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Monday, October 26, 2015

31 Days of Book Detectives ~ Day 26: The Story of Holly & Ivy

Book Detectives ~ Holly & Ivy @ Mt. Hope Chronicles

[Click here to read other posts in the series.]

I had to sneak in one more Barbara Cooney book before our series came to an end. In The Story of Holly & Ivy, a doll wishes for a girl, an orphan girl wishes for a doll and a grandmother, and a woman wishes for a girl. Fate brings them together on Christmas day. Cooney’s illustrations are a delight paired with the lengthy text.

“This is a story about wishing. It is also about a doll and a little girl. It begins with the doll.”

Crime Scene [Setting]

Where?

Mr. Blossom’s toy shop—window was lit and warm and decorated, in a little country town

St. Agnes’s—big house in the city, where 30 boys and girls had to live together

Mrs. Jones’s home

When?

Christmas Eve

1930s? (Judging by clothing)

Suspects [Characters]

Who?

Holly—doll, dressed for Christmas, 12 inches high, real gold hair, brown eyes that could open and shut, teeth like tiny china pearls, newest toy in toy shop, lonely

The other toys: Mallow and Wallow the baby hippopotamuses, Abracadabra the owl, Crumple the elephant, other dolls

Mr. Blossom—toy shop owner

Peter—shop boy, fifteen, red cheeks and a wide smile; he took good care of the toys; helpful

Ivy—little girl six years old with straight hair cut in a fringe, blue-gray eyes, and a turned-up nose; lonely, orphan

Mrs. Jones—woman, married, childless, sad

31 Days of Book Detectives ~ The Story of Holly and Ivy @ Mt. Hope Chronicles

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