What is the book the doll people about?

The Doll People

What is the book the doll people about?
AuthorAnn M. Martin, Laura Godwin
IllustratorBrian Selznick
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreChildren's novel
PublisherHyperion Books

Publication date

August 14, 2000 (1st edition)
Pages272 pp (hardback edition)
ISBN0-7868-0361-4
OCLC38432238
LC ClassPZ7.M3567585 Do 2000
Followed byThe Meanest Doll in the World 

The Doll People is a children's novel written by Ann M. Martin and Laura Godwin, first published in 2000. It is illustrated by Brian Selznick, the author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret. It tells a story about the imaginary world of dolls when no one is watching.[1] A doll made from china and her new best friend made of plastic try to find her aunt that long ago went on an adventure and never came back. Others in the series include The Meanest Doll in the World, The Runaway Dolls, The Doll People Set Sail, and The Doll People's Christmas (picture book) [2]

Plot introduction[edit]

This children's tale is about a doll made of china named Annabelle, who has existed for more than one hundred years. The book is set in the present time period and is told in third person. Annabelle and her family belong to an 8 year old girl named Kate Palmer. The dolls can move, talk, and play the miniature piano in their house but always return to the same spot they started from when a human approaches. The consequence of being seen moving is being "frozen" for twenty-four hours, also called Doll State. If a doll does something especially incriminating, the doll is "frozen" forever, called Permanent Doll State. Kate's sister Nora receives a doll house and plastic doll family named the Funcrafts for her 5th birthday. The Funcrafts' daughter is Tiffany and she becomes Annabelle's best friend. In the book Annabelle and her friend Tiffany form a group called Society for Exploration and Location of Missing Persons (or SELMP for short), when Annabelle finds her Auntie Sarah's Journal. Auntie Sarah has been missing for 45 years and has not been seen or heard from in all that time. Annabelle and Tiffany become determined to find her. Using the clues from the journal, they deduce she is stuck somewhere, so they go on a journey and successfully locate her. The doll family is happily reunited once again.

References[edit]

  1. ^ The Doll People at Fantastic Fiction
  2. ^ NY Times review

The 100-year-old Doll family, beautifully crafted china dolls passed down through four generations of girls in one American family, meet their new neighbors, the Funcrafts, a doll family made completely of plastic and delivered straight from the factory shelves.

Annabelle Doll is eight years old. She has been for over 100 years. Not a lot has happened to her, cooped up in the dollhouse, with the same doll people, day after day, year after year...until the Funcrafts move in. Now Annabelle has a friend. Sure, she's made entirely of plastic and she's living in the scariest room in the house, but she's an adventurer, and after 100 years of boredom, that's just what Annabelle needs.

Ann Matthews Martin. Hyperion Books for Children, $16.99 (272pp) ISBN 978-0-7868-0361-3

Passed down from one generation to the next, the Doll family has lived in the same dollhouse, located in the same room of the Palmer family's house, for 100 years. While the world outside has changed, their own lives have notDwith two significant exceptions. First, Auntie Sarah Doll suddenly and mysteriously disappeared 45 years ago, when the Doll family belonged to Kate Palmer's grandmother. More recently, the modern, plastic Funcraft family has moved into Kate's little sister's room. Following the time-honored traditions of such well-loved works as Rumer Godden's The Doll's House, The Mennyms by Sylvia Waugh and Pam Conrad's and Richard Egielski's The Tub People, Martin and Godwin inventively spin out their own variation on the perennially popular theme of toys who secretly come to life. By focusing on Annabelle's and Tiffany Funcraft's risky mission to find Auntie Sarah, the authors provide plenty of action and suspense, yet it is their skillfully crafted details about the dolls' personalities and daily routines that prove most memorable. Selznick's pencil illustrations cleverly capture the spark of life inhabiting the dolls' seemingly inanimate bodies. The contemporary draftsmanship frees the art from nostalgia even while the layoutDwhich presents the illustrations as standalone compositions as well as imaginatively integrated borders and vignettesDreinforces the old-fashioned mood of the doll theme. Doll lovers may well approach their imaginative play with renewed enthusiasm and a sense of wonder after reading this fun-filled adventure. Ages 7-10. (Aug.)

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Details

Reviewed on: 07/31/2000

Genre: Children's