Outskirts Press, INC.

A doll real enough to be a friend, a little girl coping with a serious illness and the personal losses of war….

For six-year old Annie Enders, World War 2 brings many challenges: the death of neighbors killed in action, rationing, bombing reports, and the horror of newsreels depicting war-torn cities. The war becomes very personal when she sees photos of refugees her age and helps a “war guest” whose mom is fighting in the French Resistance.

From the first scene of Annie crouched in a closet during a blackout drill, to the increase of gold star flags on her street, her letters to a POW, the trauma of D-Day and the celebration of V-E and V-J Days, her “magical doll,” Chabo helps her cope with “bad facts” and her own “war” with rheumatic fever. But when Chabo is put in harm’s way, she realizes she can lose even her doll.

Set on the Chicago home front in the 1940s, Annie’s Doll will appeal to readers interested in American

History and life in a bygone era with its tombstone radios, paperboys, President Roosevelt’s “fireside chats,” victory gardens, coal-burning furnaces, iconic stores like Marshall Field and Woolworth’s Dime Store, “heroes” like Captain Midnight and Superman, and more.

Annie’s world exists now only in memories, films, and books. But you can enter that world again. Just turn the page and go back in time.