Barbieland mainly focuses on Mattel and all its litigations

The book is an easy read and
I finished it in three days.

When I got the book in February 2026,
it was already in its second printing.

The latest Barbie book is another non-fiction publication about the history of Barbie.  It is called Barbieland and is mostly about the lawsuits Mattel has been involved in.  It was written by a woman named Tarpley Hitt and was published in 2005.  (In the book, Tarpley explains the reason for using one of her middle names instead of her given name.)

Although Hitt skips back and forth, I would say that half of the book is about the litigation against Mattel, beginning with Rolf Hausser and Louis Marx and the Bild Lilli doll.  (Note that I italicized "Bild," because it was a German magazine called Bild, which means bold.)

Almost the entire third section of the book is about the complicated lawsuit by MGA Entertainment and the production of the Bratz dolls.  It gets repetitious, confusing and boring, and neither side wins.

The book ends with the 2025 comment about Donny Two Dolls.

The first section with the history is information I already knew, such as the introduction of Ken and Midge and Francie and Christie.  Surprisingly, the book even mentions Barbie's other early siblings, Skipper, Tutti and Todd.

I wish someone would write a book about the production of many of the various family and friend dolls that have been created over the years:  The naming of the dolls, the designs of the faces, why some friends were discontinued after just a few years, etc.