So great. Everything I want in a read aloud. Didn't have to edit a word. Dolls come to life when humans aren't around. They are all nice to each other and talk about how good it feels to be nice. There are fairies and Santa (in the Andy stories) and kittens and a lovely little girl who loves her dollies. I never heard these stories as a kid. Never liked the dolls' look, but now I love them.

Read again, this time to Adz at 8yo. She loves it. June 2019

These are quaint traditional stories of fantasy that are entertaining to read. The author imbues the dolls with human like qualities so that the stories appear to be more realistic. I think most young readers will find this collection enjoyable and I'd recommend them as a read-aloud because they will appeal to most parents of beginning readers.

I downloaded this book from gutenburg press and formatted it in Word, then took it to Office Depot to be bound. It has the original illustrations in it. My daughters have made a rag doll and love hearing the Raggedy Ann stories. They have started taking care of their dolls the same way Marcella takes care of hers. Great, sweet stories.

Read this because we were planning to visit Arcola, IL, the birth town of Johny Gruelle which boasts this connection to the famous children's book. (In fact, Gruelle left the town when he was 2.)
That's a nice heartwarming story about dolls secretly knowing how to talk and move and exploring the world and acquiring certain values (love your friends!), just as children would do.
That's still very much a product of the American white middle-class culture of the early 20th century that perpetuates racial and gendered hierarchies. Sigh.

Read aloud to J. She loved it. When we finished the last story, she sighed, "That was beautiful." Pretty cute. :)

So great. Everything I want in a read aloud. Didn't have to edit a word. Dolls come to life when humans aren't around. They are all nice to each other and talk about how good it feels to be nice. There are fairies and Santa (in the Andy stories) and kittens and a lovely little girl who loves her dollies. I never heard these stories as a kid. Never liked the dolls' look, but now I love them.

Read again, this time to Adz at 8yo. She loves it. June 2019

Unfortunately, I was really disappointed by this selection of stories. I remember loving Raggedy Ann as a child, but I think I read Gruelle's longer stories instead of the short stories.

A lovely book. Yes, it's of its time, but that's the joy ... something as sweet and simple would seem impossibly naive, today. It's not modern: Marcella treats her doll with equal parts tenderness and unthinking sadism, there's a black servant, and Raggedy Ann's pleasant equanimity must have been easier to swallow in a time when women were supposed to be happily subservient.

And yet ... fairies, kittens, candy hearts, the gentlest of adventures, only happy endings, and the most beautiful illustrations by the author (if you're reading an unillustrated version, you're missing A Lot. Stop right now, and get the illustrated one (it's free on Project Gutenberg). If a book could smell, it would smell like an apple orchard in blossom with English daisies blooming through the meadow-grass below.

Four stars, because I'm reserving five for the odder, later books, when Raggedy Ann throws off the shackles of simply being a doll, and goes on Rupert-or-Oz-like adventures in unusual fairylands.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!