Aspiring Equal Oppertunity Feminist Granola girl.

Birthday Barbie, 1997

Barbie and Friends Book Club was a promotion in the late 1990's to expand the Barbie brand into children's books. They had a wide variety of different concepts, from the day to day life of Barbie, to fantasy or science fiction, to mysteries.

Many of these referenced or expanded the lore of the doll line. For example, Three Cheers for Becky expands on the story of Barbie's friend Becky, the first doll in the Barbie doll line to be portrayed as a wheelchair user, and tells a story of her coaching the cheerleading squad.

D is for Different, for example, covers the story of Barbie teaching a girl who thinks the only thing that she is good at is playing the piano.

Some of the books went to some pretty weird places though. For example, Voyage to Rados is an outright sci-fi story.

I've never read Voyage to Rados but some of the pictures make me really wonder what this story is about. I am given to understand that Barbie and co are exploring an alien planet and possibly saving the galaxy.

And naturally of course, they are doing science on board the space craft.

I'm not sure but to me this picture looks an awful lot like Barbie about to perform brain surgery on a restrained alien. I assume this isn't what's happening, but I never want to read this book because the version that exists in my head is too entertaining.

Locket Surprise Barbie, 1993