IVY LOST AND FOUND

In this series opener, a long-forgotten doll is dismayed to find herself repurposed as a library toy for children to check out.

Ivy, a brown-skinned doll with dark bangs and braids, misses Anne, the brown-skinned girl who once played with her, made her clothes, and whispered secrets. Years later, Anne, now a librarian, rediscovers Ivy and makes her a Book Buddy. Ivy, who just wants Anne to play with her again, is hurt to hear Anne call her “my old doll.” The stuffed-animal Book Buddies welcome Ivy—but not Lilyanna, a blond, White princess doll and proto-mean girl who snubs Ivy as a “hand-me-down toy.” (The polite term, a motherly hen says, is “well loved.”) A little girl named Sophie, 6, borrows Lilyanna, pressuring her 8-year-old stepsister, Fern, into checking out Ivy; Sophie’s little brother, Ethan, 4, chooses Piper, a flying squirrel. Like Ivy, Fern is distressed. Longing for time alone with her dad during her short visits and less time with her younger stepsiblings, she confides in Ivy, who listens eagerly. A mild adventure in the backyard offers opportunities for the toys to get to know one another and for Fern to work on her place in her dad’s new family. Like the story, the charmingly retro illustrations honor the genre’s antecedents, from Rumer Godden’s sentient dolls to the Toy Story franchise. Fern and her father both have brown skin and dark, tightly curled hair; Sophie, Ethan, and their mom all present White.

A beguiling series opener that gently conveys the upside of adapting to unwelcome changes.