'Doll Shop' Author to Hold Readings

Park Slope author Yona Zeldis McDonough will celebrate the release of her new children’s book "The Cats In The Doll Shop" with two book signing events in the neighborhood.

On December 10, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., McDonough will be at the Dancewave Holiday Fiesta at the , and on December 15, from 7 to 9 p.m., will visit on Seventh Avenue.

“I'm very excited about the publication of "The Cats In The Doll Shop,” McDonough told Patch. “It's the sort of book I would have adored as a girl and it is immensely gratifying to think that other girls might get the same sort of pleasure from reading that I did all those years ago.”

"The Cats in the Doll Shop" is the follow-up novel to "The Doll Shop Downstairs," in which the book’s protagonist, nine-year-old Anna, helped turn her family’s doll repair shop into a doll-making shop. In the sequel, set in 1915, Anna’s cousin Tania leaves Russia to come live with her on the Lower East Side. When things don’t go exactly as Anna hoped between the cousins, she uses her love of dolls and cats to form a friendship.

Though the book was originally inspired by McDonough’s experience caring for an injured kitten, the story gives young readers a glimpse into the challenging lives of immigrants in New York.

McDonough, author of 19 books for children, as well as three novels for adults, looks forward to the book signing events (and will be bearing candy and bookmarks for young readers).

“I recently heard from a father of a little girl who had loved the "The Doll Shop Downstairs," which was the first of the Doll Shop books; she liked it so much she made a diorama of it that she shared with her class at school,” said McDonough. “That's the sort of thing that just makes a writer's day.”