Monday, May 23, 2011

Jimmy: Scenes from the Life of a Black Doll

...Told by Himself to J. G. Sowerby

Jimmy, the doll, and his owner, Joanna, (note the steaming bath in the background... poor Jimmy)

A fellow collector recently acquired an original copy of the January 1888-published book,  Jimmy:  Scenes from the Life of a Black Doll written by John G. Sowerby.  Intrigued by what the collector shared about the book, I Googled the title and discovered it is free in Google's eBookstore.  I downloaded a copy and read it this past Saturday on my electronic reader. 

Obviously written for children or anyone who owns dolls, Jimmy suffers "slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune" at the hands of his wicked little owner, Joanna.  A wise little chap and obviously a trooper who does not oppose his mishaps, Jimmy offers insight about his situation instead and leaves the reader with an ending message. 

The book is a quick, 32-page, color-illustrated read.  Allow Jimmy to share his story with you.  With a Google.com account, navigate to the book using the link below and add it to your library, or establish a Google eBook library with it.  A PDF download option of Jimmy's story is also available here.

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4 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed reading Jimmy's story and loved his message at the end.

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  2. I'm glad you enjoyed reading it, Frannie. Thanks for taking the time to let me know. I added a few more "classic" (free) doll-related books to my Google library after conducting a search for "doll" under the Free eBook category. These probably do not feature Black dolls but they are doll-related.

    dbg

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  3. Hi! Loved reading your post from yesterday...my daughter is an avid collector of dolls of all colors. We have a question about the Moxie Girlz "Bria" doll. She has been searching for this doll in stores for months, not finding it. Yesterday, she "discovered" a Bria doll behind some other Moxies on the back of a shelf at a local Dollar General Store. She was so excited to finally find the doll! After looking over the package (the doll seems to be in the Jammaz collection, but the package is smaller than the ones at Walmart, and contains no accessories)she noticed the front label identifies the doll as Sophina. The doll is clearly NOT Sophina. My daughter is somewhat of an expert on these dolls and she has a Sophina, as well as several other Moxie dolls. She has been searching for this doll for so long, and she knew immediately that it was Bria(formerly Sasha). So, her question is, have you seen or heard of any of the Bria dolls mislabeled as Sophina, or do you know if this mislabeled version could be especially collectable? My daughter wants to open and play with the doll, but she understands that collectable dolls are more valuable when unopened. Thank you for your help, we will continue to look in on your blog!

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  4. Hi Anonymous - Glad you enjoyed yesterday's (this) blog.

    I cannot say for certain that MGA incorrectly boxed Bria in Sophina's box, but I'm sure that's a possibility. It took me a while to find Bria in my area. Once I found her, one was a enough.

    Mishaps like you've described could possibly increase a doll's value, but that's not certain. If your daughter really wants to play with the doll, I urge her to photograph the doll in the box with Sophina's name clearly visible, keep the box, remove the doll from the box, and gently enjoy it. The photograph will document the company's mishap if she decides to sell the doll later providing there is a demand for it.

    You might also contact MGA Entertainment to inquire whether they know about this mishap and/or keep the doll boxed and try to locate another Bria for your daughter.


    dbg

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