Fast Five Fiction: Dolls & Dollhouses

It's Friday and time for Fast Five Fiction! Each week I share five fiction books: new books, notable books, books around a common theme. All of our summer reading activities have been stored and we've put our dollhouse out in the imagination station. Todays booklist is inspired by our doll house and includes stories featuring dolls and dollhouses. 

The Doll People series by Ann M. Martin

The Doll family, beautifully crafted china dolls, has been passed down through four generations of girls in one American family. Annabelle Doll is eight years old and has been for over 100 years. Not a lot has happened to her, cooped up in the dollhouse, with the same doll people, day after day, year after year...until the Funcrafts move in. Unlike the cautious, traditional Doll family in every way, the Funcrafts are carefree and delivered straight from the factory shelves. Tiffany Funcraft is made entirely of plastic and lives in the scariest room of the house, but she's an adventurer and after 100 years of boredom, that's just what Anabelle needs. Especially when she vows to solve a decades-long family mystery.

Doll Bones by Holly Black

Zach, Poppy, and Alice have been friends forever. And for almost as long, they've been playing one continuous, ever-changing game of pirates and thieves, mermaids and warriors. Ruling over all is the Great Queen, a bone-china doll cursing those who displease her.

But they are in middle school now. Zach's father pushes him to give up make-believe, and Zach quits the game. Their friendship might be over, until Poppy declares she's been having dreams about the Queen--and the ghost of a girl who will not rest until the bone-china doll is buried in her empty grave.

Zach and Alice and Poppy set off on one last adventure to lay the Queen's ghost to rest. But nothing goes according to plan, and as their adventure turns into an epic journey, creepy things begin to happen. Is the doll just a doll or something more sinister? And if there really is a ghost, will it let them go now that it has them in its clutches?

Dolls and Trucks are for Everyone by Robb Pearlman

Dolls and trucks are for boys and girls, as are dancing shoes, figure skating and hockey, and many more activities and hobbies. Robb Pearlman and Eda Kaban create a celebratory read-aloud book that defies gender stereotypes and encourages the youngest readers to reach for the stars and to follow their dreams no matter what.

Doll-e 1.0 by Shanda McCloskey

A STEM-friendly tale of a girl and the doll she upgrades to be her new friend, for fans of The Most Magnificent Thing and Rosie Revere, Engineer.

Charlotte's world is fully charged! With her dog at her side, she's always tinkering, coding, clicking, and downloading. She's got a knack for anything technological--especially gadgets that her parents don't know how to fix! Then, she receives a new toy that is quite a puzzle: a doll! What's she supposed to do with that? Once she discovers the doll's hidden battery pack, things start to get interesting...while her faithful canine sidekick wonders if he'll be overshadowed by the new and improved Doll-E 1.0! With a little ingenuity and an open mind, everyone can be friends in this endearing, modern tribute to the creative spirit of play.

This is my Dollhouse by Giselle Potter

A little girl proudly walks the reader through her handmade dollhouse, pointing out the bricks she painted on the outside, the wallpaper she drew on the inside, the fancy clothes she made for her dolls, and the little elevator she made out of a dixie cup. She's proud of her house and has lots of fun using her imagination to play with it--until she discovers her friend Sophie's store-bought "perfect" house. Sophie thinks her house with everything matching and even a toilet seat that goes up and down is pretty perfect too, until both girls discover that the narrator's handmade dollhouse is really a lot more fun.

Happy Friday and happy reading!