I have photos of my godmother and her sisters from 1905 and the outfits they had on are just like Samantha's and we are from New York so I would love your take on Victorian fashion. I have a ton of children's books of fashion from different time periods and I think I may need to dust them off.

Molly is my favorite. My mother was born in 1940 for one reason and the other is that I looked just like her in fourth grade. My clothes, furniture and the like could have been hers- including that red bedspread! She wears glasses (yay) and other than Mrs. Beasley, I do not remember many dolls having glasses.

I know that the woman that Kit was modeled after, she is a friend of my husband's aunt and they are mutual friends of Ms. Rowland- they all went to college together. I do not sense much negativity in Kit respective of the time period she was living in plus I think it must have been tough to go from Upper middle class to lower middle class seemingly overnight. I acutally think Kit (both real and doll) held up well and kept her spirits. I also love her sense of adventure and fearlessness, and wish I had more of that in my own spirit.

Addy is also a favorite because of her stories and strength. I also like her ethnicity and the lessons I can teach my daughter from her stories. My husband, who is Boston Brahmin, went to school in the South and is a Civil War buff has done a great job sharing both the North and South experiences to my DD who is just five. I also love that Addy's character gets DH involved with my daughter on a level she can understand.

Ben's grandmothers and my godmother were all children in the early 1900's. I could not relate to Samantha having grown up in a blue collar, Irish-German American family. It was only with the introduction of Nellie that made me like Samantha.

Now Nellie is a character most of the women in my family can relate to.... I just adore Nellie.