I keep trying to forget about Julie Albright, the new American Girl from that ancient era, the 1970s, but a note at Publishers Weekly made me break down and look her up.
What follows may not be news to you, but it was sure news to me:
They haven't just created a Julie doll.
Oh, no. You can also buy the Ivy doll.
And then I looked over to the left, and lo and behold, suddenly Molly, Samantha and Felicity all have friends, too. And you can buy different outfits for all of them.
No way! That's crazy. They are rewriting history. Did the dolls seem really lonely or something that they needed a friend. That's definitely news to me. I had Samantha probably a good decade or so ago, she's still in my closet.. oh maybe that's why they need friends.
Posted by: Alea | 12 September 2007 at 10:56 AM
Ugh--I think I'm more distressed over the fact that Madonna is still turning out children's books *shudder*
Posted by: Sandy | 12 September 2007 at 01:08 PM
So are they responding (at last) to the complaints about not having a single Asian-American doll?
Posted by: Emily H. | 12 September 2007 at 05:03 PM
The new Ivy book, though, is written by Lisa Yee, of "Stanford Wong Flunks Big Time," and the two other books of that series. She's awesome, and at least they a) got a decent author to write the book and b) are supporting diversity.
I had a Kiersten doll when I was a kid and I loved her all to bits. Granted, I only had two dresses for her, but I had ALL the books! (You can see where my priorities were!!)
Posted by: Lacy | 12 September 2007 at 05:16 PM
Lisa Yee is very cool. And I'm pretty sure that the Julie books (or some of them) are by Megan MacDonald (of Judy Moody), which is a good choice, author-wise as well.
Dolls freak me out, so the more, the scarier. (You should have seen me the year I had to go to ToyFair -- when I hit the Aisle of Dolls, I RAN. All those glassy staring eyes. Yick.)
Posted by: Leila | 13 September 2007 at 06:26 AM
I am glad they finally made an Asian-American doll, but am saddened that she's a best friend doll, not a leading lady, er...character.
Posted by: Kasa | 13 September 2007 at 06:40 PM
Forget the dolls, forget the books...I feel ANCIENT. To think of the decade that I grew up in as an historical time period. Eep. Time for my Geritol, I guess.
Posted by: Bibliophelia45 | 14 September 2007 at 02:22 PM