Debbie Behan Garrett
Black-Doll Enthusiast, Author, Doll Griot
The Doll Blogs, When Dolls Speak I Listen, Garrett's second self-published work and a first-of-its-kind book featuring dolls that blog, is available as a second-edition paperback, or hardcover book on Amazon. The 1st ed. eBook is available in the Google Play store and on Amazon as a Kindle book, which can be read on a computer or another electronic device (widescreen devices are best).
To serve the doll-collecting community, particularly avid Black-doll enthusiasts, Ms. Garrett continues to write about the dolls she loves. In this, her third doll publication, dolls, both old and new, blog their experiences over a two-year period as chosen dolls in Garrett's extensive and quite eclectic Black-doll collection.
If you love dolls, possess a vivid imagination, and enjoy combining the two, you will derive great pleasure reading The Doll Blogs, another first for Debbie Behan Garrett.
Garrett takes the reader on an imaginative voyage in the doll-collecting world where she meets and greets new dolls, reacquaints herself with old ones, and continues the passion for all as a doll whisperer, allowing the dolls to speak through her.
The dolls (some more vocal than others, with personalities all their own) find delight in telling their unique stories, sharing their experiences, and relaying how they entered Garrett's collection.
This first book devoted to dolls that speak in blog form is masterfully engaging, a sure delight!
Although women rarely served as griots in traditional African societies, in her third book, The Doll Blogs, Garrett answers the fundamental questions griots are most concerned with – “Who are your people and where do you come from?” Through her meticulous research into the provenance of each doll she provides information about the artists who sculpted the dolls, the manufacturers who produced them, the retailers that sold them, and sometimes even includes tidbits about previous owners. Anyone who has done genealogical research would be overjoyed to uncover such detailed information about the African American branches of their family tree for even when there is an oral tradition and/or paper trail that enables us to trace our ancestors back to the time of slavery, the trail usually goes stone cold on the shores of the Atlantic.
--Paulette Richards, Ph.D.
