Emily's Idea

Emily’s idea—a simple, beautiful, and diverse chain of paper dolls—begins to spread as she shows her project to her class at school. Her classmates are inspired to create more doll chains and decorate their classroom with the dolls hanging hand in hand, strung colorfully around the walls. The illustrations show the critical moment in the story when Emily’s teacher posts a picture of their newly decorated classroom onto a social media network resembling Facebook. Likes, comments, and shares spread the idea, and paper-doll chains pop up across the world, eventually circling back as Emily receives a package with a paper-doll chain that says “thank you.” The stylized choice of some clipped sentences—”Friends and stranger joined hands. Across bridges and town squares.”—feels stunted and awkwardly opposite of the long, extended chains of dolls taking center stage in the story, but lovely illustrations delicately demonstrate the snowball reaction of the unifying paper-doll chains. Miguéns highlights diversity in both characters and dolls while inserting fun details—like the popular book titles on Emily’s bookshelf including Matilda and The Gruffalo. Emily’s age isn’t shared, but she appears to be a more mature child with her comprehension levels, emotions, and appearance. With instructions at the back on how to make paper dolls, this book is light on story and heavy on the positive example of social media and the wonderful message of unity.