Renee Rosen's fascinating look at an icon!
I adored this book! It is well-written, and the author clearly did a lot of research into how the iconic Barbie came to be and the lives of those behind the doll, making for a compelling read.
Ruth Handler had the idea for Barbie after a trip to Europe, where she encountered a grown-up doll and realized dolls in the United States were only baby dolls. Inspired and wanting to fill this gap with a doll that would encourage girls' imaginations, and have them dream big, she teams up with her husband, an engineer, fashion designers, and more people to create the Barbie doll. Learning about the amount of work, imagination, ideas, prototypes, marketing, race to beat other manufacturers, etc., that brought Barbie into being was genuinely fascinating. And having it put into perspective with the social and cultural mores of the time really emphasized the level of achievement Barbie was.
Told in a multi-POV format, there is also a focus not just on Barbie but on Ruth, her husband Elliot, engineer Jack, and fashion designers Charlotte and the fictional Stevie. I did not know that Ruth and Elliot founded Mattel and that Ruth was the company's first president. She was determined and a woman ahead of her time. Ruth faces misogyny in the business world, several challenges bringing Barbie to the market and juggling work and family life. I was as engrossed in Ruth's story as in Barbie's.
I learned a lot from this book and was entertained along the way, which is one of the marks of good historical fiction for me. A must-read for any Barbie fan!
Thank you to Berkley Publishing for the gifted review copy and fun goodies!
My steep was Macaron Tea by Mariage Freres from The Cultured Cup. A black tea flavored to taste like a fruity macaron!
PUBLISHER'S SYNOPSIS:
She was only eleven-and-a-half inches tall, but she would change the world. Barbie is born in this bold new novel by USA Today bestselling author Renée Rosen.
When Ruth Handler walks into the boardroom of the toy company she co-founded and pitches her idea for a doll unlike any other, she knows what she’s setting in motion. It might just take the world a moment to catch up.
In 1956, the only dolls on the market for little girls let them pretend to be mothers. Ruth’s vision for a doll shaped like a grown woman and outfitted in an enviable wardrobe will let them dream they can be anything.
As Ruth assembles her team of creative rebels—head engineer Jack Ryan who hides his deepest secrets behind his genius and designers Charlotte Johnson and Stevie Klein, whose hopes and dreams rest on the success of Barbie’s fashion—she knows they’re working against a ticking clock to get this wild idea off the ground.
In the decades to come—through soaring heights and devastating personal lows, public scandals and private tensions— each of them will have to decide how tightly to hold on to their creation. Because Barbie has never been just a doll—she’s a legacy.
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