Review: "The Meanest Doll in the World"

The Meanest Doll in the World by Ann M Martin

4 out of 5 stars

Holy cow, this is one scary doll! Lol...this is the 2nd in the Doll People series and was actually pretty suspenseful at times. Again, it has some great illustrations, right from the beginning...I love

the "ads" for the Dolls and the little troll guys in the corner. Up in the right hand corner you can just barely see a little hand peaking out with a wand...intriguing yes?

Well watch out! Because it's Princess Mimi, aka: The MEANEST DOLL IN THE WORLD!! Yikes!!

I have to say, truthfully, this made me jump when I turned the page and saw her! Eeep...and, she defaces library books! For shame, Mean Mimi, for shame.

Okay, anyway...we don't actually get to see Princess Mimi for a while. The book starts out at "Miami Beach-A-Go-Go" which is younger sister Nora's bathtub. :) The Funcraft Family and Annabelle from the Doll Family are having a raucous good time...well the Funcrafts are. Poor Annabelle is stuck on lifeguard duty since she's all vintage and fragile. (Or fradge-ee-lay as Dory would say it) Life is back to normal at the Palmer's house (the humans that care for the Funcrafts and Dolls) now that Auntie Sarah is back home and Annabelle is getting a bit bored and unsatisfied again.

That all changes after a trip to the attic to study spiders (ugh...again with the spiders?!) lasts a little too long and Annabella and Tiffany have to hide in the first place they can find before the humans see them. This hiding place? Kate's (the older human sister) backpack. Which is on it's way to school, with the dolls inside. Adventure ensues! ;)

The dolls have lots of fun exploring the school, but don't make it into Kate's backpack in time at the end of the day and spend the night. The next day, they make it safely into her backpack to head back home to their families...or so they think! Dun dun dun!!!

Turns out they got in the wrong backpack and went home to a strange new house, for the entire weekend! There are lots of fun new toys there, including some Trolls (side note: when we were kids, there was a Troll store at the mall. It was so awesome. Lots of clothes and accessories for your Trolls and you could get your name tattooed on their butts! haha!) and Paper Dolls and a child-sized baby doll that reminds me eerily of Big Baby from "Toy Story 3" who is unfortunately under the rule of....MEAN MIMI!!

Mean Mimi "was dressed as a princess. She wore a glittery lavender dress, and lavender slippers with silk ribbons that twined and criss-crossed up her legs. On her head sat a lavender crown studded with plastic rubies and emeralds. And in her hand was a wand topped by a sparkling star." So basically, she's this sadistic ruler with a shiny hat and stick on a power trip. She makes all the other toys in this new house miserable, including Annabelle and Tiffany. The humans of the family go away each weekend, allowing Mimi's reign of terror to last days at a time. And she doesn't care about the "Doll Code of Honor", leaving huge messes and broken toys all over the place for the humans to find. Tsk tsk...

Annabelle and Tiffany help the toys overtake Mimi and get her minions to realize she's just using them. They manage to get safely hidden back in the child's backpack by Monday morning and are carried away back to the school and away from Mean Mimi....or so they think!! Lol...sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Once back home safe with their families, who were worried sick!, they are horrified to realize that Mean Mimi has hitched a ride to terrorize a new house since her's no longer cares. She's got some classic reckless behavior going on and is just begging to be caught...throwing toys all over the clean floor for Kate to find in the morning, calling Kate's name in the middle of the night!

In the end, it seems poor Mimi just wanted to be loved (aaawwww) and realizes no one will. So, in one last desperate act, she launches herself off Kate's bookshelf in the middle of the day and is caught by both Kate and Nora which puts her immediately into Permanent Doll State. Terrifying, isn't it?

This was a great book, maybe better than the first even. May be a little too suspenseful for the younger kids or weenie adults. ;) I can't wait to read the last one in the series! And I leave you with the back cover art, just in case you want to purchase a Princess Mimi doll of your own...although I don't know why you would.