Muse Reviews » The story behind the doll.

I’ve been a fan of All Things Barbie since I was four. My very first Barbie was a ballerina Barbie, and from there, they exponentially multiplied in my toybox. At one count, when I was about 9, I had ninety-five Barbie dolls, and I could pretty much tell you their names and how long I’d had them. I lived and breathed Barbie.

My love of “playing Barbie” morphed into curiosity about Barbie’s history. After my 13th birthday party (I mean, less than an hour after), I pooled together all of the money I’d been given and bought a hardback book about Barbie’s start and subsequent sauntering through the decades, fashion being the focus. This book’s pages quickly became dog-eared and bookmarked.

My daughter, though only two, has herself suddenly sprouted radar for Barbie (and all her many pink accessories). Once again, I live in a house littered with teeny tiny tennis shoes, tiny plastic-snap pink dresses, and minuscule plastic hairbrushes.

When I found out about an up and coming biography of Ruth Handler, I knew I had to add it to my “must read” list. Ruth was the creator of Barbie and the co-founder of Mattel. As I began to delve into the pages of Barbie and Ruth by Robin Gerber, I realized I knew precious little about Ruth, the beginnings of Mattel toy corporation, and the complicated evolution of that famous 11-1/2″ plastic doll.

This book goes all the way back to Ruth’s humble childhood, a descendant of Polish-Jewish immigrants. She fell in love and married young. As she settled down and had children, her innate sense and drive for business and entrepreneurship grew stronger. What followed was a chronological exploration of her rise to success, sprinkled with setbacks, frustrations, heartache, and disappointments. Her tenacity to stay ahead was inspiring, yet her at times over-driven personality was a bit unsettling. There were many things to praise about Ruth Handler, yet there were also things I wouldn’t care to mimic. Her tactics and forcefulness drove many away and caused rifts between many people as she soared through life.

Despite all of the brash business tactics and sad sagas (especially touching yet hard to read were the segments about her continuing battle with breast cancer), I enjoyed reading this book as an informational memoir of sorts. It gave me access to many facets of Ruth, Mattel, and the doll in the middle of it all that I had no inkling of before picking up this book.

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If you are a Barbie fan yourself, or simply love to read books about the spirit of entrepreneurship and the battle within competitive corporate world (especially that of the arena of children’s product retail), Barbie and Ruth, published by HarperCollins, should be on your “must read” list, as well. Barbie and Ruth is new on the shelves this month, and the hardcover can be found via a number of online retailers or at your local bookseller for $24.99.

Win it! HarperCollins has very generously offered FIVE of you a chance to win Robin Gerber’s newest book, Barbie and Ruth! Just leave me a comment below telling me either: 1) Why you think you’d love to read Barbie and Ruth or 2) Your earliest (or most beloved) Barbie memory! I’ll close the contest next Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 at 11pm EST. Sorry; US entries only. Duplicate commenters will be disqualified. Good luck!

22 Comments so far

My mom had a red carrying case of sorts with 3 or 4 of her Barbies & their clothes & accessories inside – it was such an exciting thing to be able to get it out and play with her dolls. Loved it!

I can vividly remember getting my first Barbie doll and a wonderful case for her clothing for Christmas when I was 8 years old! My sister is ten years older than me and she would share hers with me. Now, I had my very own. Many thanks, Cindi

I was never really into Barbie–maybe because I had four brothers who probably would have used her for target practice–but I love books, and I enjoy biographies! I love learning about REAL people, and seeing how they lived their lives.

I remember holding my sister’s Barbies for ransom! I’d love to read the book.
gkstratos@yahoo.com

I would love to win this for my sister. She is 23, but still loves Barbie. Thanks!

1) i love barbie!
2) one of my friends had all the cool barbie stuff – cars houses etc – it was like a whole city – loved to play there!

barbie was so awesome. I would make them(I had several) into gymnast and swing them from the trees. I also love to read about how people make their start in business.

I too, have always loved Barbie.. but I have never researched the beginnings of barbie… the history… I love stuff like that, I would love to read about the start of my favorite doll

OH I am one of the biggest Barbie fans and now have two little girls I have passed down this passion to. I still remember my one and only Barbie I got. She was the Victorian one that came with a beautiful makeup case. OH I loved that doll!

I’d like to read this book because it is so wild how popular Barbie is. I’d like to know how she got her start.
hematopoiesis at hotmail dot com

This book sounds great! Barbie has been in my life forever, actually like 25 years and I still have practically all of them that I am saving in case I ever have a girl. I loved everything Barbie and each year I still ask for the Holiday Barbie for Christmas. Barbie was just always there for me and let me make her who I wanted her to be! I even kept the ones I put makeup on with markers and cut their hair! It would be interesting to learn more about her and the inventor. I would really love to have this book!

I loved Barbie when I was growing up, I would love to read this!

oh does this bring memories my sister gave me her barbie case it was a black patent case and the doors opened wide and inside was like a wardrobe with drawers i could hang her pretty outfits and pullout the drawers as well. My favorite outfit was a brocade dress and jacket with a fur trim, i must have had 5 or 6 different barbie dolls thanks for the memories

My daughters have so many Barbies, I’d love to read this book about the history of the doll.

My mother used to hand sew clothes for my barbie. I got a trunk full of one-of-a-kind clothes one Christmas. I was the envy of the block!

Thanks so much

Oooh! I’d love to win! I love nonfiction books tht deal with pop culture, and to read about the doll that had my sister and me so captivated during our childhood would be sublime!

I remember playing Barbie with my sister growing up. Always loved the shoes… guess I still love shoes

My first Barbie memory is getting a present on my sister’s birthday: a Barbie. My frst one I think and I collected so many aftewrwards for a long time.
Thanks for the giveaway!
kimspam66(at)yahoo(dot)com

I would love to read this book! I love to read biographies & such about people who have really succeeded! And to make it even better, I was a big fan of Barbie as a young girl. How I remember playing for hours with my Malibu Barbie & Malibu Skipper (with their gorgeous tans!) in their tall townhouse & driving around in their cool beach buggy!

My earliest Barbie memory was when I was 5 and I always had my Barbies in the hot tub. My mom would always play Barbies with me and thats special memories. Thanks

I had the red head barbie when I was young. Later my brother got the GI Joe and I would steal him away for Barbie to date.
I would love to read about how Barbie came into being.

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