KARITO KIDS: Gia

I knew about Karito Kids in 2007, but didn't fall for them until summer of 2008. I was living in New York City then, attending NYU, and had just moved into a teeny tiny single room ("apartment") in their newly-acquired Brooklyn dorm. I'd been living in that building for the entire 2007-2008 school year, but I'd used a combo of luck and connections to keep my super spacious double apartment all to myself, but that came to an end when summer semester began. I wasn't taking classes, but I was working for the school at the time, with plans to relocate to a different dorm in the West Village for fall semester.

So you know, it was the perfect time to start collecting a 22" doll line!

I decided to start by getting the set of five books, one mystery for each character, and using them to choose which doll to buy first.

I ended up with Gia from Italy, the fashionista of the bunch, which seems a bit of an unusual choice for me, but her doll is still one of my favorite larger-scale dolls of all time.

You might be able to see why from the picture below. She's just stunningly gorgeous.

Each book is a mystery set in each character's country. Gia is from Florence (Firenze), Italy.

Florence Fiasco is about how Gia's family runs a small pensione (hotel). She hates her job and the drab uniform she has to wear, because she has dreams of becoming big in the fashion world.

When an older designer decides to stay in their hotel while preparing for his big comeback at Fashion Week, a pair of expensive diamond-decorated shoes go missing. The blame falls on Gia, so she takes it upon herself to solve the mystery. The designer ends up believing her and even prepares a dress for her to wear to his show. Gia gets help from a brash American rich girl and the two try to solve the mystery.

However, Gia's hypotheses are way off until she realizes, while at the fashion show, who the culprit is and races back to the hotel to get the shoes and save the day.

These books were originally released as hardcovers with names based on the locations. When the dolls got a revamp with new clothing, the books became softcovers with new titles that included the girls' names. These are the same books though! They are not new ones.

Each Karito Kid got a single book...except Gia.

Gia's second book takes place after the first, when she wins a design contest in a kids' fashion magazine. She gets to see her designs made real and even gets to model in the photo shoot. Gia insists that the skinny models from a certain agency that the magazine wants to use don't represent her vision. She manages to get the lady in charge to agree with her and replaces the scrawny models with two friends that she met at the hotel and one of her Italian friends.

However, someone's got it out for Gia and her friends. They keep receiving threats, having near-misses with a crazy lady on a motorbike, and one girl's hair even gets temporarily dyed green.

Gia struggles with asking adults for help, because she doesn't want anything to stop the photo shoot, but also whenever she tries to tell someone, no one believes her. So of course things escalate and come to a head with no one seeing the truth until Gia outs the culprit at the end.

My only real complaint about the book is that some of the minor characters seem off. Her mother was the one who supported her dream in the first book, only to be the stubborn one in this second book. Her older sister has a sudden interest in cooking that I don't think was mentioned in the first book at all. And the entire sequence where they go out of town wasn't very well-written or believable.

Still, I liked both of Gia's books a lot. They're a fun ride and while she's obsessed with fashion, Gia also sees a lot of beauty everywhere around her. She gets inspiration from art and anyone who loves museums is excellent in my book.

I just wish they'd made the outfit on the cover of her second book! Her updated doll outfit was nowhere near that pretty and not as good as her original outfit either.