Impunity Jane
By Rumer Godden

In this children's story, a little doll is bought and taken home to sit on a pincushion in a dollhouse. She calls herself Impunity, which means, "escaping without hurt." She sits in the dollhouse for 50 years, longing to live in a pocket and see the world. When finally a 7-year-old boy named Gideon reaches into the dollhouse and steals her, she has all kinds of adventures. "I'm Imp-imp-impunity Jane!" she cries. As I was growing up and feminism was spreading throughout America, I often thought of Impunity Jane. Like her, I wanted the whole world to be open to me—I didn't want to live like a doll in a dollhouse.