Hobbie Returns to Her Roots
By Krystyna Poray Goddu, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 9/4/2008
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Holly Hobbie.
Photo: Douglas Hobbie.
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The book stars a determined girl who, when her mother turns down her request for the doll all her friends have, decides to make her own rag doll. Little Brown is launching the book in September with a 50,000-copy first printing. “The conflict between what dolls young girls want and what dolls their parents want them to have is ongoing,” Hobbie notes. She sees Fanny, which was inspired by her daughter Jocelyn’s love of sewing dolls and other toys when she was a child, as a celebration of “individuality, creativity and resourcefulness.”
After more than a decade of drawing the endearing pigs, creating a new character was challenging. “Toot and Puddle became so familiar to me that I could capture the nuance or emotion I wanted to portray quite spontaneously,” Hobbie says. “I haven’t achieved that degree of intimacy with Fanny yet. She’s still evolving.” Hobbie’s editor, Andrea Spooner, sees Hobbie’s style in Fanny as “shifting from a more nostalgic, classic tone and palette to something contemporary and vibrant.”
Fanny is Spooner and Hobbie’s first book together. When Hobbie’s previous editor, Megan Tingley, became publisher at Little, Brown, Spooner was asked to work on the launch of a new character with Hobbie. “When the first draft of the manuscript arrived with some exploratory character sketches of Fanny,” she recalls, “I fell in love with this little girl immediately—I could tell from her clothes, her gestures and expressions that she had charm and individuality. I see her as a down-to-earth alternative to Fancy Nancy.”
Inspired by Fanny’s creativity, Little, Brown came up with the idea of including a standalone paper doll with the book, to play up the story’s do-it-yourself angle. Marketing director Tina McIntyre says, “We have a very well-known author, a quirky and relatable character, and a great story line that appeals to young girls, moms and grandmoms. We looked for ways to make the book special for gift-giving and sharing between generations.”
Initial promotional events include readings and signings at Barnes & Noble in Walpole, Mass., Kiddly Winks in Longmeadow, Mass., and the Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley, Mass., where Hobbie will be joined by two other Little, Brown authors: her children Nathaniel and Jocelyn, author and illustrator respectively of Priscilla and the Great Santa Search, which will be released in October.
Hobbie is now working on a second Fanny book, in which Fanny creates a picture book starring her homemade doll. While no more Toot & Puddle books are forthcoming, there is a silver lining for fans: this fall National Geographic is launching an animated series featuring the pair. “I don’t think of my beloved characters as put to rest,” Hobbie says. “I hope they become TV stars.”
