Christensen, Madonna Dries. DOLLS REMEMBERED. Bloomington, IN: i Universe, 2009. 172 pages, trade paperback. $16.95.As touchstones to the past, dolls validate childhood, a span of years that often seem like a fragmented moment in time. With their life-like faces, blemished complexions, and snarled hair, childhood dolls hold sway with a magical power that rarely wanes, and often grows.
This charming anthology, DOLLS REMEMBERED, features more than 60 reminiscences and readers will learn that dolls can make or break friendships. Dolls are enjoyed alone or with a friend; they fuel creativity and imagination. Dolls teach sharing, nurturing, and loyalty; they assuage loneliness and hurt feelings; they calm fears and keep secrets. Dolls teach values and lessons--to adults as well as children. Dolls share adventure with their owners, and without them. When one girl outgrew her favorite doll but kept it under her bed, her friends "dollnapped" it. For years, the doll showed up at unlikely events.
Separately, two girls brought a treasured doll with them to America when they fled Nazi Europe with their family. Another girl lost her doll to that war. One girl disowned the doll she received for Christmas, while the same type doll was yearned for by others. More than one doll met an untimely fate. A childhood doll softened a poignnant reunion between two sisters after a rift had kept them apart for several years.
In the vignettes revealed in this anthology, not all dolls are pretty--except in the eyes of the beholder. Not all dolls were wanted; some were disappointing; not all became favorites, but each is memorable.
This book is available online through www.iUniverse.com and www.amazon.com. All royalities go to Down Syndrome Association of Northern Virginia.
Book reviewed by: Madonna Dries Christensen.
Brenda Kay Ledford's story, "Finding Dottie," appears in the anthology, DOLLS REMEMBERED. Brenda became reunited with her childhood doll through a serendipitous circumstance. Brenda is a member of North Carolina Writers' Network-West.
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