Fanny

With the glamorous Connie dolls dressed as nurses, teetering in their heels, tittering through their puffed-up lipsticked lips, the homemade Annabelle doll happily, and busily, doctors stuffed animal after stuffed animal. While this scene plays on a bad nurse stereotype, so do the Connie dolls and so many like them that real girls encounter. And it's quite funny when these dolls are put in their place. The homemade doll may not be glamorous, but she's having fun, she's loved, and she's much more real.

In Fanny, the doll Annabelle's creator, Holly Hobbie has created a main character that is cute as a button -- a spunky, creative, imaginative button, that is. She is the kind of kid that would be hard to say "no" to. But when it comes to the Connie doll, Fanny's mother does remain firm and consistent, causing Fanny to find a creative and wonderful solution that reveals this girl's remarkable character and teaches a great lesson in the process. Holly Hobbie's watercolor artwork is simple, clean, and expressive, especially when it comes to the looks on the faces of all the girls, dolls, and stuffed animals.