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!

Doll Book of the Month Club: Raggedy Andy Stories by Johnny Gruelle

   Last month, (Or rather, the beginning of this month, since it was late!), we looked at the original Raggedy Ann book, "Raggedy Ann Stories". This month we're looking at the follow up book, "Raggedy Andy Stories", by Johnny Gruelle.

  Raggedy Andy Stories first appeared in 1920. two years after the first Raggedy Ann book. 

  As the story goes, Andy was invented when a friend of Gruelle's found an old rag doll from when her mother and Gruell's had made their daughters rag dolls, and gave the doll to Gruelle. The story found in the Raggedy Andy book is slightly different. The person who gave him Raggedy Andy was someone who had played with his own mother when she was a child, and it their mothers who had made the dolls.

The whole tale became part of the stories themselves.

  Like the Raggedy Ann Stories book, Raggedy Andy Stories is a sweet, gentle book, full of stories about what toys get up to when people aren't around. 

Like pillow fights.

A nd running into Santa Claus. As in most dolls stories, the dolls collapse at the risk of being seen being alive, because no one can see them that way. By the way, the Santa thing is why I was going to use this book for December...forgetting it would be after Christmas when I posted this.

I hope kids these days still like things like that. (Oh, nd the illustrations are also beautiful.)

The original illustrations by Johnny Gruelle are bright and colourful, and full of life and coziness. 

Andy isn't as popular as Ann. I see way more Raggedy Ann dolls and other products than I do Andys. Traditionally boy dolls aren't as popular as girl dolls. But I always loved Andy best. Raggedy Ann and Andy aren't as popular in general as they used to be. The Raggedy Ann and Andy museum in Gruelle's hometown of Arcola, Illinois, closed down in 2009. The museum was run by Gruelle's granddaughter. When it closed some of the books and rare dolls were donated to the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. The museum has 43 pages of Ann and Andy goodies on their website, which you can start perusing  HERE. 

  See you tomorrow for Doll-A-Day 2023!  

The Doll Book of the Month Club: Raggedy Ann Stories by Johnny Gruelle

   Well, we're back from our trip, but obviously the Doll Book of the Month is late. That's because, like everything else connected with our trip, something screwed up. We got home to find that our internet had been out for days. Ken contacted our internet provider and we were told they could get to us about December 5th. I, in the background, shouted, "That's WEEKS!" Apparently the person on the phone heard me, as she said they might be able to expedite things. 'Might' is the operative word there, as they didn't actually show up until the 5th. Ken suggested I write my review in notepad and copy and paste it to the blog. But another problem is, the paper with all my passwords on it, that I always keep in my desk drawer, has disappeared. As I alluded to at the beginning of this post, that is a carry over from the world's most bad luck trip, which we just returned from. Not that we didn't have a good time, and things weren't pleasant most of the time. But Ken says he was talking to someone at work after we returned, and he asked them to name every bad thing that could happen on a trip. They did, and all of it had happened to us on this one, and more besides that no one would even think of. But never mind about that. I'll cover that in my posts on the trip. This is our Doll Book of the Month Club post. And the book this, (or, rather, last) month is "Raggedy Ann Stories", by Johnny Gruelle.

  I won't bore you by repeating the story of Johnny Gruelle and Raggedy Ann's origins in full. For that, I'll refer you to my 2014 post on my childhood Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. I will only give you the basics here. Johnny Gruelle created the Raggedy Ann doll after either finding a doll his mother had once made for his sister when she was a child, or when his daughter found an old rag doll in his mother's attic. There are conflicting stories. He received a patent for the Raggedy Ann doll in 1915, the same month his young daughter Marcella, for whom Raggedy Ann's owner in the stories is named, passed away from vaccination poisoning. (That's a whole tale in itself too, for which I also refer you to the 2014 post.) The first Raggedy Ann book was published in 1918. So the doll far preceded the books.

   Johnny Gruelle, apart from being an author, was also an accomplished artist, and the original Raggedy Ann book is blessed with his beautiful illustrations. 

  The stories are sweet and simple, mostly focusing on Raggedy Ann and how the other toys adore her.

 They adore her because she is kind, loving, and honest. But she isn't sickening, which is nice. 

  This is one of those books about what toys get up to when no one is around. 

As old fashioned as these stories are, I can see them still appealing to children today. I'm not talking about modern Raggedy Ann stories, because I know pretty much nothing about those. But this book is a pleasant and entertaining read. I wish I had had a copy when Ivy was small, because she loved Ann, even if she pretty much ignored Andy, who had always been my favourite. 

The character of Uncle Clem looks very like Andy, who hadn't yet been invented.

  If you do look for a copy of this book, which has probably been reprinted many times, (My copy s quite old.), try to find one with Johnny Gruelle's original illustrations. 

They are absolutely beautiful and the modern illustrations can't hold a candle to them.

The Doll Book of the(Last!) Month Club: Dancing Dilemma

   I am finally here with last month's Doll Book of the Month! The book this time around is Dancing Dilemma. 

It's one of the books in the Only Hearts Club dolls' book series. It's dated 2005! Ack! Were those dolls THAT long ago?! 

  There were a few Only Hearts Club books.

    These books are mainly there to support the dolls. They're the type of books that were spat out to go with the product, and not much care was taken to make them actually good. There isn't even an author listed anywhere in or on the book. The preface page to the book spells out the theme of the doll idea.

Nice idea, but this whole spiel is then repeated word for word in the first page of the book. Did we really need it twice in a row? Does it sound like I'm getting aggravated with this book already? Not exactly aggravated, but let's say that already I'm not a fan. 

  The book is very simply written. We read about Karina flipping her blonde hair, but we really don't know anything else about her except that she likes dancing and belongs to the Only Hearts Club. She doesn't seem to have anything else in her personality. We also don't get descriptions of anybody else. I think we're just supposed to identify them by what doll they are. We should know what they all look like, right? Karina Grace decides to be nice and help a new girl in her ballet class who is having trouble. Then she gets jealous when her teacher singles out the new girl in class instead of her. She really loses it when said girl decides to audition for the role of Clara in the dance school's production of The Nutcracker, that famous ballet about a weird uncle who gives a girl a creepy nutcracker and life size mice dance all over the stage, that every city in the United States does every Christmas season. Karina even tells her that the judges are hard on people, and that the local school athletes come to watch the rehearsals and make fun of the girls auditioning. She then thinks it over and decides to 'fess up about her lies and help her new friend prepare for the audition. She 'thought with her heart and did the right thing'. Good lesson, just told in a not very exciting or interesting way.

  So do these books have any other qualities that make them worthwhile? Well... I'm reminded of the Barbie and Friends Book Club books Emma used to love when she was a kid. (I'll have to review one of those sometime.) Those books were better written, but I don't think the poor writers got credit in those books either. But one thing that really drew Emma to those books was the photo illustrations.

The photos of dolls doing all sorts of things were well done. The costumes were detailed, and not always just regular Barbie clothes the public could buy. (A little frustrating, I'm sure, but the clothes often made the pictures so much more realistic and interesting.) The backgrounds were sometimes photo trickery, but often were nicely done realistic sets, with lots of details to make them seem more like a real place. 

  But the Only Hearts Club books? Hmm. Well, the dolls all wear clothing available either on a doll, or as an individual fashion. That's one thing that could be considered a positive, I suppose. Kids won't get as frustrated. The sets? Okay. I know there wasn't as much money backing The Only Hearts Club as there was backing Barbie. Mattel was never going to let Barbie look shabby. But I could have done better with these pictures! (To see some of my Only Hearts Club doll photos click 'Only Hearts Club dolls' on the sidebar.) For one thing, I know it is sometimes hard to pose the Only Hearts dolls without making them look awkward, because of the cloth covered, wire filled posable legs and arms. The head has to be properly tilted too. But come on people!

Karina gets distracted and falls in ballet class.

  This picture just looks weird. The head on the girl in the middle is tilted weirdly, and Karina looks like she enjoyed her fall. I also have a problem  with their sets. I know, as I said, they didn't have Mattel money, but I could scrape together a better set at home. That floor doesn't even go all the way to the edge of the picture. I can see where the top of the setting ends. And check out that wall. It only goes so far as a white wall, and then it's made of writing paper!

See what I'm saying?

 You know. The kind kids use when they first start learning how to write. And they reuse that wall as the wall for Karina's bedroom, and the writing paper is even more obvious in that picture.

Notice the chair. It seems to be the prototype for the chair actually sold for the Only Hearts Club dolls. You can see mine in some of my posts, including this one and this one.

 Okay, so the book is very simply written and the pictures are maybe a bit disappointing. but do I think the kids who liked the dolls would have enjoyed it? Yes. Probably. It's always fun seeing your dolls in a book. (My kids enjoyed seeing their dolls of themselves in that movie I made for them, and I'm sure that movie wasn't as well made as this book. It was hilarious though. I am hilarious...)

  So that's the book for September. I will have a book post ready to go before we leave and it will go up while I'm gone. As for the trip, I will be hobbling off to Iceland with Ken later this month. We are also going to Scotland, where we have tickets to see Michael Palin! I have been a Monty Python fan since I was about 14. I have followed everything the members have done over the years. This will make three of them I have seen live. From there we visit a friend of mine I haven't seen since 1986. (The last time I tried to visit her, but she had to work, so we only talked on the phone.) After that we go to Ken's home town and visit with two of his sisters. We have about a week with them. While we're there we are going to visit a couple of Ken's friends, who we saw the last time we were over, and my friend Jenny, who I last saw in 1986. I'm very excited about that. We go see a concert by one of Ken's favourites, Gilbert O'Sullivan. (Anybody remember him? "Alone Again Naturally"?) Then we're off to visit Ken's other sister, and eventually we meet up with Emma and Ivy to check out Nottingham, and visit cousins Ken hasn't seen in decades, and visit the prison where Ken was born. (His mother wasn't an inmate! His father was a prison instructor who taught shoe making to the prisoners!) Then we have a few days in London with the girls for Ivy's birthday. After that another few days with Ken's sisters, a big family get together, and a couple of days with my friend Cheryl, who we saw the last time we were over. Then it's off to visit a friend in Germany, a friend in Belgium, and we get to see Bruges. We also might get to see a friend in Strasburg, France. We end the trip with a couple of days in Paris. It's probably our last trip over, so we've tried to fit in everything and everybody we might have wanted to see. Unfortunately the trains in England just went on strike and are going to be very unpredictable  while we are there!

  I don't know what I'm going to do about the leg, except suffer. I still haven't located a new doctor, since mine moved away. Nobody seems to be taking new patients and I'm running out of time before the trip. I've been trying Icy Hot on it but I don't think it's having any affect. I think the only thing that makes a difference is staying off my feet, and, in fact, off my butt too. Laying on my right side seems to be the only pain free position, and sometimes not even that. It has to be a nerve in my back, causing a leg muscle  to tighten. 

  I have a post coming up about the big load of dolls I got at the toy show Saturday, and dolls that you will be able to get your hands on that were in it!  We'll see that in a couple of days. See you then.

Doll Book of the Month Club: Polar the Titanic Bear

   This month marks the 110th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, and you should know by now that I have a Titanic obsession. So this month's Doll Book of the Month Club entry is connected. It's Polar, The Titanic Bear, by Margaretta 'Daisy' Corning Spedden.

My book doesn't have a dust jacket, so the title page will have to

suffice.

  The book is written from the point of view of a stuffed toy polar bear named Polar. (We now know Polar to have been a Steiff bear.) It was written as "My Story",  by Daisy Spedden in 1913, as a Christmas gift from Daisy, to her son Douglas, and never meant to be published. 

Daisy's original, hand painted cover for the book she gave Douglas.

We owe the existence of this book to someone else. The book was discovered in Daisy's trunk, many years after her death, by Leighton H. Coleman III. Leighton's grandmother had been a cousin of Daisy's. Leighton spent his summers with his grandparents, and at age 14, poking around in what has been called variously a 'shed' and a 'barn' discovered Daisy's trunk. When he was a bit older he perused the contents more thoroughly, discovering Daisy's photo albums and diaries, along with her hand written copy of Polar's tale. When he was 21 his grandfather gave him the trunk, seeing his interest in the family history it contained.  Eventually Leighton sent copies of Daisy's accounts of her Titanic experiences, and Polar's book, to a Titanic historical society, which led to him deciding to publish Daisy's Polar book. An illustrator was found, and the book was first published in 1994, the year before the actual long lost Titanic was discovered.

  It follows Polar's story, as he is completed in a workshop, packed up, and shipped to FAO Swartz in America. He's bought by a lady, and presented to her nephew, Douglas, in the Autumn of 1911, as he and his family are about to leave on a trip.

Illustration from the book, by Laurie McGaw.

  Polar goes on many adventures with Douglas, as his family travels to exotic places, and back home to their mansion. 

  Polar has his own furniture, and shares all special events with the family. I was reminded, reading Polar's story, how Emma and Fuzzy took their special dolls, named after them, everywhere we went, including vacations. Those dolls went more places than I did until I was in my twenties! 

  Polar keeps Douglas company while Douglas recovers from measles, a deadly illness back in Polar's day. 

Luckily for Polar, he's washed in disinfectant and kept, and not thrown on the trash heap to be burned, like the Velveteen Rabbit. (I'm not crying! You're crying!) But this is Polar the Titanic bear. Where does that come in?

  Well obviously the wealthy Spedden family booked passage on the Titanic, and you know what happened with that. Mr. and Mrs. Spedden were awoken by the jolt of the crash with the iceberg. They dressed and went on deck to see what had happened. They could see already that the ship was listing, so they hurried back to their rooms to wake their servants. Douglas was awoken by his nanny, 'Muddy Boons', (Douglas originally couldn't pronounce her name, Maggie Burns, and so she became 'Muddy Boons'.), who dressed the groggy boy, telling him they were going on 'a trip to the stars'. Luckily for Polar he was placed in six year old Douglas' arms as the family were heading for the deck and the life boats. Luckily for Mr. Spedden, Douglas' father, there were no more women or children around as the life boat was being lowered, and he was allowed to climb in, along with Douglas and Polar, Daisy, Daisy's maid, and Douglas' nanny.  So, the entire Spedden party survived the sinking. Douglas, in the arms of Muddy Boons, famously slept through the entire ordeal of the freezing night in the boat, with icy waters seeping in, to eventually reach up to the passengers knees. 

When he awoke in the morning, shortly before being rescued, he exclaimed, "Muddy, look at the beautiful North Pole with no Santa Claus on it."

  Daisy was a photography buff, as well as a dedicated diarist, but unfortunately her camera was lost on the Titanic. (Ken and I both said we would have grabbed our cameras, both for the photos on them, and to record the obviously historic events that were happening. Even if it wasn't obvious that the sinking would become so historic because of the circumstances, there was always the fact that it was supposed to be unsinkable. The mere fact that the ship so proclaimed to be unsinkable was going down would have warranted recording in photos.) There does, however, exist one photo of Douglas on the Titanic. Father Francis Browne was given a ticket for the Titanic as a gift. He was an accomplished photographer, and took many pictures during his time on the Titanic, including one of Douglas playing with his top on the deck, as described in Polar's story. 

Father Browne's photo of Douglas aboard the Titanic. Muddy Boons can be seen partially obscured by the gentleman on the far right.

Father Browne's ticket was for passage to Ireland, but he was seated at a dinner table with a wealthy American couple, who so enjoyed his company that they offered to pay for his ticket to New York. Father Browne sent a telegraph to his superior, requesting the additional time off, and received the response, "GET OFF THAT SHIP". I wonder if he thanked the man later!

  The book continues with events after the sinking. It doesn't seem to have been considered quite the historical event to turned out to be. 

Not that Daisy wasn't greatly affected by the experience. She wrote in her diary that after the Titanic tragedy, "...all the values of our life changed, and the daily incidents, which once seemed of such importance to us, dwindled into mere trivialities." Daisy, who had never worked a day in her life, as a wealthy person from birth, had helped care for the Titanic's survivors aboard the rescuing ship, the Carpathia, cutting up blankets to be made into clothes for survivors who had been rescued in night clothes, and had no other clothes with them.  

  Although Douglas survived the Titanic's sinking, there is a tragic ending to Douglas' story, making one of the book's final Polar quotes even more heart wrenching. At the end of the book "Polar" explains that he realizes he will spend less and less time with Douglas as the years go on, but he will be happy to know that Douglas is living a happy life. And Douglas did live a happy life after the Christmas of 1913, but only for 19 more months. During the Spedden's yearly summer vacation at their home in Maine, Douglas chased a wayward ball into the road, where he was hit by a car. Two days later he passed away from his injuries, at the age of nine, becoming the first automobile casualty in the state. 

  The Spedden's continued to travel and take photos, but Daisy never wrote in her diary again, after Douglas' accident. As for Polar, the book says no one knows what happened to him, as he has never been found. I wondered if perhaps he was buried with Douglas. That was the question I put to a Facebook page dedicated to the story of Polar, and the Spedden family, run by Leighton Coleman. (You can find it HERE.) I received a message back, (Not necessarily by Coleman, as he may not do the actual day to day responding from the page.), saying that Polar had indeed been interred with Douglas. I don't know what changed the story as to Polar's whereabouts. My follow up query about the previous statement that Polar's fate was unknown was met with only, "Now you know!" 

  That's the book for this month. I realize Polar is probably considered a 'toy', and not a 'doll', but I think Douglas' method of play with Polar gave him 'doll' status. When she was small Emma informed me that all her stuffed animals were "dolls". So there you go.

  There's a doll show in a couple of days. That should be interesting. I'll let you know how it goes. 

The Doll Book of the Month Club: Doll Hospital, Charlotte's Choice

  Can you believe we've reached the end of the first month of the new year already?! Time really flies. Ivy went back to college yesterday. There' a surge of Covid in Indiana in general, and her college specifically, so I'm worried. At least she recently got her booster, when we did, while she was home.

  So anyway, I'm on my own again while Ken's at work. Know what that means Raging Moon and Barb? It means I'll soon be digging out those dolls for you. I'll also be listing some more dolls and doll things on the blog's sales page. What doesn't sell on the page in a month or so will go on Ebay for a slightly higher price, since on there I have to cover the fees. (Can you believe they now take a share of the money paid for shipping too! That's for shipping! I don't even get any of that! It's because a lot of people were trying to avoid the Ebay fees on their 'final value', so they priced the item very low and charged a crazy rate for shipping. Now we all have to pay part of our shipping money to Ebay! I always put a regular price on the item, so that means I don't actually get what I asked for anything now, because part of my profit goes to pay shipping. I hate Ebay.) 

 This month's Doll Book of the Month Club entry is really a series of books. The series, by Joan Holub,  is called "Doll Hospital".  Although we'll concentrate on The book "Charlotte's Choice", we'll also talk about the series in general.

  The series 'Doll Hospital' books are about two sisters, 8 year old Lila and 10 year old Rose, who are sent to live with their grandmother  when their doctor parents go to Africa for a year to work. They call their grandmother  'Far Nana', because she lives far from them, and they have rarely seen her. The idea of them living with her is so they can get to know her better. Far Nana is a bit of an old hippy. She wears lots of bead necklaces, which click together when she moves. She also repairs dolls, thus the 'doll hospital' of the series title. 

  But the interesting thing about Far Nana's doll repairs is that when Far Nana repairs the dolls, they 'talk' to her, (Not out loud.), and they tell her their histories. Far Nana tells the stories to Rose and Lila as she works. That's how we learn the stories, as the reader is obviously listening in. 

  There are six books in the series. The first was "Tatiana Comes to America", the story the girls' arrival at Far Nana's, and of a doll who escapes Russia in 1907. The second book was "Goldie's Fortune", and the doll in the story is from the Depression era. Third in the series was "Glory's Freedom", and the doll was the doll of a slave traveling the Underground Railroad. The fourth book in the series was "Saving Marissa", about a doll from the 1950's. The fifth book was "Danielle's Dollhouse Wish", the story of an 1890's dollhouse family from Paris. (I'd like to get hold of that one.)

  The book we're looking at more closely is, as I said, "Charlotte's Choice", the sixth and final book in the series. 

In this book, Lila and Rose have just gotten off school for winter vacation. They want to go to the Winter Carnival, but Far Nana has other plans, which infuriates the girls. Far Nana tells the girls they are going to an historic Shaker village, where Far Nana is going to visit an old friend and repair a doll for her.

  Lila and Rose decide to give Far Nana the cold shoulder, to let her know how mad they are that they don't get to go to the Winter Carnival. Far Nana's friend works at the Shaker village, which is now a tourist site, and Far Nana and the girls are going to be staying in the 'dwelling house' at the village. 

The doll Far Nana is going to repair was found in an attic in the village. The doll has paper mache' limbs, (except for  a missing leg), a cloth body, and a wooden head. 

But dolls and toys weren't allowed by the Shakers until well after the era of this doll. How did she get in the attic? What's she doing in the Shaker village? 

Maybe Far Nana will find out as she repairs the doll. (In the process of repairing the doll we learn how Far Nana makes a new paper mache' leg by making a mold of the remaining leg and casting a new leg.) And do Lila and Rose get over being mad at Far Nana? Do they end up enjoying their visit to the Shaker village? 

  Of course, you probably have figured out that, of course Far Nana tells the doll's story, of course the girls get over being mad at Far Nana, and of course they enjoy their visit. That's how these books go. But  is it an enjoyable journey getting to the end of the story? Well, yes. These books are fun. It's never  explained whether or not Far Nana can really 'hear' the dolls' thoughts, or if she's making it all up. I like to think she has a little magic and can really hear the dolls. I suppose I would also have enjoyed them as a kid because there's always a little history in each book too. I always loved history. Ivy liked these books when she was little, and we read two or three of them. 

  The book is a quick  read of less than 130 pages, about the length of all the books in the series. The age recommendation is ages 8-10. It could be read to younger children if they are interested.

  Author Joan Holub has written a lot of books for kids. And I mean A LOT. More than 180, in fact. She acquired a Fine Arts degree and spent a few years as an art director with a graphic design firm. But she always wanted to write kids' books. Eventually Joan moved to New York and got a job designing books for Scholastic Books. She also edited books for them. In 1992 the first book she had illustrated was published. She became an illustrator, until the publication of her first authored book, in 1996.  Today Joan Holub is 66, and apparently has cats named after Scout and Boo from "To Kill a Mockingbird". (One of my favourite books, so I have to love that! By the way, I highly recommend "To Kill a Mockingbird" to everyone, and the movie is great too!) 

  Oddly enough, Joan Holub didn't illustrate the Doll Hospital books. They're illustrated by Ann Losa. I guess Joan is too busy these days writing those 180 plus books to illustrate them too. But the illustrations by Ann Losa are nice. 

  That's it for this month's book. See you again soon.