Doll Books
popular. They take on a variety of roles in the stories, according to the demands
of the narrative: stand-ins or models for their child-owners, practice infants and
children for the mothers-to-be, playmates and comforting friends. Fashion dolls
appear as aspirational figures, the cultured adult women their owners hoped to become.
And as plot devices, dolls are used as prized possessions, sources of conflict, and loci of loss
and mourning — just like real children.