Instead, she initially has the usual doll’s life of sitting in a dollhouse being dressed in clothing sewn by little girls keeping company with a child during her lessons and being ignored by a child more interested in television and radio. They put her in one but, as you will see, she ended up in a pocket,” the story follows a doll named Jane as she is possesed by a succession of children.įrom Effie in the 1890s or early 1900s (based on clothing), through Elizabeth (1920s most likely), Ethel (1930s or 40s), to Ellen (1950s), Jane wishes to have adventures to be put in a pocket and taken out into the world. Everyone else thought she belonged in a doll’s house. I have been re-reading children’s books by this author, over the last month or two.īeginning with: “There was once a little doll who thought she belonged in a pocket. This is a children’s book by Rumer Godden, published in 1954, which holds up pretty well by today’s standards. What could the poor doll do?įour beautiful stories, brought together in book by a superb storyteller.Enjoyable though old-fashioned, Impunity Jane is the tale of a tiny doll and her adventures with different children, throughout decades of changing culture. Then came the day when rich, spoiled Clementina stole Candy Floss. She loved her life, and her friends – Jack himself, Nuts the dog and Cocoa the horse. How could these wishes come true?Ĭandy Floss belonged to Jack who had a fairground coconut shy. Their story is about wishing – for Holly wished very much that she could be a Christmas present, and leave the toyshop where Abracadabra the owl frightened her, and Ivy wished for a grandmother who would give her a real home. Holly was a doll, and Ivy was a little girl. But with the Fairy Doll to help, she found that gradually she could do all these things, and more.

The other children teased and ignored her. She was untidy, late and she couldn’t ride a bicycle.

I Elizabeth, the youngest child, who was always in trouble. The Fairy Doll had been with the family for a very long time.

What would happen if ever he had to give her back to the little girl whose doll she really was? She hated living sedately in a doll’s house, and when Gideon took her off adventuring with Joe and his gang she was blissfully happy and lived in Gideon’s pocket, with all kinds of interesting objects and the snail Ann Rushout.īut Impunity Jane didn’t belong to Gideon.

Impunity Jane by Rumer Godden