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.

Doll Book of the Month Club: Finding Walter

  This month's Doll Book of the Month Club entry is "Finding Walter" by Ann Turner. There are no illustrations.

  "Finding Walter",originally published in 1997 is a book Ivy and I got from the library, and I read to her ,when she was little. She enjoyed it a lot. We never owned a copy though. I always meant to get one,but all I could find were used copies,and a nice one was always what I considered over priced for a used book. Since deciding to do a monthly doll book post I had again been thinking about trying to find a copy of "Finding Walter". I finally found one listed as 'used, very good condition' on a site called Thriftbooks. It was a very good price, better than the paper backs I'd been seeing on Ebay,and it was supposed to be a hard back. When it came I found out it was a first edition hard back,with dust jacket,which didn't even seem to have been read beyond the first 20 or so pages. The spine wasn't broken and the book didn't open all the way beyond that. So whoo hoo! I made a great find.
  "Finding Walter" concerns two girls, Emily and Rose,who move to the country with their family for their father's health. Rose is not pleased with the move. She hates living in the country away from parks and museums. (Kid, who needs a park when you have the whole of the outdoors?!) She's very grouchy and unhappy. One day the old family dollhouse is uncovered in the attic. The house is filthy, and the dollhouse dolls are dirty and their clothes are moth eaten and faded. Emily gets right on cleaning the house and the dolls. Rose helps, but isn't as into it as Emily. In fact,she gets pretty snotty about it,and most other things too.
  The story turns to the doll's side of the story. Once awoken from their sleeping state of not being played with, the dolls realize that one of them isn't there. Walter is the youngest dollhouse child, and he is missing. The dolls call to Walter,but get no answer.
  The subject of the book now becomes the doll's efforts to communicate with the girls,and the dolls and the girls',attempts to find Walter and bring him home. Along the way Rose becomes more comfortable in her new home. Her mood improves and she and Emily begin to get along better. As for the dolls, they have many adventures.
  Walter is lost in the woods somewhere. Walter does eventually wake up and answer the dolls' messages, but even he's not sure where he is. But where he is is not as much the problem as getting the girls to locate him. The dolls can communicate with Walter, but they aren't able to move or appear alive in front of the humans, and they can't travel the distances needed to search for Walter on their own. This is when we learn that dolls can also communicate with humans. The dolls send mental messages to the girls,trying to tell them Walter is missing, and where they need to look for him. Emily is responsive to their messages right away. But Rose is harder to get through to. At first Rose doesn't believe Emily is really hearing the doll's thoughts. When Rose finally does get a message from the dollhouse son she's so terrified she runs away. Can you really blame her? Wouldn't you think you were going insane? It is a bit creepy when the dolls start putting images and messages in the girls' heads. It's a good thing they aren't evil dolls. (That would make a good horror book.)
   There's also a fire in the meadow by the woods. Will they save Walter in time?! I think kids will enjoy the mystery and the adventure of "Finding Walter". Ivy did. Scholastic rates the books as being for grades 3-5. Younger kids could enjoy the book too. As usual,you know your kids better than anyone. Use your own judgement.
  You could  have listened to "Finding Walter" for free HERE. It seems to have been removed since I started working on this post! However, you can still buy "Finding Walter" for your Kindle.