Annie's Doll

by Mary Ann Eiler

Description It is 1942 and the dark shadows of World War II are creeping closer to the Chicago home front. Six-year- old Annie sits crouched in a closet during a blackout drill, terrified that the airplanes will cross the Atlantic and bomb her home! More than anything else she wants a life-like doll "who could be my friend on scary nights like this." That Christmas she receives a baby doll as magical as the butterfly charm that a young Marine gives her before shipping out to the Pacific. She soon learns that Sugar Plum (she later re-names her Chabo) is no ordinary doll. When she looks at Chabo she seems to say, "If you don't play with me, I won't be real." But dolls can't really talk (or can they?)!As Annie struggles with the "bad facts" of war - rationing, newsreels of war-torn cities, gold star flags in the windows on her block, bombings in her grandma's hometown in Italy - she turns to Chabo for comfort. She even develops "doll talk" so they can have a conversation.Chabo takes part in neighborhood war games with her and Annie even adopts a "refugee doll" so Chabo can be part of the war effort. Chabo is introduced to Annie's schoolmate friend, Emile, "a war-guest," whose mom is fighting in the French Resistance. But when Annie is stricken with rheumatic fever, Chabo becomes part of her very soul. When Chabo later suffers a near fatal accident, Annie is challenged to develop "the faith that moves mountains" her grandma talks about.Annie's Doll pulses with life on the Chicago home front between 1942-1945, its sacrifices, loss of loved ones, fear, and courage. From listening to President Roosevelt's fireside chats on the tombstone radio, to stoking the coal burning furnace on a frigid night, to tedious Spam meals, the tension of D-Day, the street celebrations of V-E and V-J Day, it provides "time travel" to a bygone era The book also celebrates the creativity of play and the importance of imagination in the life of a little girl growing up in extraordinary times with an "extraordinary" doll.Annie's doll, Chabo, has a central role to the very end when she forms part of the wedding party of Annie's Royal Air Force pen pal and her favorite teacher. And when Emile returns to France, Annie cries and asks Chabo to promise never to leave her. Chabo has learned a lot in her short life as Annie's doll. But does she have enough "magic" to make a promise in her own little voice?