Laura Godwin

If you are looking for something in depth and intellectual, this isn't the book for you, but if you are weary, tired and simply wanting something smooth, delightfully creative, imaginative and unique, then by all means, take a journey through doll land where magic occurs.

A porcelain family of dolls have inhabited an antique doll house for four generations. They come alive during the day when the house is empty and at night when the house is quiet.

There are funny adventures, both inside the show more doll house where the 100 year old family bangs away at a old fashioned wooden piano singing Aretha Franklin's Respect sockittome. sockitome, sockitome and outside the doll house where they hesitantly wander down the dark halls, sneaking under the sofa, hiding from the family cat who is ever lurking to catch them.

The book is uniquely illustrated by Brian Selznick and would not be as wondrous without the stunning creative art work.

When the young daughter of the real life people family receives a gift, the 100 year old doll family meet a brand new, modern, adventurous plastic bunch of characters who are not as rigid, up tight or breakable.

The author delightfully intertwines the personalities and the cultural differences of the older and modern doll family members.

I liked this book for many reasons, primarily for the imaginative wonderment of it all. show less

How many of us, as children, believed that our toys, dolls or stuffed animals, came to life at night when we were asleep or out of the house? The Doll People takes that childish faith and breathes life into the Doll Family and Funcraft family in this delightful tale.

For over 100 years the Doll Family has resided in the antique doll house and been playmates for four generations of young girls. When the family isn't at home or are asleep, the Dolls come to life and experience the same show more activities over and over. They have sing-along's at the old wooden piano and wonder around their own house. They cannot be caught moving or out of position because if they are, their punishment is 24 hrs of doll state - that's being unable to move. If there is a major offense they could end up in a permanent Doll state, OH NO!
Annabelle Doll, 8 years old, has not seen her Auntie Sarah doll in 45 years (these dolls don't age - we should all be so lucky). She finds her aunt's journal one day when she is in the library of the doll house and after reading it decides that Auntie Sarah must be somewhere "blending".
She decides that she wants to go looking for Auntie Sarah. Persuading her Uncle Doll to go with her, they sneak out in the night and discover that a new family is moving in next door. The story of the two families - one antique dolls and one modern dolls and the cultural differences is just perfect to make the reader smile with delight. The adventures that they get into are truly amusing - just what a child would dream up for their dolls.

I have to thank Whisper1 for the recommendation of this book. After the chunky reads I've done this month, I needed something light and playful and this fit the bill perfectly. This story was uniquely imaginative and thoroughly creative for everyone who as a child always imagined that their toys really were alive and had spirit. I still believe that my Teddy Bear talks to me even with the threat of a permanent stuffed state. show less

A young owl flies from the nest one night when his mother and siblings are asleep, experiencing the beauties of the moonlit world, and getting a glimpse of himself in a woodland pool before heading home again.

The text in Owl Sees Owl is extremely brief - no more than a few words per page - and is arranged as a reverso poem, with the narrative flowing one way, toward that moment when Owl sees himself, and then reversing to bring him home again. Although structurally this makes a for a good show more story-line, and gives illustrator Rob Dunlavey an excellent vehicle for his beautiful artwork, created in a variety of media, the text itself here is somewhat less than impressive. Palindrome poetry is a difficult form to master, and I wasn't completely convinced by Laura Godwin's efforts, which sometimes felt more like strings of words than coherent (if spare) expressions. Still, the illustrations were really quite lovely, capturing the enchantment of the nighttime world perfectly, and transporting the reader/peruser into the sylvan environs through which Owl flies. I think the reviewer at School Library Journal, who claims that fans of Jane Yolen’s Owl Moon and Martin Waddell’s Owl Babies will also love this book, is a bit wide of the mark - I loved both of the aforementioned books, but obviously wasn't wowed here - but still would advise fans of those two other titles to pick up Owl Sees Owl. Perhaps they will feel differently. My own three stars are primarily for the artwork... show less

Recommended by L. Frank

Annabelle Doll lives with the rest of the Doll family in their house in 9-year-old Kate's room; they've been there for a hundred years, and Aunt Sarah has been missing for 45 of those years. When Annabelle decides to search for her, she discovers the Funcrafts: a plastic doll family who, together with their pink plastic dollhouse, are going to be a present for Kate's little sister Nora for her 5th birthday. The adventurous Funcrafts help the Dolls search for Aunt show more Sarah; Annabelle finds clues in Aunt Sarah's diary, and Tiffany Funcraft helps her make a plan to follow them. Along the way, they perform a daring rescue (Papa Doll is carried off by the family's cat) and visit the attic.

Wonderful, in the vein of [see also] Toys Go Out, The Borrowers, Diary of a Mad Brownie, Ivy Lost and Found (Book Buddies series), and Toy Story (movie). On to the sequel!

"You know, I'm a lot like [Auntie Sarah]. I get so bored sometimes. I want to go places and see things. But we are stuck here because of the Doll Code of Honor. I don't want to put my family in danger. But I hate having to hold still, and be quiet, and pretend I'm not alive." (Annabelle to Tiffany, 105) show less