Goldie's Fortune: A Story of the Great Depression (Doll Hospital, Book 2)

Rating:
Summary: I love dolls
Review: I like the dolls that can talk. I could read this book and my mom read it. I like the paeprdoll. This is a good story for girls in 3 grade.

Rating:
Summary: What a Great book!
Review: This book was outstanding. It had such wonderful detail and lots of wonderful experiences and knowledgible facts. I would definitly reccomend this book!

Rating:
Summary: Two Stories for One
Review: When Rose and Lila's parents go to Africa for a year, for their work as doctors, Rose (age 10) and Lila (age 8) must stay with their maternal grandmother, whom they hardly know. As they snoop through her house one night (Book 1), they soon discover that "Far Nana" has a few secrets worth knowing. "Far Nana" runs a doll hospital from her home and has the intuitive skill of listening to the stories of the dolls she repairs. She tells these stories to the girls in the first person, from the point of view of the doll. In these books, the reader is reading the ongoing story of Rose and Lila's adjustments to living with their grandmother and the historical story of a doll, in a story-within-a-story format.

In "Goldie's Fortune" they listen to the story of Goldie, a Depression era doll who has come to be repaired. While hearing the story of financial troubles during the Depression, the girls worry if Far Nana has enough money to buy them school supplies. They learn about another girl's brave sacrifice to help her family during the Depression, and try to think about how to bring up the subject of money with Far Nana.

Overall, I liked the story of Lila and Rose and I liked Goldie's story. The discomfort Rose and Lila felt in discussing money and their needs with their grandmother is one that many children may relate to within their own families.

In Goldie's story, there were some elements of suspended belief in this particular book that felt too unreal to be comfortable for me. At that point, it took some time to resell me on the rest of the book, but I was involved with the story once again before it ended. It was a good story about the changes that happened to many families during the depression and how a child might have felt about those changes.

The reading level on this book is for grade 3. I would not recommend it for readers under 6 years of age because the intertwining stories may be confusing. A paper doll is included with each book, which may be of interest to some readers.