Title: The Story of Holly & Ivy
Author: Rumer Godden
Genre:
Children/Adult Fiction
About the book…
As the first line states, “This is a
story about wishing.” Holly is a doll who wishes for a girl to love her and Ivy
is an orphan who wishes for a grandmother for Christmas. When Ivy isn’t invited
into someone’s home for Christmas, she’s put on the train to be sent to the
Infant’s Home for the holidays, but she take matters into her own hands
deciding Appleton is where her grandmother lives and ends up having a very
special Christmas.
This story first appeared in Ladies’ Home Journal in the 1950’s.
What I think…
This is one of
my favorite Christmas stories to revisit year after year both in re-reading the
book and re-watching the cartoon based on it called The Wish that Changed Christmas.
Godden’s
doll stories are among my favorite doll books because they never veer towards
being too sappy or too silly. They have a very matter of fact manner about them
in that the toys have feelings just as real as the people in the stories, which
in the case of this book makes the two story lines flow much better.
The
parts of the story that focus on Holly and the toy shop show off Godden’s
ability to create an entire world for the toys, their feelings, and their
worries about what happens if they aren’t purchased. Abracadabra the stuffed
owl, who thinks the toy shop belongs to him, couldn't be a more perfect villain. The portions that focus on the people in the story are also well done to the extent that you truly can feel sympathetic for them and want things to turn out well in the end.
My
particular edition has beautiful illustrations by Barbara Cooney (The
collection Four Dolls, which I also
love, includes this story and has illustrations by Pauline Baynes that are
also pretty) that are warm and Christmas-y.
To
sum it all up…
A heartwarming Christmas book that I love enough to read
yearly and that I highly recommend to anyone looking for a good Christmas story
either for themselves or children! ♥
