Book Review: The Christmas Dolls

Book: The Christmas Dolls by Carol Beach York with illustrations by Victoria De Larrea

Edition: Paperback

Description:

Florabelle is an old rag doll without shoes. Lily doesn't have any shoes either, and her head is on backward. A little girl, who can talk to dolls, sets out on a dark, snowy night to find a way to make them beautiful again.


Rating: 4 stars

Review:

This is a wonderfully written story that takes place two days before Christmas as everyone at The Good Day Orphanage for Girls are getting ready for the holiday. As the caretakers Miss Lavender and Miss Plum were wrapping the gifts, a donated box of dolls for each girl, they found two extra dolls that were not in the best condition. No one had any idea that the dolls could speak even though no one could hear them. One of the dolls was a rag doll named Florabelle who had seen better days and had no shoes while the other was a doll named Lily who unfortunately had her head on backwards, no shoes and was missing her hair. With how shabby the dolls were the ladies couldn't imagine giving them to any of the girls. Until they can figure out what to do with them, they put the poor little dolls on top of an out of the way bookcase.

They had no idea that one of the girls named Tatty would see the dolls and would want them despite how bad they looked. She's also the only one who could hear and speak to the dolls. However, Miss Lavender and Miss Plum didn't think they would make good gifts especially in their current state. Later going back to see the dolls, Tatty had an idea to get them both repaired.

Inspired she went out alone in the cold snowy night without telling either of the caretakers but she was determined to get the dolls fixed. She was able to find a kindly toy store owner who repaired them but on her way back home Tatty and the dolls couldn't remember how to get back. Meanwhile at the orphanage, Miss Lavender and Miss Plum were frantic with worry over Tatty being gone. Lost and wandering around in the cold Tatty, Florabelle and Lily found some unexpected help in getting back to the orphanage.

This was such a cute story because Tatty really wanted to help the dolls and I like that she wasn't doing it for selfish reasons either. This is one of those stories that I could easily see being turned into a movie. It's heartfelt and it has a bit of drama added on with Tatty being lost in the cold trying to get back home. And there's also an Ebenezer Scrooge like character in this as well.

The Christmas Dolls is a book I found at the thrift store and I only paid 50 cent for it. The story was originally published in 1967, this is the 1993 paperback edition. I can't believe it's in such good condition. Other than a little wear and tear to a few pages it's not a bad find.