What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
This topic is about
Love of Seven Dolls
SOLVED: Children's/YA
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SOLVED. YA novel: street girl orphan protected by mysterious puppet master. [s]
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Leslie
(new)
May 27, 2018 09:42PM
I read this old ya novel in high school about 1980 and I remember loving the fantasy fairytale tone. I'd love to find it, but have no memory of an author or title. I recall a kind of Daddy Long Legs type romance, and maybe a European setting?
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Was it real world with just a fantasy/fairytale feel, or was there any magic? Did it have a historical setting? Or historical-ish (invented, but resembling a past era)?You mention a puppet master in the subject line. Did he run a puppet theater? Or something like a traveling Punch and Judy show? Were they marionettes? Was there anything magical about them? Or him?
Did he take the girl in and have her join his theater/troupe? send her to school? bring her into society?
Wow, good questions. Thanks for helping me try to dredge back useful memories. This book had a feel of The Phantom of the Opera: historical/European setting, but a feel of the fantastic. There wasn't magic, but there was mystery: the puppeteer or marionette master was hidden from the girl (never seen, hidden behind the curtains). It seems she was a street urchin, orphan, homeless girl, but was allowed to join the troupe to help out for food and board. She in turn helps him reconnect with people and get over whatever trauma has him hiding inside the theater.
I'm so vague on details, but it seems (spoilers?) that they end up falling in love and he's not a scary old man. (As in Daddy Long Legs, (spoilers) in which the anonymous mentor turns out to be a love interest instead of a father figure).
It seems the title had something to do with puppets or marionettes, but I can't seem to find it using those words as search terms.
There is a book titled The Puppeteer's Apprentice whose plot summary sounds somewhat like this book's story line, but it was published long after I read this mystery book.
This plot sounds very similar to the movie Lili, which was made into the musical Carnival!The movie was based on a short story called "The Man Who Hated People" by Paul Gallico
And that led me right to the title--though it really isn't a YA book! The title I was looking for is "Love of Seven Dolls" by Paul Gallico--the novella expanding on "The Man Who Hated People." Thanks, Amanda!
Leslie, since you've found your book is Love of Seven Dolls, can you edit your header to say it's solved as per the rules?
Sorry, Tadgh, I'm new at this. I did try, but I wasn't doing something right, and apparently since you wrote, some angel has edited it for me. (Thanks, goodreads angel!)
No worries, I'm new too. I figured out exactly how to do it after like 3 edits lol I believe the mods can fix it when you can't figure it out yourself!
