I don't mean this in a bad way, I mean this in a good way. I would have gone apeshit for AG dolls if they had been around when I was young. (Given that I would rush home after school to cuddle my cabbage patch doll, Simone...)

Sigh, yes, AG encourages "consumerism"--unless you're making dolls from corncobs or something, good luck trying to avoid THAT. And so what if the dolls have spawned an unholy industry of twee musicals and doll-themed tea shops? Call me when the dolls and their child mommies are getting matching bikini waxes.

Is imagination.

The dolls don't talk, sing, cry, laugh or wet. The idea is that the doll's owner imagines all those things. What a concept - play driven by the imagination.

To help that process along, each doll has an historically-accurate backstory and, now, a movie. A way to teach history from the ground up.

Toys can be good things, regardless of how old you are.

What I don't get is the high price for a doll that purposedly is wholesome, value oriented, etc. It is just insane to spend 100 bucks or so for a doll, for Pete's sake. When my goddaughter wanted one, I made a project out of it. I bought a knockoff, which was the same quality, same type, probably made in the same Chinese prison factory, then we made beautiful clothing, doll furniture, etc. for it. It was great for our relationship, and taught her some craftsmanship skills in sewing and construction.

At least that is my plan for now. I started reading Kit Kitridge to my 5-year old last night and both my daughter and I absolutely loved it! Kit is assertive, intelligent, curious,and imaginative, qualities that I wish to encourage. In addition, the story motivates discussion about family history (my parents were children of the depression). What's not to like here?

Note to Sarah: All dolls are glassy-eyed.

Somehow our television got tuned to the hallmark channel yesterday while we were cleaning (my husband and I are still arguing about how this happened). There was an incredibly sappy period melodrama about a little girl who was the daughter of a "rebel" during the Revolutionary war (hey, I thought it was the history channel, we LIKE the history channel!). She was perfect: pretty, tolerant, and loyal. She convinced her father to intervene to help her best friends father who was unjustly imprisoned because he was a loyalist, then she magnanimously forgave a man who had done something to offend her and then somehow ended up in jail. I don't know what happened after that because a commercial came on and I noticed it was the hallmark channel and practically broke the remote trying to change it. But while I was clicking to find something decent, like a repeat of Crossfire or a Fox interview of Cheney, I noticed the title: "Felicity: An American Girl". This mush is being fed to our children as a marketing campaign. If I were Queen, this would be illegal. Kids could make up stories the way I did when I was a kid (Okay, they generally involved Barbie and Ken and...well, never mind). I don't think I like this trend toward kids being sold entire worlds along with their dolls.

Marketing can be used to promote good as well as evil. When I was a kid in the 1970's I learned: about ML King, diversity, that I was "special," to count to 10 in Spanish, and the basics of reading on Sesame Street. Massive marketing ensued. It was worth the trade off.

A marketing success story that sells a doll that sells a restaurant (including hair styling appointments for dolls) that sells books that sell movies is not selling imagination. It's selling kids their next product. These dolls are beautifully designed and made with thought and care but, these days, a doll company with a growth strategy can't stay a doll company for long. Yes, these products are higher quality and a little less mind-numbing than [fill in the blank with the Dora or Elmo product of your choice] but we need to keep our eyes wide open and make sure our kids know what's going on here. When a kid must have whatever American Girl thinks of next, they are being set up for a life of pursuing whatever Disney, whatever Apple, whatever Prada, the marketing executives figure out how to push next. Imagination is transplanted from the kids to the MBAs who want the kids to actually imagine as little as possible.

"While some of the historical adventure books acknowledge that opportunities for girls — especially poor and nonwhite girls — were limited in earlier times, they emphasize optimism, good will and self-reliance as the ever-available antidotes to injustice or deprivation." - A.O. Scott on the American Girl books. I loved these books when I was young, and I like that these dolls are more realistic. But should today's girls (especially poor and nonwhite girls) rely on themselves, optimism, and good will to acquire $100 dolls?

If a child you know likes American Girl stuff, you know what to buy as a gift: a gift certificate.

The kids (or their relatives) are likely to spend the money anyhow. I personally find the books affirmative, and I like the dolls for kids.

Yes, the tea parties skeeve me out, but I don't have to go!

And they are.

They let rich girls pretend to be poor little rich girls.

I fail to see the problem with toys that come with a backstory, especially a backstory as positive and well-thought-out as the AGs seem to be.

Despite perceptions to the contrary, I don't think that children's imaginations work best with a completely blank slate. If that were true, we would just give kids a couple of differently shaped blocks of wood and tell them to go nuts.

I grew up with Star Wars action figures, definitely toys with back story. But that didn't limit my imagination from going far afield from the movie storylines. With the AG dolls, I find it even more positive that the dolls might encourage reading and learning history instead of just learning about wookies from movies.

Even traditional toys like balls and bats and hockey sticks or whatever come with a set of rules about how you should and shouldn't play with them. I don't think that many kids feel restricted by these. Some use them as opportunities to play the game as intended, but most use those as a basis to let their own rules and ideas take over.

Primed imagination can be just as good as (and sometimes better than) free-form imagination.