Amanda’s New Life: A Journal of Fashion History through Paper Dolls (Volume 2) (Amanda Series)

This is a very charming series of books, but I suspect that the research on which they were based is slightly flawed, or possibly a just a little outdated.(I'm not a historian but) my impression has always been that the skirt-and-Zouave-jacket outfit over a Garibaldi blouse was fashionable for preteen and teenaged girls but would probably not have been worn by middle-aged women.One thing I do like is that dresses are frequently made-over and reappear later in the book in new forms, which was done very often but which most paper doll books don't feature. It also features dresses made of makeshift materials during the Civil War, which is something else that is usually considered too un-glamorous for doll books.

I bought this with some trepidation because I could only view one page of costumes and the back, but I was very pleasantly surprised. There are twenty pages in this book and they are all full of costumes with some journal entries at the bottom of the page. For Amanda there are twelve dresses and many other articles of clothing and accessories. Matthew has four outfits and the children (three) have one additional outfit each (besides when they are in a christening dress and in the outfit in which the dolls comes dressed. I was impressed with how many items of clothing came in the book and with their obvious researched detail and beautiful coloring. Based on this book I will be buying the other two in this series.

I grew up with these books and still have the paper dolls. They're well made with beautiful illustrations. You can't find a better set of paper dolls!

Wonderful illustrations! This is an excellent way for girls to learn Texas History.