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Rating: 
Summary: AT WAR OVER A DOLL
Review: Rumer Godden excels at creating a gentle fantasy world where dolls have Lives--or in this case, Thoughts--of their own. Nona and Belinda Fell treasure their three Japanese dolls: Miss Happiness, Miss Flower and Little Peach. These special persons enjoy their own Japanese dollhouse and clothes, beds, foods (green paint water tea) and celebrate many traditional customs. While the dolls converse privately, the sisters (who are unaware of theri dolls' commuications) plan and dream of a new friendship. They themselves are very different: nine-year-old Nona is neat, polite and very talentd with her creative fingers. While eight-year-old Belinda is a fearless tomboy, a reckless daredevil who defies parental authority, common sense and even the laws of gravity, to satisfy her whims. But things get really interesting when a rich family buys and improves the big House Next Door. What delicious opportunities to observe the doings and possessions as they move it--and there is a daughter too! Gem proves to be a "motherless" only child, waited on by her personal nanny and a large household staff--all supervised by an authoritarian aunt. The kindly father is often away on business, but after one trip he brings his daughter a Japanese doll of her own. Poor Little Plum--as the spying girls name her and discover--is neglected by her lonely mistress. Belinda decides to teach the proper care of Japanese dolls to the sulking snob next door, but soon the teasing and critical notes escalate into a non-verbal war between the headstrong young ladies. Will that "rough child" ever be allowed in the front door of the wealthy but isolated Tiffany-Jones' mansion? And will Gem ever accept cultural tutelage from mere middle-class English children? This is a delightful read-aloud story for Girls Under Ten. And all women who remember the dolls of their girlhood.
Rating:
Summary: AT WAR OVER A DOLL
Review: Rumer Godden excels at creating a gentle fantasy world where dolls have Lives--or in this case, Thoughts--of their own. Nona and Belinda Fell treasure their three Japanese dolls: Miss Happiness, Miss Flower and Little Peach. These special persons enjoy their own Japanese dollhouse and clothes, beds, foods (green paint water tea) and celebrate many traditional customs. While the dolls converse privately, the sisters (who are unaware of theri dolls' commuications) plan and dream of a new friendship. They themselves are very different: nine-year-old Nona is neat, polite and very talentd with her creative fingers. While eight-year-old Belinda is a fearless tomboy, a reckless daredevil who defies parental authority, common sense and even the laws of gravity, to satisfy her whims. But things get really interesting when a rich family buys and improves the big House Next Door. What delicious opportunities to observe the doings and possessions as they move it--and there is a daughter too! Gem proves to be a "motherless" only child, waited on by her personal nanny and a large household staff--all supervised by an authoritarian aunt. The kindly father is often away on business, but after one trip he brings his daughter a Japanese doll of her own. Poor Little Plum--as the spying girls name her and discover--is neglected by her lonely mistress. Belinda decides to teach the proper care of Japanese dolls to the sulking snob next door, but soon the teasing and critical notes escalate into a non-verbal war between the headstrong young ladies. Will that "rough child" ever be allowed in the front door of the wealthy but isolated Tiffany-Jones' mansion? And will Gem ever accept cultural tutelage from mere middle-class English children? This is a delightful read-aloud story for Girls Under Ten. And all women who remember the dolls of their girlhood.
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