ALA Booklist (Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

Dr. Pegs, with red pigtails and wide brown eyes, is planning a slow day at the doll hospital, organizing buttons. But that's before the doorbell rings e, two, three, four times. First, it's Portia, a porcelain doll who needs some glue for her arm. Then the "ding-a-ling" announces Scoop, who has a stomachache. And why not? His stuffing is falling out. The next arrival is a baby doll, and in need of help, he can only say moo instead of mommy. The final arrival is a bear in need of a button 's lost an eye. Dr. Pegs (who looks like the other round-faced, simply shaped toys) must ring the emergency bell. She needs help! A quintet of Russian nesting dolls, all dressed as nurses, assist in getting the procedures done. The illustrations, made of cut paper, cloth, stuffing, ink, and digital techniques, give a three-dimensional look to the artwork and provide a symmetry of shape and color, primarily reds, greens, buffs, and browns. If a hospital visit can be fun, it's this one.

Horn Book (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

At the Doll Hospital (a dollhouse), Dr. Pegs has a growing list of priorities, including setting a porcelain doll's cracked arm and providing new stomach stuffing for plush doll Scoop. Luckily, help arrives from the "Nesting Nurses," five nesting dolls who pitch in to mend the dolls in need. This charmingly old-fashioned story has appropriately retro illustrations featuring patterned stripes, dots, and shapes in an almost neon palette.

Kirkus Reviews

It's not only the patients, but the doctor and nurses who are dolls, too.Dr. Pegs, a doll with Raggedy Ann-orange hair, a light brown face, and green scrubs, gets overwhelmed when too many patients arrive. There's Portia, a pretty, brown porcelain doll with a cracked arm, and Scoop, a blond, pink-faced stuffed boy doll with a tummy ache. Then come Baby, a white doll whose talking mechanism is broken ("Instead of saying ‘Mommy,' she says, ‘MOO!' "), and Teddy, a brown bear missing one eye. Dr. Pegs had one chore in mind: to sort the buttons, needed for emergencies. Now she's terribly flustered and must ring the "special bell" for the Nesting Nurses. A set of nurses with diverse racial identities, resembling Russian wooden dolls, arrives and efficiently solves every toy's problem, even sorting the pesky buttons. In fact, they do all the work, but Dr. Pegs centers herself when she says "I couldn't have done it without you." Collage and digital illustrations have a charming retro look with a palette that relies on red, green, yellow, and brown (and, interestingly, no black), and the text is cumulative in a satisfying way, but the message is mixed. Although the doctor is female and cheerfully thanks her female assistants, she still manages to come out on top. Couldn't medical teamwork have been shown in a more enlightened way?Although the instinct to care for others is important to nurture, this seems like an unnecessary throwback to an earlier era. (Picture book. 3-6)

School Library Journal (Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

PreS-Gr 1 What starts out as a quiet day at the Doll Hospital quickly becomes a hectic one as patient after patient arrives with various problems that need fixing. Doctor Peg (also a doll) begins making her to-do list, which grows quickly, and includes gluing a cracked porcelain arm and restuffing a stuffed dolls stuffing. Soon the good doctor is overwhelmed. But she enlists the help of the Nesting Nurses dolls, who help set everyone to rights, and even find a button for Teddy Bear's eye. VERDICT Written in a cumulative manner with bright, colorful digital illustrations rendered in a simple color palette, this is a sweet story that will capture the hearts of little ones with their own favorite dolls. Best shared one-on-one and for small group read-alouds. Jessica Marie, Salem Public Library, OR