THE VERY LITTLE PRINCESS

Imagine you’re a four-foot-tall girl visiting a Grandmother that you never knew you had and you find a beautiful, 100-year-old doll that comes alive in your hands. Imagine you’re a three-and-a-quarter-inch ceramic doll who is a princess and whose new servant girl, Zoey, is the third generation to bring you to life with tears. Imagine a fanciful, doll-coming-to-life story that turns into a disturbing tale of abandonment. An intrusive narrator poses questions to readers and sets up the dual point of view. Zoey and her mom’s arrival at Grandma Hazel’s immediately starts with arguing and tension. Zoey avoids the spitefulness by playing with the doll. Just 22 pages from the end, Zoey, and readers, realize what’s happening, as she watches her mom get in the car and drive away without a hug or kiss, just the words, “I need to be by myself”—the only clue to this betrayal was that her mom didn’t bring a suitcase. That the story takes place in one day lends immediacy, but young girls expecting a sweet doll story are likely to be shocked by the abrupt ending, which leaves no hope or happiness. Sayles’s final art not seen. (Doll fantasy. 6-9)