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.

Doll Book of the Month Club: The Doll's House by Rumer Godden

  ***First of all, I have to apologize to, I believe it was Doll Hoarder's Exchange. I published your comment, but somehow it disappeared. I must have clicked Delete instead somehow. Thank you for the lovely things you said, and Happy new year to you!***
  Happy New Year all! I hope everybody enjoyed the last Doll-A-Day for 2019. This year I'm not doing a doll  every day. That frees me up to talk, and show you, about a lot of other things. Today we're starting a series I am calling the 'Doll Book of the Month Club'. Once a month we'll see a book that may be about dolls,or have dolls as characters. This will include doll reference books,children's books about doll characters,and maybe some other types of books. Let me know if you have any suggestions. We're starting the year with "The Doll's House" by Rumer Godden.

  You may have seen my post on the book "The Story of Holly and Ivy",also by Rumer Godden. (A note here: I gave the wrong link to that post on my post about Ivy's 'Holly' doll. That has been corrected, or you can follow the link above.) Today's book is another by Rumer Godden. "The Dolls' House" was originally published in 1947.

 

The copy we own has illustrations by Tasha Tudor, which were first included in 1962. The book concerns the Plantagenets, a family of dolls who live in London with two little girls named Emily and Charlotte.

The oldest of the dolls is Tottie, a very old wooden doll who has been in the family for generations.
 

 
  The dolls are happy, but uncomfortable in their shoe box home. When Tottie tells the others about the doll house,(or, as they say in Britain, the doll's house.),she once lived in when she was owned by Emily and Charlotte's great grandmother and great great aunt, the others long for a house of their own.

  Tottie isn't sure the house still exists, but the girls find themselves suddenly the owners of Tottie's old house, when it's passed down to them after a death in the family. 

The dolls are thrilled to have a house and things of their own.  Life is good and the dolls feel secure.

But can that last long? There has to be a conflict in a book, after all.
  The conflict here begins when the girls also inherit Tottie's old housemate. She's a beautiful but conceited and selfish doll named Marchpane, who still considers the doll's house and everything in it, to be hers.

 That's where things start to get a bit scary and sad. In fact, the book has a very shocking and sad climax. When I read the book to Ivy when she was a kid, we both had to stop and sit sort of stunned when it happened. We found it very devastating! We still enjoyed the book, but it took us by surprise and we were in tears. According to Ivy, I'm in tears over every book, but even she cried at this one.
 

  So, if you're reading the book to a child, be aware that it might be upsetting to them. Preread the ending,(It happens in chapter 20.), and make sure you think the child you're reading to can handle it.
  You can watch parts of the BBC's stop motion animated series based on the book HERE,HERE,and HERE. (It doesn't hold a candle to the book though. There's irony in that statement. If you read the book you'll find out why.) Apparently Rumor Godden originally didn't want the book made into a TV show. She later warmed to the idea and actually had a hand in the making of the series.
  That's the first Doll Book of the Month Club entry. I hope you liked it. See you soon! 

December Doll Reading: The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden

 Throughout December I'll be suggesting some nice doll books to read with your children. First up is The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden.

This is the version I have. The pictures are only coloured in green and red.

 Rumer Godden wrote several children's books with doll characters, including "Miss Happiness and Miss Flower", about a pair of Japanese dolls, and the sequel "Little Plum",and  "Impunity Jane: The Story of a Pocket Doll".She also wrote many books for adults.
  The Story of Holly and Ivy was a book I had as a kid. It became one of Ivy's favourites because one of the characters had her name, so we read it every year for years. Still do sometimes.It was originally published in 1958, but I believe it's still in print. You can even get it for your Kindle!

This is a more modern edition.

   It's a very sweet book. The first sentence is a very good description of the story: "This is a story about wishing. It is also a story about a doll and a little girl."Set at Christmas time, it follows the story of an orphan named Ivy.When all the other children at Ivy's orphanage are taken in by families for Christmas and the last staff member must leave to take care of a sick relative,Ivy is sent to the babies orphan home. Stubborn Ivy insists that she is not a 'baby', and sets out to find the grandparents she is certain must be out there waiting for her. She gets off the train, only to find herself alone in a strange town, with no money and night quickly falling.It's also the story of Holly, a doll who has only just been unpacked for sale on Christmas eve. Holly is afraid she won't be sold in time for Christmas. The other toys warn her that with her red and green outfit, she is considered "a Christmas doll", and Christmas dolls will be returned to storage when the holiday is over, to wait out a long and lonely year in the dark.As for the wishing, Ivy wishes for the beautiful doll in the window,and a home and someone to love her. In spite of the warning that a child's hands are rough, Holly wishes for 'her' little girl, who will love her and muss her clothes in an embrace. Of course, we know they will end up together, and maybe Ivy will find the grand parents she's looking for. At least, we hope so. So many times it's so close, and yet so far that we're on the edge of the page, so to speak. The story is well  written.When Ivy falls asleep in a bakery shed and wakes up to find the shed has cooled in the night, we can almost feel how cold and stiff her legs have become. The ending always has me crying happy tears, which has always prompted Ivy to laugh at me. (Such an insensitive child for someone who cries at the drop of a hat to have had!)
It's a fairly short chapter book and can be read in one sitting if your kids are patient. (And so are you!) If not, you could surely do it in a couple of readings. Young kids can read it themselves.Age recommendations are all over the place on this book.The younger scale is for having it read to them obviously, but I've seen 4-8, 5-10, and up to age 12.As usual, you know your child and what they can understand, and what they'll put up with. (The story might be a bit slow moving and serious for some very young children to stay interested in.On the other hand, the characters of talking toys,and a villan that's an evil owl might do the trick!)

And even more recent.

 The book was made into an animated tv special called "The Wish that Changed Christmas" in 1991. The tv show isn't nearly as mystical (Was that toy owl really alive?) or beautiful as the book, but it's nice. I know it was released on video, but I don't know about DVD.

 It can also be viewed on YouTube. But read the book instead. And if you happen to cry at the end, well, maybe your kids won't make fun of you.