Dolls with Books Exhibit - Entry 4

Dolls with Books Exhibit (display case on right)

This post and one additional one will discuss the dolls that are in the second display case of my Dolls with Books Exhibit, as seen in the above photo.  This post focuses on dolls on the first and fourth shelves.   Their images and object labels are shown below with some additional details added.

Dolls from the First Shelf

Amazing Grace is made after the character in the 1993 Scholastic book, Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman.  Amazing Grace is a very self-confident little girl who believes what her mama and nana told her all her life:  You can do anything!  She proves this to her classmates by becoming Peter Pan in the class play after her classmates said she couldn’t because she is a girl and Black.    


Cassie is the doll character in the 1991 book, Tar Beach by AA writer/artist Faith Ringgold.  The doll was made in 1994.  Cassie’s tar beach is the rooftop of her Harlem apartment building where she dreams of doing fantastic things.  According to Cassie, “anyone can fly… as long as you have somewhere to go…” 

Magic Attic Keisha, 1990s, part of a five-doll series, is the only AA doll in the series.  There are five different Keisha dolls.  This is the first one made*.  Keisha, a modern girl, has a series of books.  Magic Attic Book 1, the Adventure Begins by Marcia Wilkie, published in 2003, is about all the girls in the Magic Attic collection and their attic adventures.  

*The Magic Attic dolls were sculpted by Robert Tonner.  The first Keisha was released in 1995, a year following the debut of the line, which was sold through Georgetown Collection. I restyled Keisha's hair in three "fat" braids:  one on top and two lower ones.  Originally it hung loose with bangs. 






Dolls From the Fourth Shelf

Jessi and Becca are dolls representing two of the characters in the Baby-Sitters Club book series.  Jessi is 11; sister Becca is 6.  Jessi is one of seven girls in the Baby-Sitters Club.  There is a series of books written just about Jessi.  In the 1990 book, Jessi’s Babysitter, by Ann M. Martin, Jessi thinks she is too old to have a baby-sitter.  After all, she is a baby-sitter herself! 

Skylar from the Hopscotch Hill School doll series** is the AA doll in this multiple-doll collection.  Bright, Shiny Skylar by Valerie Tripp, 2003, contains three short stories about events that take place in Skylar’s class.  Skylar learns several lessons about how to behave in class, how to pay attention and follow instructions, and how to treat others.

**Like Saba, Skylar is another Pleasant Company creation.  She has lots of pose-ability with her multiple points of ball-jointed articulation.  This 16-inch doll line was discontinued several years ago but is still a favorite among collectors because of the dolls and their extra boxed fashions.  


The last doll on the fourth shelf (far right in the first image) is Madison Loving Books.  The photo below also features Madison Cheerleader, but she is not included in the current display. 

Madison is from the “She’s Like Me” doll collection.  Several different Madison dolls representing different themes were available beginning in the year 2000.  The dolls have a copyright of 1999.  The doll in the box loves Cheerleading.  She is dressed in her cheer leader uniform and has a bull horn, duffel bag, pom-poms, and a book about cheerleading and unity.  The deboxed doll loves books.  She has a stuffed rabbit.  Her book, Loving Books Curiosity, copyright 2000 by Janis Fields contains a series of short stories.  The first story explains why one of the other characters in the “She’s Like Me” doll series became as interested in reading as Madison.

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Note:  I purchased Amazing Grace at a thrift store; the Amazing Grace book was sold separately.  I am not sure if Amazing Grace was manufactured with a book.  Magic Attic Keisha, Skylar, and the She's Like Me Madison dolls all came with books.  Jessi and Becca were inspired by the Baby-Sitters Club book series; their exhibited book was purchased separately.  There is an 18-inch Baby-Sitters Club Jessi by Kenner that was manufactured with a book. 

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