The Doll People

Infobox Book
name = The Doll People
author = Ann M. Martin, Laura Godwin
illustrator = Brian Selznick
cover_artist = Brian Selznick
country = United States
language = English
genre = Childrens
publisher = Hyperion
pub_date = August 14 2000(1st edition)
pages = 272 (hardback edition)
isbn = 0786803614
followed_by = The Meanest Doll in the World

"The Doll People" is a children's book written by Ann M. Martin and Laura Godwin. The book features the world of dolls, which occurs when there is no one watching. Its sequel is "The Meanest Doll in the World".

Plot introduction

This children's novel is about a doll named Annabelle, who appears to be eight years old but has been around for one hundred years. The book is set in the present. Annabelle's current owner is Kate Palmer. The dolls can move, talk, and play the miniature piano in their house but always return to the same spot they started from when a human approaches. The consequence of being noticed out of place is being "frozen" for twenty-four hours.

Plot summary

Annabelle finds her Auntie Sarah's journal, which is filled with spider facts. Annabelle reads that her aunt, who went missing forty-five years ago, had been looking for a special spider that lived in the dark and cold. A new doll family, the Funcrafts, arrive and Annabelle becomes friends with Tiffany Funcraft. Annabelle shows her the journal, and they go to look for her Auntie Sarah. While Annabelle is exploring one night, she is caught moving by Kate's mother, Annie. As a result, Annabelle goes in doll state for one day. When she is released, she and Tiffany go to the attic where Annabelle sees a piece of blue fabric stuck under a trunk and thinks it is her Auntie Sarah. They return to Annabelle's house and bring her family to the attic. They push the trunk out of the way and pull her out from beneath the big trunk. Knowing the humans would find it odd for a doll to just appear in the dollhouse, they place her in the bed of The Captain, which is the humans' cat. As they had hoped, Grandma Katherine finds her and returns her to Annabelle's house.

Characters in "The Doll People"

Annabelle, her parents, her brother,baby sister Betsy (who belongs to a different doll set), her uncle, and her Auntie Sarah, who has been missing for forty-five years; also the little girl who owns the doll house, Kate Palmer, Kate's mom, dad, grandma, and little sister Nora,kate's friend. Tiffany Funcraft, her little brother Baily Funcraft, her mom and dad Mom Funcraft and Dad Funcraft, their baby Baby Britney, and kitty funcraft a white and brown cat