THE DOLL PEOPLE'S CHRISTMAS

The beloved Doll People series of novels for middle graders extends to a younger audience with this Christmas story.

The Doll family of eight tiny, old-fashioned dolls belongs to a girl named Kate, who has custody of the family-heirloom dolls and their furnished Victorian dollhouse. Her younger sister, Nora, has her own modern, plastic dollhouse with a family of five plastic dolls, the Funcrafts. The dolls move and talk at night when the humans are asleep, and the daughters of the two families, Annabelle Doll and Tiffany Funcraft, are best friends. Annabelle is upset when Kate breaks the angel topper for the tiny dollhouse Christmas tree; this will upset her plans for a traditional Christmas. Further complicating things, Kate and Nora take all the dolls to their own living room and dress them as figures for their family Nativity scene, and minor plot difficulties ensue. Christmas morning brings filled stockings for the doll children, with a new star ornament for the dollhouse Christmas tree. Full-color illustrations and a large trim size create an overall contemporary milieu, in contrast to the black-and-white, nostalgic illustrations in the Doll People chapter books. All the human and doll characters are white; Annabelle Doll’s blue-green hair may well provoke puzzlement.

Lacking some of the charm of the longer books, this introduction to the world of the Doll People will still cultivate younger fans.