Hitty Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field

Hitty was published in 1929 and won the Newbery in 1930. I knew nothing about this book until I read 52 Monday's by Anna Ciddor in 2019. I have kept my eye out for a copy of Hitty so I was surprised and delighted to see a copy at a recent charity book sale. In fact there were two copies which is quite strange when you consider this is a very old children's classic from America - I wonder who owned these two copies here in Australia. 

Hitty is a wooden doll who passes through the hands of many different owners over the period of one hundred years. The exact dates are not stated but I think she was made in Maine in 1830 so she lives through the Civil war; the end of slavery; the advent of steam trains; the early days of motor cars and changes in fashion.

Fashion and clothing are an important part of this story and I imagine a child who read this book back in the 1930s or perhaps 1940s would have loved the way various owners keep making new clothes, some from very beautiful fabrics, for Hitty after all her adventures. The narrative follows a pattern where Hitty is owned by a child, a young girl, and then she is somehow lost or dropped or flung far away. She lives in various houses and settings all over the country and travels in sailing ships, trains, a steam ship, horse drawn carriages and a car. She tells her story as a memoir from her final home in an antique shop. Having lived with various children Hitty had learned to read and write so that's how she can share her story with her readers. 

The original illustrations for Hitty were by Dorothy P. Lathrop

Here is a brief plot summary from Wikipedia: The book details Hitty's adventures as she becomes separated from Phoebe and travels from owner to owner over the course of a century. She ends up living in locations as far-flung as Boston, New Orleans, India, and the South Pacific. At various times, she is lost at sea, hidden in a horsehair sofa, abandoned in a hayloft, part of a snake-charmer's act, and picked up by the famous writer Charles Dickens, before arriving at her new owner's summer home in Maine, which turns out to be the original Preble residence where she first lived. From there she is purchased at auction for a New York antique shop, where she sits among larger and grander dolls of porcelain and wax, and writes her memoirs.

How Rachel Field was inspired to write this book is a story in itself. She and her friend Dorothy Lathrop, an illustrator, had been eyeing a tiny wooden doll in a New York City antique shop. No larger than six inches, the calico-clad brown-skinned doll seemed to have so much character. At twenty-five dollars, quite a tidy sum back then, she was out of their budget. Finally, the two friends agreed to pool their money to purchase her, and at once, little Hitty stirred their imaginations. (source)

I think a modern child is probably unlikely to want to read Hitty - the historical references won't mean much to an Australian child of course but also at times some of the writing feels quite dated and even at times racist. My copy from Aladdin (1998) has very tiny print. I do like stories about dolls (my own favourite is Miss Happiness and Miss Flower by Rumer Godden) but as a child I am not sure Hitty would have appealed to me. As an adult I did find the whaling scenes very distressing and also I grew a little tired of the repeated plot pattern of with Hitty constantly (I think in every chapter) being lost and found.

In 1999 Rosemary Wells wrote a new edition of Hitty with illustrations by Susan Jeffers. I think the image below might be the one from under the dust jacket. Here is a detailed review which explains all the plot twists in the life of little Hitty (she is quite a tiny doll almost small enough to fit in a pocket). I have read a few other reviews of the Rosemary Wells edition and most readers who loved the original do not really like all the text changes. 

Barnaby Unboxed! by The Fan Brothers

We all wanted Barnaby to go on a hero’s journey: facing disillusionment, obstacles, and various ordeals, but in the end coming back to his home, 

transformed for the better by his experiences. Fan Brothers

Barnaby is half mouse, half elephant with a dash of flamingo. He has been living in a box on the shelf of a toy shop. His box says he is a perfect pet and fully trained. There are so many perfect pet boxes to choose from. It seems no one is noticing that he is perfect until one day a young girl arrives. Barnaby becomes her very special friend. They do everything together. Best of all they enjoy watching the television series 'Barnaby and Friends'. Sadly though, it is this show that leads to a devastating change. The Perfect Pet company release a new Rainbow Barnaby. 

"The next day, the little girl asked her father if she could have a Rainbow Barnaby."

"The answer was no. Barnaby felt a wave of relief wash over him. But after that, the girl no longer played with him quite as often as she used to ..."

Do you recognise this plot idea - I love you Blue Kangaroo; Ducky's Nest; Arnold, the Prickly Teddy; The Sea Saw; and Finding Monkey Moon.

The little girl no longer takes Barnaby for walks. And one day her father fails to notice that Barnaby is left behind. It is raining and dark and Barnaby is lost. Will he ever find his way back home? And after weeks outside in the rain and dirt will the little girl even recognise him? Is there someone who can help him? 

I have read this book many, many times and the warm happy ending still makes me so emotional. 

Joy, despair, reunion, community—delightfully, all here. Kirkus

Barnaby Unboxed is a simple story, with universal themes, and it is told beautifully. The possibility of interesting and important conversations about exploitation would be a bonus. Just Imagine

There are some valuable themes of found family, what home means, self-worth and finding (and appreciating) what we have. It's a profound little book, and told in age appropriate language, all accompanied by luminous impressionist inspired artwork throughout. Nonstop Reader

It will be exciting to show this book to a group of Teacher-Librarians at a conference next month. The case reveal (pulling off the dust jacket to reveal the image underneath) is a spectacular surprise. And then I can show the brilliant end papers. (You can see these parts of this book here). School libraries here in Australia have very limited budgets but these two books should be added to every collection - yes they are that special! See inside Barnaby Unboxed here. Check out all the books by The Fan Brothers - I have talked about nearly all of them here on this blog. Here is a generous interview between The Fan Brothers and Betsy Bird. 

I previously talked about The Barnabas Project which is the companion volume to Barnaby Unboxed. 

The Barnabus Project

Barnaby Unboxed might make you think of Toy Story. Older readers should look for this middle grade series:

They threw us away

And this powerful book too:

Ollie's Odyssey

The Doll People by Ann M Martin and Laura Godwin illustrated by Brian Selznick

"Outside the dollhouse, in Kate's room and beyond, everything changed. Little girls grew up and had little girls of their own, people left the house and went to work or on vacations. History was made. Things happened. But inside the dollhouse, not much happened, as far as Annabelle was concerned. The only important event in her entire, one hundred-year life was that Auntie Sarah had disappeared."

This quote from the second page of The Doll People gives me a good way to talk about the plot of this delightful page turner. The setting is a dollhouse owned by the Palmer family. The current child owner is eight year old Kate. The seven dolls in the house - note once there were eight dolls - are old and fragile but Kate plays with them carefully. Her much younger sister Nora, on the other hand, is rough and careless especially when she invades the dollhouse with her collection of farmyard pet toys known as the Rancher Family. All of this is terrifying for Mama, Papa, Annabelle, Bobby, Uncle Doll, Nanny, and Baby Betsy.

Luckily the parents have noticed Nora's interest in the dollhouse, so they buy her a brand new very modern dollhouse for her birthday. The Funcrafts are a family of plastic dolls - mum, dad, Tiffany, Bailey and Baby Britney. This new dollhouse has a patio, a BBQ, a microwave oven (although it is pretend) and even a computer. The Doll family have no idea about any of these things. They have a piano, a rocking horse and a 1933 set of National Geographic magazines.

When Annabelle meets Tiffany her life changes. Now she has a friend and even better together they can solve the mystery of Aunt Sarah who has been missing for 45 years but this means they will need to leave the dollhouse and explore downstairs and upstairs and even the attic all the time careful to avoid the family cat named The Captain. Oh and there are terrible consequences if any of the dolls are seen by the humans.

When I spied this book at a recent charity book sale I was so intrigued. I have loved other books (not Babysitters Club) by Ann M Martin but what really caught my eye was the name Brian Selzick illustrated of Hugo Cabret, Wonderstruck and all of those terrific book covers for Andrew Clements. Luckily my hardcover copy of this book from 2000 only cost $2 the actual retail price is close to AUS$50. The family who gave this book to the fair also donated the third book - The Runaway Dolls.

I read The Doll People over just two days and I loved it!  This would be a terrific book to read in a family as a night time read aloud. It could be read to a range of young reading fans from age 6-10. the illustrations are fabulous, the cover on my copy has a different image underneath and the end papers are filled with advertisements for the original dollhouse and the new Funcraft version.  

I love that this story is simple.  It seems so many of our books are about complex dystopian worlds with life or death problems and nail biting adventures.  ...  I so enjoyed the simplicity of the story and how the characters navigated through life. I love that this book is about the secret lives of dolls.  I love that they hope and discover and take risks.  I love the mystery of Auntie Sarah and the adventures Annabelle and her friends and family have searching for her.  I love the relationships that develop throughout the book. Nerdy Book Club

Listen to an audio sample here. There are several more books in the series.

• The Doll People (2003)
• The Meanest Doll in the World (2005)
• The Runaway Dolls (2010)
• The Doll People Set Sail (2016)

This one is a picture book published in 2016

Stories about dolls and doll houses fascinate me. This book is a blend of The Borrowers and Miss Happiness and Miss Flower and it also has the vibe of Toy Story. Read this review from Books4yourkids.

They Threw us Away by Daniel Kraus illustrated by Rovina Cai

Furrington Teddies DAMAGED MERCHANDISE

I am going to begin with some text quotes which might give you an idea about this story which some critics describe as a macabre fairy tale.

"Seeing a teddy move or talk might scare a person. That might make a teddy less likely to be chosen. And being chosen was all the teddies wanted."

"To a teddy, this was the meaning of free; being selected off the shelf, taken home and embraced by a child."

"Forever Sleep would make all scares float away. Teddy rumour had it that Forever Sleep felt like a child's hug that never ended."

"He peeked down at his body. It was strange to see himself outside his dark box. But all his parts were where they should be. He pudgy teddy limbs. His round tummy. His blue teddy fur. A tag was sewed to the seam at his side. MY NAME IS BUDDY, it read. Seeing his name printed like that made Buddy feel stronger."

"Buddy's clean feet passed across all sorts of revolting rubbish. Soiled, wadded napkins. Pastic bags inhaling and exhaling with the breeze. Fast-food wrappers wounded with ketchup. Cotton swabs yellowed with earwax. Baggies of dog poop. Apple cores, banana pees, bread crusts. And water bottles by the billions."

"The fifty gulls had turned into one hundred. ... They were so close, Buddy could make out ghastly details. Wings curling like cutlasses. Black beaks and talons extending like needles. Merciless eyes sparkling like stolen gems."

"They were still thaumaturgic Furrington Teddies with Real Silk Hearts and So-So-Soft fur. But it was also true they were lost in a harsh world. What it is took days for children to find them? Or weeks? How long could teddies last on their own?"

"Buddy widened his gaze. Scattered amid gutted packaging were the remains of dozens of Furrintgon Teddies. They'd been torn to pieces."

If you explore these review comments you can read more about the plot of They Threw us Away. 

Reflective children will revel in this thought-provoking world. Kirkus Star review

Someone, or something, is behind all that’s happened to the teddies and I have a feeling the identity of who, or what, that is will be an exciting one to learn. Thoroughly Modern Reviewer

I often ruminate over what “horror” for children really is. The media refer to it as “mystery”. Is it the gothic, dark old haunted house atmosphere? Is it confronting the fear of the loss of loved ones, abandonment, or persecution? Awake at Midnight

Publisher blurb: Welcome to The Teddies Saga, a gripping new middle grade trilogy from New York Times-bestselling author Daniel Kraus and illustrator Rovina Cai. Buddy wakes up in the middle of a garbage dump, filled with a certain awareness: he’s a teddy bear; he spent time at a Store waiting for his future to begin; and he is meant for the loving arms of a child. Now he knows one more thing: Something has gone terribly wrong. Soon he finds other discarded teddies—Horace, Sugar, Sunny, and Reginald. Though they aren’t sure how their luck soured, they all agree that they need to get back to the Store if they’re ever to fulfill their destinies. So, they embark on a perilous trek across the dump and into the outer world. With ravenous rats, screeching gulls, and a menacing world in front of them, the teddies will need to overcome insurmountable challenges to find their way home.

I do need to give a warning - nothing is resolved at the end of this book. I am heading off to find book two and book three because I desperately need to know about the fate of Buddy and his friends and I even more desperately need that all important 'Happy Ending'!!

I am so glad I read this book as an ebook because then I could highlight all the moving, poignant, and even disturbing passages. And I could make note of delicious words such as cockamamie, squirmy-wormy, and colour names such as chartreuse, verdigris, azure, amaranth, sinopia, feldgrau and amaranth. 

This book is disturbing yet somehow also compulsive reading. Take a look at the trailer from the publisher.  It is NOT a book for a young child which might be implied by the image of a teddy bear on the cover but it is a book that readers 11+ will find engrossing even though it is quite a violent and sinister story. You might think of Toy Story; Lord of the Flies; and Coraline. They Threw us away made me think of  Ollie's Odyssey.  I also thought about The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate diCamillo which I found oddly disturbing. The theme of identity and self discovery are also explored in Boot and The Last Human. 

Here are the next two books in the series:

The Barnabus Project by The Fan Brothers

Deep under the city there is a sinister workshop where Perfect Pets are made. Sometimes the experiments go wrong and so, in a remote part of the laboratory, there are a series of bell jars holding the failures. Barbabus is one of the failures. 

"He was half mouse, half elephant, and he had lived in the lab as long as he could remember."

The failed pets are fed by huge scary creatures in green rubber suits. None of the "pets" have ever been outside the lab but a small cockroach tells them stories each evening of green spaces, mountains and stars. Barnabus longs to feel the grass under his feet. Barnabus lives by the credo:

"Nothing is impossible."

He is determined to escape and so he bashes into the side of his bell jar until in finally cracks under the pressure of his screams. Barnabus sets all the other Failed Projects free and they all set off to escape their underground prison. This process takes team work and hope but all twenty-two of them, plus one extra surprising friend, do find their freedom and that all important happy ending.

This is a story about identity, determination, teamwork, consumerism, and hopes and dreams.

This book was written for all the misfits, artists and dreamers out there. The Fan Brothers Facebook

Barnabus wonders:

"He wasn't fluffy enough, and his eyes were beady, but he liked himself just the way he was. And what if, after he was recycled, peanuts and cheese were no longer his favourite foods? What if his friends didn't recognise him after? What if he no longer cared about green trees and mountains lit with their own stars?"

When I first saw this in a local bookshop I knew I wanted to read it but the hardcover price was well above my book budget. Luckily this book is now available in paperback for well under AUS$20 which is wonderful for a larger format book with way more than 32 pages. This book should be added to every Primary school library - and shared widely with students and staff - it is fabulous!

The book design here is simply perfect. Take your time to linger over the front and back end papers, the title page and the final illustration on the author bio page. Think about the graph paper that is included and the paperclips. You can see inside this book here.  In this video (Moon Lane TV) you can see Eric drawing some of the characters. You could share this 19 minute video with an art class or a group of older students. And here is a video reading by Eric, Terry and Devin Fan. 

This epic tale of escape and liberation, set in a clandestine underground lab producing genetically engineered Perfect Pets, stars courageous Barnabus, half mouse, half elephant ...A heartfelt, timely allegory celebrating diversity, bravery, and solidarity.   Kirkus Star review

In the Fan brothers’ hands, the result feels like a happy amalgam of Jules Verne, Maurice Sendak, the Moomins, and Monsters, Inc. Quill and Quire

This book is a visual feast.  And the story? It is dream-like science fiction in picture book form. Jilanne Hoffmann

‘In a world built for Perfect Pets, half-mouse half-elephant Barnabus is a Failed Project who dreams of freedom. Shaun Tan meets “Toy Story”’ — The Bookseller

Awards:

• 2020 Governor General's Award for Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books.
• The 2021 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award.
• Nominated for the 2022 Kate Greenaway Medal.
• The 2021 Le Prix Ficelle, category age 6-7.
• 2021 Saskatchewan Young Readers’ Choice Awards, Shining Willow Award.
• 2020-2021 Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award.
• 2021-2022 Vermont Red Clover Book Award.
• The 2022 Washington Children’s Choice Picture Book Award.
• The Surrey School’s Picture Book of the Year (for primary readers).
• A Kirkus “Best Books of 2020.”
• Chicago Public Library “Best Books of 2020.”
• 2021 Bologna Book Fair Finalist.

I just finished reading a novel for older readers -  They Threw us Away by Daniel Kraus. It was a harrowing book to read but it has a similar theme of rejected toys, identity, value and consumerism. Thankfully The Barnabus Project has a joyous happy ending. I need to read the two sequels to They Thew us Away in the hope this more complex senior novel also has a "they all lived happily ever after" conclusion. I will talk about They Threw us Away over the coming days. 

This book reminded me of The Adventures of Beekle. 

I guess you could link The Barnabus Project with the Toy Story movie series. I would also look for these:

Ruby and Little Joe

Who are you Stripy Horse?

Eight

Teddy & Co. 

If you are reading The Barbabus Project book with an older child try to find Boot which is also about a failed project - in this case a robot. 

Boot

Teddy & Co. by Cynthia Voigt illustrated by Paola Zakimi

 

These toys are not saccharine or perfect. Each of them have endearing qualities and foibles. 

Image source: Paola Zakimi

Characters:

Teddy "He was a brown ball of a bear. He had a furry round brown head with bright buttons eyes, a short brown snout and little brown ears. He had no neck and stubby arms, a round brown belly, and he had lost his legs a long time ago."  Qualities - optimist; thinker; explorer; leader; needs to help of others to push his red wagon.

Umpah "a soft grey elephant". Qualities - baker; kind and thoughtful of others; wise.

Sid has a "long striped body ... long thin shape, good for wrapping around branches." Qualities - always hungry; loves to eat muffins made by Umpah; loves picnics.

Peng lives alone in a remote cave."Peng was made all of wood, so it was awkward for him to turn from one side to the other. Also, it was hard for his wooden brain to change the way it thought about something." Qualities: loner; introvert; can be a pessimist; capable of heroism.

Prinny (small pig) "was young and blue and silly ... She had white and gold flowers printed all over her, so everybody wanted to be nice to her." Qualities: happy disposition; kind; gaining confidence.

Zia (large pig) "was as round and as bright a pink as a scoop of raspberry sherbet. Her ears were a deep, dark fuchsia, as were her little hands and her tiny feet. Two black eyes sparkled in her bright pink face, as if she was about to go dancing, and four black stitches ran in a row down her soft pink belly, where long ago someone had sewn up a tear in her shining pink satin."  Qualities: Carries an icecream cone; happy to share icecreams with her friends; loves to clean her cosy pink house; mother figure to Prinny.

There are nineteen chapters in this book which can be grouped into four short stories. 

Teddy's Idea

Teddy is a thinker. He asks questions. He is sure there must be a world beyond the apple trees so after some discussion he convinces the other toys to set off with him exploring. They make the most amazing discovery about their home because by keeping the sea on their left they somehow eventually find their way back home. Yes they have walked in a circle because their home is on an island!

The arrival of the first stranger and learning to swim

Prinny finds a new toy on the beach. He calls himself Mr B and he is a rabbit with long floppy ears and a ruffled collar around his neck.  Mr B is quite rude to the other toys except for Peng but Peng has no interest in making friends with Mr B.  Meanwhile, Teddy has been thinking about water and raindrops. He decides Prinny should learn how to swim. Peng can swim, he is a pengiun; Sid can swim; Mr B can swim that's how he arrived on the island; and Umpah can swim. Zia does not support this idea but the friends go down to the water and very carefully and patiently Umph teaches Prinny to swim. 

Clara arrives - she is the second stranger

What they saw "was a very large doll seated on a big white wicker chair with a high curved back and wide curved arm rests."  Clara declares she is their queen and this gives her the right to set the rules (in the end there are seventeen of them). Clara also wants a palace and she awards titles to each of her subjects such as Royal Thinker (Teddy); Royal Advisor (Peng); Royal Announcer (Sid); and Royal Housekeeper (Zia).  Prinny is to be the Royal Princess.  After all this nonsense good sense does eventually prevail especially when no one can remember all the rules and Teddy makes a great plan to build the palace.

The rainy days

Teddy wakes up to a rainy day. The friends gather at the pink house to play games but some of the toys are not very good at this and squabbles ensue. The next day it rains again. This time the friends gather at Teddy's house where they invent a play with costumes and Teddy enjoys being the writer and director. By the third day of rain everyone is getting a bit fed up. Prinny notices that Teddy is sad and so she thinks of the most wonderful surprise - a party, a surprise party for Teddy. "Not a birthday party, because it wasn't his birthday, and not a party Teddy gave, because the party was to cheer Teddy up."

Junior classes from the school I visit each week (where I borrow books from their wonderful library) have a theme or focus for one term each year on the topic of toys.  There are so many wonderful books about toys but one that caught the eye of the Teacher-Librarian was this one - Teddy and Co. by Cynthia Voigt. Oddly this book seems to be impossible to purchase in Australia even though it is fairly recent (2016). I did a little research and we found a way to contact Cynthia directly to enquire about her book.  You may already know I am a huge fan of Cynthia Voigt (Mister Max) (Tillerman books) so we were thrilled when she offered to send a copy of Teddy and Co. to Australia!  

Although the tone is decidedly different from her earlier work, Voigt’s writing remains masterful, and her attention continues to be on what makes a family, how we can live together in harmony, and how individuals overcome their difficulties. Kirkus

It’s an affirming celebration of friendship, kindness, and embracing new experiences and relationships. Publisher’s weekly

Teddy and Co. is a chapter book so it is similar to Winnie the Pooh; The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and books by Rumer Godden. This book also reminded me of these picture books: