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Title details for Let's Call Her Barbie by Renée Rosen - Wait list

Let's Call Her Barbie

by Renée Rosen
Abigail Reno
Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 8 weeks
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0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 8 weeks
“A fresh and fun take on Barbie lore…clever and satisfying.” – Shelby Van Pelt, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Remarkably Bright Creatures

She was only eleven-and-a-half inches tall, but she would change the world. Barbie is born in this bold new novel by USA Today bestselling author Renée Rosen.
When Ruth Handler walks into the boardroom of the toy company she co-founded and pitches her idea for a doll unlike any other, she knows what she’s setting in motion. It might just take the world a moment to catch up.
In 1956, the only dolls on the market for little girls let them pretend to be mothers. Ruth’s vision for a doll shaped like a grown woman and outfitted in an enviable wardrobe will let them dream they can be anything.
As Ruth assembles her team of creative rebels—head engineer Jack Ryan who hides his deepest secrets behind his genius and designers Charlotte Johnson and Stevie Klein, whose hopes and dreams rest on the success of Barbie’s fashion—she knows they’re working against a ticking clock to get this wild idea off the ground.
In the decades to come—through soaring heights and devastating personal lows, public scandals and private tensions— each of them will have to decide how tightly to hold on to their creation. Because Barbie has never been just a doll—she’s a legacy.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    January 21, 2025

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593944486
      • File size: 370304 KB
      • Duration: 12:51:25

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 25, 2024
      Rosen (Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl) dramatizes the creation of the Barbie doll in this rollicking tale. The doll is pitched in Mattel’s Los Angeles office by Ruth Handler, who cofounded the toy company with her husband, Elliot, lead engineer Jack Ryan, and business partner Harold “Matt” Mattson (Mattel is a portmanteau of Matt and Elliot). Named after Elliot and Ruth’s daughter, Barbara, Barbie makes her debut at a 1959 toy fair, where retailers recoil at the radical prospect of a doll taking the form of an adult woman. When Barbie hits store shelves later that year, her curvy figure scandalizes many consumers, but she’s also an immediate success, helping girls to imagine more than motherhood for their futures. Rosen weaves her tale of corporate risk-taking with the characters’ personal dramas, as Jack, who is married, has a series of affairs, and Ruth and Elliot navigate the challenges of parenting. As the narrative stretches into the 1970s, Rosen fleshes out intriguing subplots involving the Barbie fashion team, including designer Charlotte Johnson. Barbie fans will delight in Rosen’s epic reimagining of the doll’s origin story.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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