I read The Lonely Doll books by Dare Wright when I was a child. When Emma was about 4 years old I introduced her to these books as well. She immediately loved them! There is a special magic in them that makes you almost believe that your dolls can come to life and have extraordinary adventures.
Probably 15 years ago I ran across a boxed set of The Lonely Doll book, an Edith doll, and a Little Bear doll. I bought it. To this day I cannot tell you exactly why. It may have been an attempt to preserve that little bit of childhood magic in my memory.
One day I gave the set to Emma. I thought she was old enough to take care of it. She loved it all and began planning her own Edith book. Throughout the next few months Emma periodically brought Edith out and asked me to take pictures of her doing certain things.
What emerged was a fun mother-daughter project that brought us both much joy.
Once we got all the pictures together Emma dictated the story. I added a few sentences, but most of the wording is hers.
Emma gave a copy to her Grandparents for Christmas:
Edith’s new Adventures
This is the story of Edith’s new adventures in Emma’s world.
One day Edith and Little Bear went to a new place that looked so exciting that they wanted to have some adventures there. First they tried a new kind of swing. Then Little Bear showed his cool acrobat tricks. Edith didn’t want to be outdone so she tried acrobatics too. They saw something that looked so fun that they ran right to it. It was a big purple slide! Wheeeee. Little Bear said, “Edith, your tricks don’t look that hard.” So Edith decided to show him something really fancy! Edith said, “I bet you can’t do this!” Then Little Bear tried to do what Edith had done… But he fell down on the ground and hurt himself. Edith felt bad for Little Bear (and sad that she had teased him) so she picked him up and comforted him until he felt better. They decided to just stick with the swings after that.
Edith was feeling rather tired of playing with Little Bear. She needed something different to do that was more fitting for a girl. Mr. Bear encouraged her to find a new hobby or activity.
Edith had always wanted to try ballet so she signed up to take a class. Her teacher was Miss Bunny. She taught Edith how to a pirouette and the splits. Edith realized she was going to have a recital. She was excited and a little nervous. Mr. Bear and LB came to watch. In her recital Edith did a pirouette, and many other ballet moves. Mr. Bear was proud of her but Little Bear didn’t think ballet looked fun at all. Well, he would look awfully silly in a pink tutu, though Edith.
One night while Edith was eating her dinner of Octopus hot dog on seaweed, Mr. Bear came to her and said, “Edith I’m going to be gone for a while so you need to stay inside. You and Little Bear can find something to play with in here while I’m gone.” “But I just want to have a wagon ride, “said Edith. “No, no more argument. You can have a wagon ride when I get back.”
After Edith finished eating she went to find Little Bear. “Hey, do you want to come outside with me and pull me in the wagon?” Little Bear said, “I guess so.” After he’d pulled her around for a little while Edith said, “Yikes, there’s a spider!” “It’s already dead, silly,” said Little Bear who picked it up and flicked it away.
While they were outside Mr. Bear saw them and said, “Did Edith tell you to come outside Little Bear?” “Yes” said Little Bear. “Edith you will have to come inside and have time out.” Edith hung her head. She knew she had done wrong.
At bedtime Edith was still feeling kind of bad so she asked Little Bear if he would sleep with her. “Yes, it’ll be a sleepover!” said Little Bear. So they had a good night’s sleep.
In the morning while Edith was eating her breakfast, little bear asked her why she had disobeyed Mr. Bear. Edith said, “Well, I really really wanted to go outside and I just couldn’t wait.” “You should’ve waited,” said Little Bear. “I know,” said Edith.
Little Bear and Edith decided to take a little trip to the flower garden. Edith drove because she is the oldest. The flowers looked so tall and so beautiful! Little Bear picked a flower for Edith and said, “This is for you because I love you.” Edith was so happy!
Sometimes Edith wished she had more friends than just Mr. Bear and Little Bear. They tried hard enough but just didn't seem to understand her as well as she wanted them to. Little Bear usually didn't like "girly" things and he thought most of her dreams were "no fun at all."Really though, Little Bear was a sweet friend and Edith was thankful for him.
Mr. Bear often told Edith and Little Bear stories about how he used to like to ice skate on the frozen pond when he was younger. Little Bear was not interested, “ice skating is boring. What’s so great about slipping around on the ice?” Edith really wanted to try it so one day Edith went to the ice skating rink all by herself! At first she held on… then she let go slowly and started to skate. She was doing it! Suddenly she fell. “Oh my leg! I don’t think I can stand!” said Edith. Tommy and Alice, the owners of the rink, loaded Edith onto a special ambulance truck to take her to the hospital.
Edith was scared to be at the hospital without Little Bear or Mr. Bear. Dr. Lee came in and was very nice and friendly. Dr. Lee checked Edith’s temperature, took her blood pressure and checked her foot. “Does this hurt?” asked Dr. Lee. “Yes” said Edith. Dr. Lee put a nice cast on Edith’s leg and told her not to walk on it for 3 days. Mr. Bear came to get her and carried her out to the car. They all sat on the couch together and watched Doc McStuffins. Edith felt much better now that she was home. The next day they decorated Edith’s cast to make it more colorful and fun.
When Edith’s leg was finally better she decided to make cup cakes to celebrate. They were so yummy!
One day when Edith checked the mailbox she found something very exciting! It was an invitation from Dr. Lee to attend a tea party! Edith thought it would be very fun and immediately began dreaming about how wonderful it would be. Mr. Bear thought Edith could use a haircut before she went to the tea party, so Edith let him give her a trim. He knew that things were about to change for Edith, and though he’d known all along that this time would eventually come, he wasn’t quite ready for it. He and Little Bear sat quietly…
The day of the tea party finally arrived and Edith set off to the park. When she got there she met several new friends. There was Emma Lee (Dr. Lee) of course, Janai Lee, Snow White and Terry Lee. Edith was thrilled to be around so many girls after all her time with just Mr. Bear and Little Bear. They had marshmallow cupcakes, pretzels, cheese, apples, and blueberry tea. Edith loved it all!
At the end of the day Edith and the girls sat in the shade of a big tree and talked about all the fun things they wanted to do together. Edith knew she had made some great new friends!
A few photos from the book:
