Why would she think a boy would like a story about a girl and a doll?
People are people. Girls & boys both read stories about people. Most things in life do not directly relate to gender. It’s not about the doll.
We had to stop our daughter from reading about a boy named Harry Potter half the night away when she was around 8. There was a group of classmates who read so far above grade level that they finished their textbook by Christmas so the teacher let them go to the library during reading period. Sadly, this caused the teacher to be fired. That group were in a part time church preschool together and all but one graduated HS with honors. Nope, can’t have kids excelling.