Happy Meal Toy for my Inner Child

I love children's board books, clever little art kits marketed to children, and all their pockets, nooks, places to tuck things in and other interactive features. Well, this weekend I have been down with a cold so I asked the DH to pick me up some junk food ("Junk feed a cold, starve a fever"?). He brought me a McDonald's Happy Meal (yes, with fries and boy did they taste wickedly good). Inside the Happy Meal was my girly prize -- an American Girl book/toy.

I just love this kind of packaging and wish I could make, or at least, in some parallel lifetime, design this stuff (the foldover spork wasn't book-related but it was truly brilliant). And this package so appeals to my inner girlie-girl child. If you're not familiar with American Girl dolls, they are really big with the not-so-Barbie set right now, and each doll has a story behind it that tells a chapter in U.S. History.

Now, back to this awfully cute book (click the pictures for slightly larger images) --

It came tied in a cute silky ribbon bow, which unfortunately I couldn't retie. It opens up into a short, glossy text weight accordion book that tells the story of the girl.

Inside the front cover are some activities -- a little drawing lesson and a trivia quiz.

Inside the back flat is a pocket. Oh my gosh! There are three versions of a small cardstock paper doll, a sheet of stickers, a few accessories, and a couple of tags which I presume you're supposed to put the stickers onto.
And now if you'll exscuse me, I need to call the DH to see if McDonald's has more styles this week or if I have to wait! If you see me waddling down the street, it's because my inner child went back for too many Happy Meals!

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