, and Timmy Squirrel being late home from school. Various animals in the forest end up at Mrs. Squirrel's house, and she invites them all to 'Have a piece of caraway cake', which has become a sort of catch phrase in our family now. Mrs. Squirrel learns that the noise was because 'the big dead tree in the forest fell over'. She gets more and more worried when Timmy doesn't arrive home from school. Eventually Timmy shows up, scolded for not coming home right after school. But then his teacher arrives, and explains that when 'the big dead tree in the forest fell over', it shook the school clock so hard that the hands moved back a half hour. Timmy's teacher, being, apparently, something of a nut case, made the kids stay until the hands said the appropriate hour again. (I think I'd be having a talk with her.) So all ended well, with Timmy home safe and sound, and vindicated about not coming home right after school. 

  Good thing Mrs. Squirrel hadn't watched a show I watched recently. She'd really have been freaking out.

  But what about my favourite story from the book? (Without my book, I'm having to rely on pictures found on the internet.) Well, it's called "Jimmy and Mr. Boo".

  The story opens with a post man coming to the door at Jimmy's house and asking for 'Master James Wilson Jr.'. "I am that little boy.", says Jimmy. So Jimmy's mother signs for a letter 'with two stamps', addressed to Jimmy.

The letter is from Jimmy's Aunt Alice, and says there is a visitor coming to see Jimmy. His name is Mr. Boo. Jimmy even gets a phone call, from someone with a squeaky voice, who says he will arrive about three o'clock.

 Jimmy eats his lunch and takes his nap, and then watches out the window for Mr. Boo. He gets excited every time he see someone coming past the house, or up the walk. Finally, a boy gets off a bike in front of Jimmy's house, and comes up the walk with a package. Jimmy thinks this must be Mr. Boo, and is disappointed because the boy 'is quite old-- almost a man. Too big for me to play with." 

But it isn't the boy who is Mr. Boo. The boy has brought a package for Jimmy. When Jimmy opens the box, there is something wrapped in blue tissue paper. Jimmy unwraps it, and it's a beautiful teddy bear, with 'a high black hat and leather shoes, green trousers, a blue vest, and a long tailed red coat with brass buttons'. There is also a card reading, 'Here I am!'. 

  This is Mr. Boo. He stays with Jimmy so long that he is no longer company, but just like one of the family. This is the last page of my book. Apparently there is a third version of the book, that includes this story, but has a different last page!

   I think I like mine better. 

   I loved the way Mr. Boo is 'alive'.  I always loved the idea of living toys. The description of Mr. Boo, and the picture of him laying in the box were always the perfect toy to me. If I could have found a bear like Mr. Boo I would have bought it for one of my kids. I did have a doll send letters to Emma the doll, saying she was coming for a visit. She was Emma the Doll's pen pal, and one day she arrived to live in 'Dolltown', (otherwise known as Emma's room.)

  So that's my favourite story from "Twilight Tales". I think you understand!  And okay, he's not a doll, he's a bear. Split hairs why don't you?

The Doll Book of the Month Club: D is for Different

   This month's Doll Book of the Month Club book is "D is for Different".

  As you can see, this book is a Barbie book. Emma used to be in the Barbie and Friends book club to get these when she was a kid. She always loved these books, and recently bought this one, because it was one she didn't have from childhood.

  The book concerns a girl named Danni, and her annoying bully classmate Alice, who is constantly making fun of Danni. Danni is having trouble with her spelling but she's a whiz at playing the piano.

  Danni is, in fact, having so much trouble with her spelling and other subjects that it's becoming a problem. But, this is a Barbie book, so guess who saves the day? Danni's teacher has a big surprise for the class. A famous author is coming to their classroom. It turns out to be Barbie Roberts. Who knew Barbie was a writer too? When Barbie visits the class, and sees Danni being teased for her bad spelling, she comforts her. Barbie thinks that maybe Danni has a learning disorder involving her short term memory. Barbie offers to help Danni by giving her some 'tricks' to help her remember things.

  Alice, who is a great speller, turns out to be lousy at the thing Danni excels in: paying the piano. Will Danni help her tormentor? Will Alice stop being such a creep? Will Barbie straighten out Danni's learning problems? Well I think you can guess the answer to all these questions. This is a Barbie book Come on!

  The book does talk about some learning problems that kids might relate to, as well as showing how being a bully can backfire, when you realize that the kid you're making fun of, is better than you are at something. Everybody is bad at something, and it isn't right to be cruel to someone. There is a lot of bullying in school, and kids need to learn how it makes others feel. So, there are some lessons to be learned here. One thing they deal with, but don't talk about directly, and it's Barbie who has to come up with the idea. Danni's teacher is oblivious.), is how hard it is for some kids to talk in front of the class, or be the center of attention. Danni is seriously nervous about spelling in front of everyone, because she's so bad at spelling. No matter the reason, this sort of thing is hard on kids. It's tough being humiliated in front of your classmates. Danni's teacher has the class do a spelling bee, and awards a 'speller of the week' star to the winner. He thinks it will help kids get used to speaking in public. But some people just aren't made for that. And do they really have to be? When I was in middle school we had to give book reports in front of the class. One boy was so nervous that he couldn't speak at all. He stood there at his desk shaking and eventually broke down in tears. Luckily we had a sympathetic teacher, who told him to sit down, and told the class that there's no point n forcing somebody to do something that they find so upsetting. I have always respected her for that.

  The writing in the Barbie books was pretty good, compared to doll based books like the Only Hearts Club dolls book I posted recently. The very first page of this book describes April's ponytail as standing out behind her like a large question mark, (or was that an exclamation point?). When Alice, laughs at  Danni, it's said that her ponytail is shaking around like it is laughing at her too. There's a lot more description and care taken to actually write a decent story than there was in the Only Hearts Club book. 

Alice, left, laughs at Danni, right, who is begging the bell to ring before it's her turn to spell a word.

  But let's get real here. The best thing about these Barbie books was always the pictures! Another thing they have over the Only Hearts Club books! I complained in that post about how little care they had taken in posing the dolls, and in 'dressing the sets', so to speak. In one picture the dance studio wall paper was obviously just notebook paper, and then they reused the notebook paper wall paper in the main character's bedroom too! And in those pictures, the 'wallpaper' didn't even cover the whole wall! You don't get shoddy decorating like that in the Barbie books! The detail in the pictures was always amazing. The rooms were decorated like real rooms, with every little nick nack and do dad accounted for. Of course, as I said in the Only Hearts Club book post, Barbie obviously is going to have a lot more money behind her. These books weren't even accompanying a doll, or available to the average consumer. To get these books you had to belong to the book club.

Emma and I were discussing the grass in this picture. It looks like real grass. Was it fake grass that was just very realistic? Was it photo trickery? Did they even have programs good enough to composite a picture like this using a photo of real real grass and dolls? Or is the grass just a photo? If it is, they did a really good job of making it look three dimensional and making it look like the bicycle and the dog are really on it. There is at least one bit of photo trickery in this picture. I'm pretty sure Danni has the legs with the jointed knees, and they have photoshopped the joint out.

The other thing we were talking about is something we also used to enjoy doing when Emma was a kid. We always like spotting which dolls and which clothes were used in the books. In the picture above we spotted Flashlight Fun Whitney's shoes on Danni's friend on the left, and Bowling Party Janet's socks and shoes on Danni's other friend. 

Danni's name is spelled with a 'y' on the board because April teased Danni so much about 'not even spelling your own name right', that Danni angrily changed it and asked April if that was good enough. I'd have made her eat the chalk too. I did not take to teasing, and as a red haired kid, I got plenty of it.
I loved seeing Mulan's Captain Li Shang as a modern guy! He's Danni's teacher, Mr. Lee.

You can see my post on this Captain Li Shang doll HERE.

I also caught another little goodie in the photo. At the far right edge you can see a lunchbox. I immediately recognized it as a Basic Fun keychain lunch box, but which one?

I figured it out. It's a "Gunsmoke" lunchbox, from the series of classic TV show lunchboxes! How many kids were carrying Gunsmoke lunchboxes in the 90's or early 2000's? I suppose they figured no one could tell what kind it was anyway.

  Another fun thing was, often special dolls were created just for the books That was a little aggravating, because some of them were ones we would have liked to have bought!  Danni's mom was an early 'curvy' doll. She has obviously wider hips and chunkier legs than standard Barbie dolls of the time. Danni herself is a doll specially made for the book, and not commercially available. Her face paint is definitely one of a kind, except maybe in the picture with the grass. That smiling face, (which was a mistake, because she's definitely not smiling in the part of the book.), look like the Stacie's that were sold. But there was never a brunette Stacie friend without bangs.

 They reused a lot of real clothes Mattel actually sold, in fashion packs or on dolls, (like the shoes and socks mentioned above.), but often the clothes were specially made too.

  So yes. These books are fun, and not badly written. These days you can buy them by the stack on Ebay. They turn up now and then at yard sales and thrift stores too.

  Don't forget to check out today's doll too!