A little girl and her paper dolls go on amazing adventures in this picture book by Julia Donaldson. This a lovely story about imagination, memory, and links between generations.

THE PAPER DOLLS

Julia Donaldson – Author
Rebecca Cobb – Illustrator

And her mother helped her make some paper dolls.

“They were Ticky and Tacky
and Jackie and Backie
and Jim with two noses
and Jo with the bow.”

And they met a dinosaur
who clawed and roared,
and said, “I’m going to get you!”

But the paper dolls sang.

“You can’t get us. Oh no no no!
We’re holding hands and we won’t let go.
We’re Ticky and Tacky and Jackie the Backie
And Jim with two noses and Jo with a bow!”

The little girl continued to take her paper dolls on adventures in her imaginative world.   The dolls jumped and danced and sang on their  adventures through the house and out into the garden.

“

And then…
a fierce crocodile grinned his grin
and gnashed his teeth
and said, “I’m coming to crunch you!”

But the paper dolls laughed and sang.
“You can’t crunch us. Oh no no no!
We’re holding hands and we won’t let go.
We’re Ticky and Tacky and Jackie the Backie
And Jim with two noses and Jo with a bow”

The paper dolls hopped into the garden…
“and they sniffed the flowers
and chatted to a ladybird.”

But along came a boy
with a pair of scissors
and he said, “I’ll SNIP you!”

And he did.
He snippered them into tiny little pieces
and he said, “You’re gone forever.”

But the paper dolls sang.

“We’re not gone.  Oh no no no!
We’re holding hands and we won’t let go.
We’re Ticky and Tacky and Jackie the Backie
And Jim with two noses and Jo with a bow!”

And the pieces all joined together, and flew…
into the little girl’s memory where they found white mice and fireworks,
and a starfish soap, and a kind granny, and the butterfly hairslide,
and more and more lovely things each day and each year.

And the girl grew into a mother.

She helped her own little girl make some paper dolls.

“They were Poppy and Pinkie
and Binky the Blinkie,
and Fred with one eyebrow,
and Flo with the bow.

And they jumped,

and they danced,

and they sang.”

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Julia Donaldson reads her book

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MAKE YOUR OWN PAPER DOLLS

PAPER DOLLS