6. The Doll People by Ann M. Martin & Laura Godwin
The Doll People by Ann M. Martin & Laura Godwin*
Illustrated by Brian Selznick
First in The Doll People series
Pages: 256
Finished: Jan. 9, 2009
First Published: 2000
Genre: children's fantasy
Rating: 4.5/5
Awards: Maud Hart Lovelace Award
Reason for Reading: I've already broken a new year's reading resolution with this book. I was not going to start any new series unless they were associated with my arc reading. But, I was at the library and saw book 3 of this series on display and it sent me running to find the first book.
First sentence:
It had been forty-five years since Annabelle Doll had last seen Auntie Sarah.
Comments: The Doll Family has lived at 26 Wetherby Lane for 100 years being passed down from mother to daughter all these years. Forty-five years ago Auntie Sarah simply disappeared and no one speaks of her anymore but Annabelle Doll finds Auntie Sarah's secret journal and decides she will leave the house and start to search for her. Along her searches she finds another doll family that has come to live with the youngest daughter of the family. The Dolls now have some fun neighbours and Annabelle finds a friend with the Funcraft Family.
This book was pure delight! It was very reminiscent to me of The Borrowers, though the little people here are dollhouse dolls. The characters are simply charming and this is really a wonderful, fun, adventurous story to read. Brian Selznick's illustration bring the characters and setting to life as they decorate every third or forth page and sometimes the text stops for a whole two page spread illustration. Highly recommended for Grades 4 to 6, or as a read aloud for youngers. I wish I had daughters to read this too, but I, who am well past Grade 6 age, loved the story and will read the next two books in the series.
But I do deserve a slap on the hand for starting a new series! Edited to add: I just found out this book won the Maud Hart Lovelace Award so it qualifies for one of my challenges!!! Now I don't deserve a slapped hand anymore.
*this is tagged Canadian author because Laura Godwin was born and raised in Alberta, Canada, though she now resides in the US.
I was just posting about how successful I have been with finishing series before starting new ones...
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds good, actually. I loved books like this when I was younger!
This was one of the first books I read aloud to my daughter a few years back - we both loved it!
ReplyDeleteI love those books. even tho I'm only up to the second one.
ReplyDeleteI loved both the 2nd and 3rd. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter is enjoying reading this one right now. I didn't realize it was the first in a series when we picked it up from the library. I'll have to look for the other two!
ReplyDelete