The Doll People

The Doll People (2002) is a children’s novel by Ann M. Martin and Laura Godwin, with illustrations by Brian Selznick. The story follows the adventures of Annabelle Doll—a doll who lives in a dollhouse with her parents, brother, baby sister, uncle, and nanny—as she searches for the missing eighth member of the family: Auntie Sarah. Along the way, Annabelle learns about Following One’s Own Moral Compass and Respecting People’s Differences, as well as The Importance of Friendship and The Benefits of Adventure and Discovery. 

The Doll People is the first book in the Doll People series. The series also includes The Meanest Doll in the World (2003), The Runaway Dolls (2008), The Doll People Set Sail (2014), and The Doll People’s Christmas (2016).

This guide refers to the 2023 Little, Brown and Company paperback edition. 

Plot Summary

Eight-year-old Annabelle Doll, a living doll, lives with her family in the dollhouse of an eight-year-old human girl, Kate Palmer. The Doll family has lived in the same dollhouse in the same room for 100 years, having been passed down in the same family. 

Forty-five years ago, Annabelle’s aunt Sarah disappeared. The Doll family has not left the dollhouse to look for Sarah because they are afraid of violating the Doll Code. The Doll Code states that dolls must never cause humans to suspect that some dolls are living beings. Dolls who draw this kind of attention to themselves are penalized with the “Doll State”: For 24 hours, they become trapped in stasis. The fate that all dolls fear the most is “Permanent Doll State” (24), which happens to dolls who commit severe violations of the Doll Code. 

Annabelle misses Auntie Sarah. Despite the risks of searching for Sarah, she is disappointed in her family for being too fearful to look for Sarah. Feeling bored with her life, Annabelle is interested in being a detective like Nancy Drew, whom she has overheard Kate talking about. While exploring the dollhouse’s library one day, Annabelle discovered Sarah’s secret journal. She learns that Sarah, unlike the other members of the Doll family, was an explorer who journeyed outside the dollhouse. Annabelle questions the adults in her family—Mama, Papa, Uncle Doll, and Nanny— but they don’t give her clear information. Finally, Annabelle announces her intention to leave and find out what happened to Auntie Sarah. Mama, Papa, and Nanny are appalled and try to discourage her, but Uncle Doll says that if she is determined to go, he will go with her.

The next evening, Uncle Doll and Annabelle’s younger brother, Bobby, accompany Annabelle on her search. They do not find Sarah, but they do discover that a new dollhouse and a new doll family have been delivered for Kate’s little sister, Nora. The new dolls are currently trapped inside their packaging but introduce themselves as the Funcrafts: Mom, Dad, Tiffany, Bailey, and Baby Britney. Annabelle promises that her own family will come to visit the Funcrafts once they are in their new dollhouse. Mama and Papa agree that they can visit the new dollhouse, but before this can happen, the Funcrafts surprise the Dolls by coming over to visit first. During the visit, Annabelle is surprised at how different the Funcrafts’ appearances are—they are made entirely of plastic, not china and cloth, and their bodies are not shaped like the Dolls’ bodies. The Funcrafts are also different in their attitude toward life. They are not very cautious about the Doll Code, and they are loud, fun-loving, and unconventional. These differences make Mama, Papa, and Nanny uncomfortable, but Annabelle is drawn to them.

The next day, Nora brings the Funcrafts and her toy farm animals to the Doll family’s house to play a game she calls “Rancher Family.” Annabelle hates this game and feels terrible for the Funcrafts. She is surprised to find out that they enjoy the chaotic game. When Kate discovers Nora playing with her dollhouse, she angrily demands that Nora leave her room. Nora retaliates by snatching Annabelle and running away with her. She throws Annabelle across the living room, onto a bed belonging to The Captain, the Palmers’ cat. Terrified that the cat will chew on her, Annabelle tries to sneak away. Unfortunately, she runs into Mrs. Palmer and is immediately plunged into Doll State.

After Annabelle emerges from Doll State, Tiffany comes to visit her. Annabelle tells Tiffany all about Sarah and her disappearance. The two girls decide to form the Society for Exploration and the Location of Missing People. They agree that they will have regular meetings to read Sarah’s journal and coordinate search plans. A few nights later, they leave on their first expedition together. They explore the living room but do not find any trace of Sarah. Mama and Papa are angry at Annabelle when she is late returning and say that they are not sure she can go out to search again. Uncle Doll argues that Annabelle should be allowed to search for Sarah. He feels terrible that they did not do more to find Sarah when she first disappeared. He argues with Mama and Papa and decides that when the Palmers are not around, he will stay in a nearby Barbie camper instead of in the dollhouse. He tells Annabelle that he will not come home to the dollhouse until he and her parents can resolve their disagreements.

Annabelle and Tiffany read more of Sarah’s journal together. Tiffany is bored and suggests they skip to the end. The two girls discover that the final entry, which hints that Sarah was headed to the Palmers’ attic when she disappeared, is written in a different handwriting from the other journal entries. They realize that someone believes Sarah is in the attic and is trying to get them to go search there. 

The next night, the Dolls head to Nora’s room to visit the Funcraft dollhouse. When they get there, they see Tiffany and Dad Funcraft teasing The Captain. The Dolls are terrified, but Tiffany promises that the cat will not bother them. They hesitantly enter Nora’s room, but The Captain grabs Uncle Doll and begins shaking him. Papa intervenes, and the cat drops Uncle Doll. The Captain snatches up Papa and runs away with him. Although Annabelle is furious with Tiffany, she suggests that, instead of fighting, they should work together to rescue Papa. She and Tiffany search for six days. They finally find Papa in the living room. He is stuck three feet above their heads, so Tiffany runs to get Kate’s jump rope; her parents and brother help her carry it to the living room. They succeed in rescuing Papa, but his leg is broken, and The Captain manages to grab him again. Grandma Katherine Palmer comes into the room and takes Papa away from the cat. She glues Papa’s leg and returns him to the dollhouse. The family is overjoyed to have Papa back, and he and Uncle Doll apologize to one another for their disagreement. Uncle Doll says that he has moved back into the dollhouse for good.

The next night, Annabelle is astonished to find that a new entry has been added to Sarah’s journal, disclosing the location of the attic. She rushes to tell Tiffany. The two begin searching that night, by moonlight. Finally, after several nights of searching, they locate Sarah. She has been trapped behind a trunk for the last 45 years. She has been in a kind of suspended animation but comes back to full consciousness when Annabelle and Tiffany find her. After Annabelle and Sarah have a brief and happy reunion, the girls try to free Sarah, but they cannot pull her free. Because it is very late, they have to return to the dollhouse without effecting a final rescue.

The next night, the Dolls and Funcrafts cooperate to free Sarah. After a joyous reunion, they decide that it will be best for Sarah to wait in The Captain’s bed to be discovered by the Palmers so that they will think the cat found Sarah. Annabelle learns from her mother that Mama, Papa, and Nanny all believed that Sarah ran away because she was dissatisfied with the rules and traditions at home. Only Uncle Doll believed that Sarah had been in an accident: This is why he is the only one who wanted to search for her. Uncle Doll reveals to Annabelle that he wrote the new entries at the end of Sarah’s journal because he suspected that Sarah was in the attic. When the Palmers discover Sarah and return her to the dollhouse, the family is reunited. The Dolls celebrate both Annabelle’s birthday and Sarah’s return with a party at the Funcrafts’ dollhouse. Tiffany and Annabelle feel proud and reaffirm their friendship.