Biscuit and Peter and George—Oh My! Tales of a Children’s Book Doll Collector

Abstract

My name is Stephanie, and I am a collector. What are my favorite things to collect? That’s easy—dolls! I bought my first Barbie when I was six years old. I was given a doll from Morocco at age seven. To this day, I continue to collect both Barbies and international dolls, but my third collection now numbers eight hundred dolls. During my first year as an elementary school librarian in 1979, I began to collect dolls based on characters from children’s books.I wanted to add some zip and zing to class visits at my school library. The previous school librarian had plugged boys and girls into listening stations with worksheets each time they came to the library. I felt my students were missing out by not hearing fantastic tales from exotic places and visiting magical worlds of wonder.Bottom line, I wanted them to experience the joy found within the covers of books. That’s when the first dolls from children’s books—Corduroy, Curious George, the Cat in the Hat, and Winnie-the-Pooh—found their way into my shopping basket and my storytelling repertoire.