The Somebody for Me

"Happy is how you feel when somebody loves you," says toymaker Miss Mika, sewing a group of rabbitlike dolls with smiling eyes, striped stockings, and floppy ears. When the other dolls call out their wishes ("I want a little girl somebody," one says), Sumiko replies, "I just want the somebody for me." Despite her humility, all the dolls are sold but Sumiko: "Finally she was moved to a corner with an old drum and a rolling wooden chicken." Next to an image of Sumiko enclosed in an allegorical cell, Chiba writes, "With no one to love, she felt as if her heart was in prison." Hope is raised as a small girl notices Sumiko, then dashed: "That doll is old and dirty," says the girl's father. "Let's find you something else." Sumiko gets her joyful ending ("The little girl took Sumiko home and cleaned her up and hugged her and sang to her") but the preceding emotional upheaval may stick with readers longer. The artwork, painted on surfaces prepared with rough brushstrokes, has a wood-textured feel that, despite the tension, offers warmth throughout. Ages 3–up. (Oct.)