Nice story re: library lending American Girl dolls

[Deleted]

I apologize for being an NY Times whore today, but I thought this was nice...

A Doll’s Magic, Free to Renew

After
one visit, she returned with her hair in dreadlocks. Another time, her
long blond locks were primly fashioned into a traditional bun. One day,
she came back wearing a uniform of the exclusive all-girls Brearley
School on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

These have been the
many phases of Kirsten Larson, an American Girl doll who sat on a shelf
in the Ottendorfer branch of the New York Public Library, in the East
Village, until a resourceful children's librarian began lending her to
girls, many of whose parents, because of financial or feminist reasons,
resist buying the dolls.

Kirsten - who retails for $110 and is
marketed as a "pioneer girl of strength and spirit" leading an
adventurous life in the mid-1800s - was dropped off a decade ago at the
library branch, in a Gothic building on Second Avenue.

She could
not have been more out of her element, in her homespun frock and
bonnet, in the middle of a New York City neighborhood once known for
punk rock, left-wing activism and on-the-edge art and fashion, and now
for its rapid gentrification.

But Kirsten has adapted to her urban
frontier, traveling from one girl's home to another's for two weeks at a
time, spending nights inside cramped apartments in public housing
projects and inside luxury high-rises with sweeping city views. She also
has taken trips out of the neighborhood with her temporary guardians:
boat rides on Oyster Bay, and to house parties held by Mexican
immigrants in Harlem.

The doll, part of a brand that is all the
rage among girls and whose price tag is rage-inducing to many parents,
has become one of the most sought-after items at the library. For some
girls, Kirsten was the only way they could afford such a luxury item in
their home. For others, it was the only way their liberal-minded parents
would allow any doll into their home, refusing to indulge in gender
stereotypes or what they considered to be an elitist hobby.

Suzette Seepersad had been avoiding buying her daughter Caelyn Osborn, 5, any toys geared toward girls.

But
Caelyn fell in love with Kirsten, taking her to the family's apartment,
bathing her, reading stories to her and putting her to bed. After
keeping the doll for two weeks or so, she had to be reminded by a
librarian to return it. Now, Ms. Seepersad said, "I'm trying to get my
sister to buy her" an American Girl doll.

With its limited budget,
the East Village branch library could hardly be mistaken for the
upscale American Girl Place, the company's flagship store on Fifth
Avenue, where reservations are often required for $20-a-head tea
parties. But the excitement level , at least, was comparable in the
library - and of course, there it was free to take Kirsten home.

The
children began adopting Kirsten for days or weeks at a time, the way
they would borrow a book. The library system does not typically lend out
dolls, so Thea Taube, the children's librarian at the branch, kept it
unofficial. She did not require names or library cards from borrowers
but rather relied on the honor system. Some children kept the doll for
several weeks, she said.

Now after dozens of trips over the years,
Kirsten is worn out and is being shipped to the company's doll hospital
in Middleton, Wis., to have her loosened arm and leg joints fixed and
her hair, which has become matted from being styled and restyled
countless times, replaced.

She will also receive a new wardrobe
and accessories, since Kirsten's boots, apron, knit stockings and bonnet
- everything but her dress - have all been long lost, something that
Ms. Taube said was a result of "a lot of love over the years."

A
group of Kirsten's other favorite caretakers gathered recently at the
library for a going-away party, drawing get-well cards and relishing one
last play-date with the doll.

There was Flora Sobrino, 11, who
now has three American Girl dolls of her own. There was Alondra Salas,
6, who could not afford such a doll, and whose mother, a nanny for an
East Village family, knitted Kirsten's outfit at their modest apartment
in Harlem.

There was Khadija Sankara, 6, from the Bronx, who asked
her mother - a Senegalese immigrant who runs a T-shirt shop nearby -
for an American Girl doll.

"She wanted one, but her older sister
told me: 'You know how much it costs? As much as an iPod or something,'"
the mother, Theresa Sankara, recalled.

There was Alison Newmark, 3, who would sleep with Kirsten and show her off to neighbors in the lobby of her building.

"I
would not buy it for her now because it's very expensive, but she
thought it was the most beautiful doll she ever saw," said her mother,
Julia Justo. "It was almost like a real person to her - like a friend."

Despite
all the adoration she has received, Kirsten was not an overnight
sensation at the library. When Ms. Taube became the children's librarian
in 2004, she found Kirsten languishing on a forgotten shelf in a
library office within earshot of the busy children's room, because
library workers considered her too expensive to risk damage by
displaying.

Kirsten had been donated a year earlier by the
American Girl company when it opened its flagship Manhattan store and
gave dolls and their biographical books to city library branches.

"I
thought, 'Well, we loan out books that are that expensive, so why can't
we lend her out too?'" said Ms. Taube, who hoped the doll would attract
more children to the branch, leading them to read the doll books.

Ms. Taube began displaying Kirsten on her desk, with no sign or label or explanation. Immediately there were shy inquiries.

"If
I saw a girl admiring it, I'd say, 'Do you know you can take her
home?'" Ms. Taube said. "'She likes to take trips and visit other
dolls.'"

New York library officials said they knew of no other doll-lending in their system.

Flora,
a sixth grader at Brearley who dressed Kirsten in her school's uniform,
began borrowing Kirsten five years ago, taking her home to her
apartment on St. Marks Place, and began writing homemade books with
adventure stories featuring Kirsten.

She took Kirsten to
playgrounds and Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with her parents, who
deemed Kirsten too extravagant. At one point, Flora misplaced the
doll's apron, but later found it and returned it along with a pair of
underwear she bought for Kirsten with her own money.

"When Flora was 6 we told her, 'It's a very expensive doll,'" Ms. Sobrino said. "We weren't considering buying her a $100 doll."

"We
were hoping that borrowing Kirsten might quench her desire for her own
doll, but actually, I think it may have turned out to be a gateway
doll," she said.

Flora saved her allowance money for a year and
bought herself two dolls and received another as a gift. Now the dolls
are watching Flora grow too old to play with them.

As the library
prepared to close, Kirsten's farewell party was coming to an end. The
children hugged and said goodbye to the little well-worn pioneer and put
her in a box bound for Wisconsin. Ms. Taube told the girls they would
celebrate together when the doll returned in several weeks.

Ms. Taube said Kirsten exemplified the library as a community center that offered diverse services and lending materials.

"I
tell the kids that the library belongs to them," she said. "And I think
that any child who could not afford that doll will remember the time
they were able to borrow it from the library."

cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/doll-of-pioneers-spirit-explores-the-city-one-loan-at-a-time/?nl=nyregion&emc=edit_ur_20130123

[af1212]

Our library lends out kits based on different themes. Last week my daughter chose the "New Baby" kit and she has never loved a doll like this one from the library! Despite the fact that she has other dolls at home (including an American Doll!) she just loves the "library baby"! It will be a sad day next week when we have to return it

[halfpint]

Oh, this made me cry a little.

[bronxgirl]

this is such a sweet story. It makes me contemplate donating a doll to my branch for the same purpose.

[MadamePresident]

That's such a sweet story.

[aspentosh]

This makes me want to donate my Kirsten doll!!

[mbcdefg]

This is a really nice story.

But this kind of pissed me off:

Suzette Seepersad had been avoiding buying her daughter Caelyn Osborn, 5, any toys geared toward girls.

But Caelyn fell in love with Kirsten, taking her to the family's apartment, bathing her, reading stories to her and putting her to bed. After keeping the doll for two weeks or so, she had to be reminded by a librarian to return it. Now, Ms. Seepersad said, "I'm trying to get my sister to buy her" an American Girl doll.

I get if you want to avoid gender-specific toys, but the bolded sounds like she just doesn't want to spend the money. (Which, again, is a valid reason, but why is it O.K. for the sister to shell out the cash instead?)

[cupcakes]

Jan 23, 2013 11:42:46 GMT -5 halfpint said:

Oh, this made me cry a little.

Me too!  I love/d my dolls.  My mom still dresses my two and my sisters' three up for Christmas.  

[emptygee]

Jan 23, 2013 11:57:07 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

This is a really nice story.

But this kind of pissed me off:

Suzette Seepersad had been avoiding buying her daughter Caelyn Osborn, 5, any toys geared toward girls.

But Caelyn fell in love with Kirsten, taking her to the family's apartment, bathing her, reading stories to her and putting her to bed. After keeping the doll for two weeks or so, she had to be reminded by a librarian to return it. Now, Ms. Seepersad said, "I'm trying to get my sister to buy her" an American Girl doll.

I get if you want to avoid gender-specific toys, but the bolded sounds like she just doesn't want to spend the money. (Which, again, is a valid reason, but why is it O.K. for the sister to shell out the cash instead?)

Yeah, that's bizarre. Is she a feminist or just cheap?

Am I the only one who thinks this kind of sucks for the kids who are bringing this doll home? When I was little, part of the fun of getting a new doll is that she was "mine," like I was her mother or something. You clothe them, brush their hair, and you kind of get attached. I get that it's nice that kids whose parents can't afford the doll can have a chance to play with her, but I think it's kind of sad that they might get attached and then have to bring it back.

Also, when I read that American Girl donated the doll themselves, I immediately thought it was for the sole purpose of hooking these girls on the doll so their parents will feel compelled to buy one.

[flatlan]

I love random, feel-good stories like this!