Tatiana Comes to America: An Ellis Island Story (Doll Hospital, No. 1)

Rating:
Summary: doll hospital is great
Review: I liked this book very very much . I didn't even know what a doll hospital is. Now I know that you can fix dolls there. I wish I could have all the stuff in the doll hospital like wigs eyeballs and hats and shoes for dolls and cats .

Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: My daughter and I loved these books. I thought it was right up there with American Doll books. Great story and great historical/educational infomation.

Rating:
Summary: Finding a New Home
Review: When Rose and Lila's parents go to Africa for a year, for their work as doctors, Rose(age 10) and Lila(age 8) must stay with their maternal grandmother, whom they hardly know. As they snoop through her house (Book 1), they soon discover that "Far Nana" has a few secrets worth knowing. "Far Nana" runs a doll hospital from her home and has the intuitive skill of listening to the stories of the dolls she repairs. She tells these stories to the girls in the first person, from the point of view of the doll. In these books, the reader is reading the ongoing story of Rose and Lila adjustments to living with their grandmother and the historical story of a doll, in a story-within-a-story format.

In "Tatiana Comes to America" the girls listen to a story about a doll who escaped Russia in 1907 during a time of violence against the Jewish people. Her family came to America to escape the persecution. Tatiana boards a ship for America with her girl, Anya. I enjoyed Tatiana's story because it was lively and and had some unexpected surprises by the end.

Overall, this book is an excellent introduction to the series and I would recommend reading it first if you are interested in this series. We see Rose and Lila say good-bye to their parents and watch them discover their grandmother's secret. The girls begin to find that there will be some good things about staying with "Far Nana", including the wonderful stories of the dolls!

The reading level on this book is for grade 3. I would not recommend it for readers under 6 years of age because the intertwining stories may be confusing. A paper doll is included with each book, which may be of interest to some readers.