Coming October 15, 2010:

The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie

A Doll's History and Her Impact on Us

By Tanya Lee Stone, With a Foreword by Meg Cabot 

Barbie just might be the most famous doll in the world. She’s represented fifty different nationalities. She’s stepped into the always-fashionable shoes of more than one hundred careers. She has been played with, studied, celebrated, and vilified for more than fifty years. And she   has unquestionably influenced generations of girls—whether that influence has been positive or negative depends on who you ask.

When award-winning author Tanya Lee Stone started asking girls, boys, men, and women how they feel about Barbie, the first thing she discovered is how passionate people are about her. Here are a few things they said:

"Barbie is really only a reflection of the girl holding her. My generation of 'Barbie girls' is now entering the world and we seem to be doing just fine." --Sara, age 17

"Barbie, I hate you!" --Luci, age 15

"How Barbie looked was never the issue. Not to the girls who loved her. It was what she taught us that mattered. And what she taught us was that, like Barbie, we could be anything we wanted to be." --Meg Cabot

"Barbie has been the #1 most destructive force on the self-image of women all over the globe!" --Dr. Carole Lieberman 

The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie is part biography—both of the doll and of her inventor, Ruth Handler—and part exploration of the cultural phenomenon that is Barbie. Filled with personal anecdotes, memories, and opinions from people of all ages, and featuring original color and black and white photographs, this book is for anyone who understands that we’re all living in a Barbie world. 

Advance praise for The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie:

"Holy belly buttons! This is no mere Barbie book. This is a how-to manual about being a girl: a strong, sparky, awesome girl, with Barbie in hand *or* Barbie in the nearest dumpster!"  

-- Lauren Myracle, author of New York Times bestseller ttyl 

"History writers don't get better than Tanya Lee Stone. The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie is balanced, funny, provocative -- and most of all, important for anyone wanting to understand girlhood in America."  

--E. Lockhart, National Book Award finalist, author of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks 

(c) Karen Pike Photography (reposting photos is a copyright infringement)