Pictures by Brian Selznick

My kids are 9 and 11 right now, and when I told them that there’s a sequel to The Doll People (which we recently finished), they were both terribly excited. We finished reading The Meanest Doll in the World aloud two nights ago, and now that it’s had a few nights to settle, I just asked them what they thought of it. My 9yo daughter said, “I liked it.” My 11yo son also gave it a three-word review, but his were all adjectives: “Great. Weird. Crazy.”

As I mentioned in the previous review, I purchased these book because of Brian Selznick, whose hefty graphic novels I’ve really enjoyed in the past—novels like The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007) and Wonderstruck (2011). While these Doll stories aren’t his, the pictures are, and he keeps the story moving with his thoughtful illustrations.

This story follows the same heroines from The Doll People, Annabelle and Tiffany, as they find themselves caught in another adventure that makes their scrapes in Book 1 pale in comparison: they leave Kate’s house in her backpack, join her at school, and end up going home for the weekend with the wrong kid! Here they meet a crowd of timid dolls completely terrified of a bully princess that harasses them every chance she gets. When this same doll follows them home to Kate’s bedroom on Monday, the girls realize that they’ve unwittingly unleashed a terror into their otherwise peaceful home, a terror that threatens to endanger all Dollkind.

This book deals heavily in friendship, betrayal, miscommunication, distrust, and of course bullying. There’s lots to learn in these 18 chapters, and a teacher or parent could do well using this as a read-aloud for young ears.

As I mentioned in the previous post, these books tend to require a lot of reading (260 pretty full pages) for a story marketed to such a young audience. I know that some 9-11yos enjoy reading books this large, but not my kids (yet), which is why I keep reading to them night after night. Soon they’ll realize that the joy they get from the books I read to them could be theirs anytime they want, if only they’re willing to find a cozy couch, a soft reading lamp, and the awareness that they’ve got no other responsibilities in life right now except growth.

Oh to be young again!

©2022 E.T.