Dolls of Hope
Dolls of Hope is a charming middle-grade novel based on the real Friendship Dolls exchanged between students in the US and Japan in the 1920s to foster understanding and peace between the countries.
In this story, eleven-year-old Chiyo is a farm girl living in Japan in 1927 who is sent by her wealthy prospective brother-in-law to an elite boarding school. She is expected to honor her family by being a good student and mastering social graces for girls, such as walking with small steps, showing no emotion, and not speaking one’s mind. These things don’t come easily to Chiyo. She travels for the first time to Tokyo with her choir to sing a welcome song for America’s Friendship Dolls, and finds herself a sudden celebrity/ambassador—with an actual Friendship Doll to bring back to her school. However, the jealous school bully has other plans and cleverly gets Chiyo expelled. Determined, Chiyo won’t let that stop her, and ventures out on her own to try to remedy the situation and restore her reputation.
This is an engaging story about a girl’s coming-of-age within a traditional society where roles for women were being challenged. Chiyo is caught between wanting to be an honorable girl and being true to herself. Japanese culture and politics are integral to this story, and Japanese words are sprinkled throughout, with a glossary. Readers’ interest will be piqued about this little-known, historic cultural exchange (hint: many of the original Friendship Dolls still exist!).
