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The Friendship Doll (2011)

by Kirby Larson(Favorite Author)

3.89 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0385737459 (ISBN13: 9780385737456)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Delacorte Books for Young Readers

review 1: The Friendship Doll is about a large doll sent from Japan to the United States as an ambassador of friendship. This book is based on a true historical event as in 1927 fifty-eight friendship dolls were actually sent to the United States. The tale of this specific doll, Miss Kanagawa, however, is fictional. Miss Kanagawa is a very prideful doll who views her title as ambassador as very prestigious and has no interest in actually cultivating a relationship with a child. Miss Kanagawa was made by the great Japanese doll-maker Tatsuhiko. Tatsuhiko was so proud of the work he had done on Miss Kanagawa that he adorned her with his deceased daughter’s best kimono. Because the great doll-maker was growing old his hands had begun to shake and he decided that Miss Kanagawa would ... morebe the last doll he would ever make. Miss Kanagawa and fifty-eight other doll ambassadors left Japan on a ship and would soon be greeted in the United States. Meanwhile in New York City, a welcome committee of American school girls is being assembled to properly welcome the dolls. Bunny Harnden, a lonely child, is among those chosen to be a part of the welcoming committee. Bunny is from a wealthy family but does not seem to have any friends; all of the girls at school bully her, and even her older sister won’t invite Bunny to her “coming-out tea”. Bunny believes her luck is about to change when she is chosen to be a part of the welcoming committee though. She is sure that her speech will be chosen to welcome the dolls and she will be a big star. The night before the dolls are set to arrive Bunny’s hopes are crushed when she discovers that her biggest bully from school has in fact been chosen to deliver the speech. Bunny knows, however, that this awful bully of hers is a terrible public speaker and devises a plan to cause her to stumble over her words and embarrass herself in front of everyone. The next day Bunny arrives at the welcoming ceremony ready to put her bully to shame. But all of the sudden Bunny comes across Miss Kanagawa and feels an odd pain in her chest. She also hears someone whispering to her that she should not embarrass her bully. Though Bunny knows it is silly she thinks Miss Kanagawa, the doll, is telling her not to carry out her plan. WHen the time comes Bunny does not embarrass her bully and instead comforts her and cheers her on. A few years later, Miss Kanagawa ends up as a display at the World’s Fair in Chicago. By this point the Great Depression is in full-swing and it is taking it’s toll on the family of adventurous Lois Brown. Lois is a spunky and unconventional young girl who has her heart set on someday being a great aviator like Amelia Earhart. One day, Lois’s Aunt Eunice decides that in order to improve Lois’s education she will take her to the World Fair. This is wonderful news, even to Lois’s best friend Mabel, who grows thinner each day that her father is out of work. Lois and Mabel map out Lois’s trip to the World Fair and Lois sets her heart on a sky ride that she believes will be just like flying. Lois promises to do everything twice; once for herself, and once for Mabel. Just before going to the fair, Lois’s dad gives her a quarter. This quarter is exactly how much it costs to ride the sky ride! Lois can’t wait. All day at the fair she does everything twice, just as she had promised Mabel. Just before heading to the sky ride Aunt Eunice insists that Lois tour the doll exhibit. Here Lois finds a collection of miniature treasures, just like the ones that Mabel collects. Lois thinks of how happy Mabel would be is she spent the quarter her father gave her to buy Mabel a miniature figurine. Lois talks herself out of it and reasons that the money would be better spent on the skyride. Then Lois discovers Miss Kanagawa. Upon finding the doll, Lois undergoes the same odd experience that Bunny did. The doll seems to be telling her to spend the quarter on her dear friend Mabel. When Lois gets home from the fair she is slightly disappointed that she missed out on the skyride but quickly gets over it when she sees how happy Mabel is with her new miniature figurine. After the World Fair Miss Kanagawa is sold to a grouchy, old woman. This old woman is also very wealthy and hires a spunky young “holler” girl named Willie Mae to come read to her. Initially the old woman is extremely put off by the presence of a “holler child” in her home but slowly the old woman and Willie Mae build a special relationship. Willie Mae, who comes from a very poor family, loves to hear the old woman’s stories of traveling the world. As the old woman tells Willie Mae about her travels Willie Mae examines all of the treasures from her adventures. Soon Willie Mae comes across Miss Kanagawa. Willie Mae is instantly drawn to the doll and again, the doll seems to be speaking to her. One day Willie Mae becomes very sick. As time goes on her condition only worsens. The old woman beings to worry about WIllie Mae and leaves her bedroom for the first time in years to go see the sick girl. Eventually the old woman brings Miss Kanagawa, the doll that Willie Mae so loved, to Willie Mae and begins reading to the child. After a short time Willie Mae dies from her illness and both the old woman and Miss Kanagawa are heartbroken. The story then continues with Lucy, a young farm-girl from Oklahoma who has just lost her mother. After her mother’s death, Lucy and her father set off toward California in search of work for Lucy’s father.As their journey progresses Lucy’s father seems to lose his way and the tough times cause him to become emotionally callous. Lucy and her father end up in a work camp in Oregon and Lucy and the other kids from the camp begin attending a local school. Though Lucy is ostracized at school because she is an “Okie” she continues to hold her head high. During her time at the camp Lucy begins writing letters for other people to help her father earn money. One day at school, it is announced that a new museum has opened in town and is free of charge. At the museum Lucy comes across Miss kanagawa in a small room dedicated completely to items from Japan. Lucy and Miss Kanagawa are instantly connected and find friendship in one another. Through hard work and determination, Lucy and her father manage to buy a house and move out of the work camp. Lucy attends the museum regularly to visit her friend, Miss Kanagawa. In 1942, the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and it is decided that it would be unpatriotic to continue to run the Japanese room at the museum and Miss Kanagawa is packed away. Finally, in present day Seattle, young Mason goes to visit his great-grandmother who is suffering from Alzheimers. She is delusional and through her delusions reveals to the reader that she is in fact Lucy, as an old woman. . While rummaging through Lucy’s attic, Mason finds Miss Kanagawa. He instantly feels a special connection with the doll that he is unable to explain. He brings the doll to Lucy and she instantly becomes lucid. She beings to tell Mason, his mother, and his cousin about her journey during the Great Depression. Then she slips back into her delusions and falls asleep cradling the doll. As Mason walks out of Lucy’s room Miss Kanagawa decides that she has a lesson to teach him, just as she did with Bunny, Lois, Willie Mae, and Lucy. This book examines the culture of the United States during the Great Depression. The four girls each represent different struggles that people encountered during these turbulent times. Each girl suffers her own losses and realizes her greatest joys during her time with Miss Kanagawa, representing the enduring nature of the American people during such a hard time in our history. Though this story revolves around a Japanese doll, it does very little to tell the reader about the Japanese culture. Instead the story reveals the good that can be found in people during trying times. With no more than a little encouragement, Miss Kanagawa elicits good in the lives of each of these four girls during some of their deepest, darkest struggles. Each girl is also rejected by her peers or an adult in some way but chooses to take the high road and is rewarded for it in the end.
review 2: This genre of this story is both historical and realistic fiction.I didn't really like this book because it's was kind of confusing to read and understand it. When I first started to read this I didn't really like it because I didn't get the book from the beginning but at the end I started to get hang of it. This book has four different stories in the book but I'm only going to review one story in the book.This story takes place in a big town of Clearbrook. Willie Mae wanted to help her mom out at her house and read a lot of books that Miz Junkins brought her every time she finished a book but instead Miz Junkins found her a job where she would be keeping Mrs. Trent company and to be reading her books and they would be paying her a lot of money and she could help her mom out with money so she decide to take the job and move to Mrs. Trent's house and work for her, when she got there Mrs. Trent didn't really like her, after a while though she started to like her then when she got really into Willie Mae she showed her a doll and Willie Mae really liked that she started to hear the doll speak, she was confused,Mrs. Trent left her the doll and was probably gonna leave her all her money because she didn't have anyone else in life. The type of conflict in this story is person vs. self because Willie Mae doesn't really know what to do in her life and she's really confused and she thinks about problems in her mind. The main character is Willie Mae, Miz Junkins is a friend of Willie Mae and Mrs. Trent is also a friend and there's not that much characters more so that's about it. The authors purpose of this is story is to know more about friendship because this book is mainly about girls that are seeing a doll and trying to communicate with them and know them just like, how you would do with a real friend or friendship. I don't get why the author made four different stories in the book instead of just making one, because now that it's four different it makes it more confusing to read the book. "The friendship doll" is a good title for the book because the title explains the whole book and it gives you a little prediction of what the book is going to be about. I thought the ending if the book was really confusing because it just leaves you thinking about what's gonna happen next but I just ends and that's really confusing.My favorite part was when Willie Mae found the doll because right away she started to make connections with the doll and that's really interesting. I think the connection to this book was text to text because the book doesn't really make any connections with me.I thought this book was really confusing during the beginning but then at the end it didn't really seen so confusing like before. The rate that I give this book is a 7 because I felt like this book was kind of hard to read and confusing. I would recommend this book to kids in 7th grade to 8th grade because they could probably understand it better. You should really read this book because it's a great book and surprising. less

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