The Story of Barbie and the Woman Who Created Her written by Cindy Eagan and illustrated by Amy June Bates is an interesting look at how Ruth Handler, who owned Mattel along with her husband, turned an observation into a creative idea. One day Ruth saw her daughter playing with paper dolls as if they were grown-up dolls----she had long ago cast her baby dolls aside.
Ruth took that observation and designed a doll that looked like a young woman along with clothes in which to dress up. Many whom she worked with called the whole idea “IMPOSSIBLE!” But that did not stop Ruth’s creative juices.
Ruth developed her ideas further and then took these dolls to the International Toy Fair in New York City in 1959---- and Barbie was born. The illustration of Barbie: Teenage Fashion Model is delightful. In fact, the illustrations throughout the book are joyous and show how one creative idea led to another. The Barbie Ballerina, Nurse, Singer, and Flight Attendant are colorful as they walk across the pages of the book. `
All of Barbie’s outfits include authentic fashion apparel and workplace items such as seen in the pictures of the Barbie Nurse, Singer, Presidential Candidate and Astronaut. The final spread that shows four girls playing with their Barbie dolls certainly enforces Ruth Handler’s main and important point which was “to encourage girls to be anything they want to be.”
The Story of Barbie and the Woman Who Created Her written by Cindy Eagan and illustrated by Amy June Bates is a delightful picture book for readers 4-8 years of age plus older kids and perhaps mothers who want to think back over their own Barbie days. This book came out a few years ago and is still available (Random House 2017.)
The Children’s Bookshelf is a production of WCMU. Links to the podcast and the Activity Questions can be found at Children’s Bookshelf dot org.
Activity Questions for Barbie
For young readers: Which Barbie Doll shown in this book is your favorite? Why? On the back cover of this book there are 18 different Barbie Dolls. Find and identify the following nine of them then-----a nurse, a singer, a businesswoman, an astronaut, a cowgirl, a ballerina, a fashion model in a bathing suit, a skater, and a yoga expert.
For older readers: Study the spread that shows four girls playing with their Barbie dolls---one is wearing a dinosaur costume, and another is wearing a fire woman’s costume. If we could hear the four of them talking, what would they say to one another? Develop a little story for this scene. Then, move around the room as you think each of these Barbie dolls would move. Have fun with you script and your movement.
