The Doll People by Ann M. Martin, Laura Godwin (2003, Paperback, Reprint)

For all little girls(even those who grew big) and maybe even some little boys..Remember when you were just positive the dolls you had would come alive at night when you went to sleep? Well, this book is based on that belief. It is about a family of china dollhouse dolls that are over 100 years old.. They have been in the same family their entire life. It's an adventure the young girl and her new friend from a modern Plastic dollhouse family go on to find a missing member of the family.. It may be a bit hard to read for a child younger than 8... but, us old kids can read it to them and remember what it was like to be that age and really, really believe our dolls lived! Delightful..

For mid- to upper-elementary students, this book is a winner! I have taught fourth grade for 10 years. A few years ago, shortly after The Doll People was first published, a colleague and I chose it to be one of the featured books in that year's "Battle of the Books" at our school. It was immensely popular with boys and girls alike. We couldn't keep our class copies on the shelf. While not complicated to read, the characters are well-drawn, with plenty of contrasts. Readers relate easily to the main character, a Victorian-era porcelain doll. Annabelle is lonely and frustrated at her overly-cautious relatives who are too timid to seek her long-lost aunt. While exasperated by their conservative outlook, Annabelle is somewhat shocked at the reckless abandon exhibited by her new friend Tiffany, a brand-new plastic doll. This tension between Annabelle's wanting more adventure and yet being a sensitive and sensible person creates interest and depth through the events of the plot. The book is primarily a mystery investigating what happened to Annabelle's aunt, and has plenty of cliffhangers in it as the exploring dolls face a dnagerous cat and the possible loss of self-hood if discovered by humans (they would become like other lifeless toys). The black and white softly-shaded illustrations are phenomenal--perfectly matching the story and grabbing reader interest.

My daughter, who is 8 years old, started reading this book in her classroom at free time. She enjoyed it so much that I bought it for her. She found out that there is a second part to this book so I found that one too and bought it for her, she enjoyed that one equally as much. It's a very good book for children around her age.