Dorrie Books
Though her full first name is Dorothy, she is known as Dorrie to the world. The nickname comes directly from a series of books I (mom) used to read as a child. Along with my fascination with animals (Thornton Burgess, Bambi, Freddie the Pig, etc.), and series mysteries (Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew, etc.), I was drawn to books with fantasy themes — dragons, princesses and magic were things I would almost automatically pick up. The Dorrie books by Patricia Coombs are somewhere in between chapter books and picture books in reading level, and detail the adventures of a little witch named Dorrie and her cat, Gink.
The twenty books in the series were published over a period of 30 years, from the early 60s to the early 90s, but they’re all OOP now, and the earliest books especially are very difficult to find. Most used copies are ex-library and as a result are not often in the best of shape. It’s an ongoing project for us to try and collect the series for our Dorrie, one which will be quite difficult I expect, as the cheapest I’ve seen the first book in the series was for $700!
The titles (we’ve managed to acquire the ones in bold):
Dorrie’s Magic, 1962
Dorrie and the Blue Witch, 1964
Dorrie’s Play, 1965
Dorrie and the Weather Box, 1966
Dorrie and the Witch Doctor, 1967
Dorrie and the Wizard’s Spell, 1968
Dorrie and the Haunted House, 1970
Dorrie and the Birthday Eggs, 1971
Dorrie and the Goblin, 1972
Dorrie and the Fortune Teller, 1973
Dorrie and the Amazing Magic Elixir, 1974
Dorrie and the Witch’s Imp, 1975
Dorrie and the Halloween Plot, 1976
Dorrie and the Dreamyard Monsters, 1977
Dorrie and the Screebit Ghost, 1979
Dorrie and the Witchville Fair, 1980
Dorrie and the Witches’ Camp, 1983
Dorrie and the Museum Case, 1986
Dorrie and the Pin Witch, 1989
Dorrie and the Haunted Schoolhouse, 1992
While hunting down these Dorrie books, we also discovered other books starring a “Dorrie” as a character. Notably, the Fairy School series by Gail Herman features a young fairy named Dorrie as one of the protagonists. We’re happy to collect any book that has a Dorrie character. Below are ones which we already have:
Fairy School: Little Star
Fairy School: A Fairy Merry Christmas
Fairy School: Mixed Up Magic
Fairy School: Hide & Peep
Fairy School: Fairy Cloud Parade
Fairy School: Look Out, Earth Below
Fairy School: Tooth Fairy Travels
Fairy School: The Icicle Forest
Fairy School: The Best Book Ever!
Fairy School: When Wishes Come True