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Paper cuts, or why I'm swearing at Grace Lin

by Jennifer M. Brabander
Dec 30, 2010 | Filed in Articles & Opinion
Grace Lin has some adorable Ling & Ting paper dolls up on her blog—the perfect activity to keep my daughters (ages 5 and 10) busy during these last few moments of school vacation week.
Grace recommends using cardstock, which we lacked, so our dolls were a little flimsy. I can’t blame that on Grace, but I did utter some quiet swears at her because Ling & Ting have really skinny arms and legs (feed those girls some more dump-Lings and dump-Tings, please). Parents, be careful when cutting out the dolls (and you will be doing the cutting, because your children are far too tired from all the coloring)—one wrong move (or sneeze) and you’ll lose an appendage, giving kids another way to tell Ling & Ting apart. (Ling: “And then the girls’ mommy cut your leg off by mistake.” Ting: “No, silly, that was your leg that got cut off!”)


Note to Grace: you are one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, but in the future, please remember that paper doll clothes should all be attached — hat, coat, boots, all in one piece, not four. Or in the case of twins, eight. Times my two children = sixteen.(I forgive you, sweet Grace, because my girls are now busy with your website’s coloring pages— no cutting, gotta love it!)


 

Jennifer M. Brabander

Jennifer M. Brabander is former senior editor of The Horn Book Magazine. She holds an MA from the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature from Simmons University.

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Grace Lin

>ha, ha--sorry about that! I'll keep that in mind for next time, promise!!

Posted : Jan 01, 2011 04:46

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