The Doll's Storybook

Stories about dolls who live in our world. Although these stories are suitable for children, they should check with their parents before reading and always be careful online. Readers are invited to donate to a charity supporting pediatric cancer treatment and research. Images shown are taken by the author or from a free image website with attribution and appreciation. The author has no connection with Götz Puppenmanufaktur, but gives them credit for the amazing dolls they produce.

Friday, July 31, 2026

What Dreams May Come!

Veronika looked up from the book she was reading in bed to see Billy at the door to the room where she sleeps.
"Veronika, may I come in?" Billy asked.

"Sure, Billy," Veronika replied, "you can come in, but I thought you were asleep."

"I was asleep," Billy said, climbing up on the bed with Veronika. "I had a bad dream. I don't think I dare go back to sleep again."

Veronika closed her book and patted the bed to invite Billy to sit next to her.
"Do you remember your dream, Billy?" she asked.
"Yes, I do," he replied. "That's why I'm afraid to go to sleep."

"Maybe it will help you if you tell me about your dream," Veronika suggested.

"Well," Billy began, "in the dream a monster came out of the laptop and chased me around. I ran and ran, but it kept getting closer. Then I was falling. Falling doesn't usually scare me, because I know my vinyl is sturdy, but I kept falling and never hit the floor. Then I woke up. I was afraid the monster would be hiding somewhere in the bedroom."

"You know dreams aren't real, don't you Billy?" Veronika asked. "It's just something your doll brain does when you're asleep."
"This sure seemed real," he said. "I remember it as if it really happened."
"Well," said Veronika, "dolls are made to be like people, so our brains work the same way. I read that people who study how people's brains work have been trying for a long time to understand dreams. They think there is a purpose to them, like if you are learning lots of new things during the day, you will dream a lot more at night. Maybe it's the brain's way to organize and store what it has taken in all day."

Billy thought about that. "I guess I am learning a lot now," he said. "Before I came out of my box, I dreamed, but I don't remember much of what I dreamed about, just that it was sometimes interesting and never scary."

"Dolls sleep most of the time that they are in their boxes, so they have lots of dreams," Veronika explained. "That dreaming is what dolls do to get ready for the lives they will lead when they come out of their boxes. It helps teach them how to be companions to the children they will belong to. A companion is like a friend who is always there with you, who keeps you company. We dolls do that."
"But this dream was scary," Billy said.

"It's called a nightmare," Veronika explained. "It's normal to dream. Even dogs and cats dream. Sometimes you can see their legs move as if they are chasing something or running from something."
"I have seen Freckles and Pierre do that," Billy agreed. "Does that mean they are having scary dreams? Nightmares?"

"I don't know for sure," Veronika replied. "It probably means they are dreaming, but it could be a happy dream. The people who study dreams haven't figured out what dreams are for, only that there must be some purpose for them. If there is, it seems to be something animals need, too, so they dream."
"So that means sometimes children have nightmares?" Billy asked.
"Yes, they do," Veronika said, "and because children have nightmares, we have to understand what it's like, so we can comfort them."

"Children and dolls can have nightmares," Veronika went on, "especially after something scares them, like a scary movie. Maybe something happened that scared you, Billy." Then she remembered how Billy said that the dream monster came out of the computer. "Did something on the computer scare you?" she asked.
Billy thought for a long time. Then he seemed to have an idea. "I was playing a game on the computer and having a good time in the afternoon," he said.

"A picture of a strange person came on the screen," Billy went on. "Well, it looked almost like a person, but not quite. It was like a monster person. This thing told me I had to do what it told me to do, or it would hurt me. It was never there when I played that game before." Billy shivered as he talked about it. "It really scared me!"

Veronika considered what Billy had told her.

"I think there's a good chance that your brain was working through that fright," she suggested. "There are some bad people in the world who want to use our computers to hurt us, but they can't really hurt us if we don't tell them who we are or where we live, and they can't make you do something you don't want to do."

"I think I knew that. It sure scared me, though," Billy said, clearly relieved.
"If it happens again, come and get one of us older dolls," Veronika told him. "Maybe we can fix the computer so the bad person can't get through to your game."
Billy got up. "Thanks, Veronika," he said. "I think I can go to sleep now."
"I'm glad to help," Veronika replied. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Billy said.

Billy went back to the bedroom where he sleeps. He looked into the closet. There was some stuff there, but no monster.

He looked under the bed. There was some stuff there, but no monster.

He checked the whole room. There was no monster anywhere. With a sigh he climbed into bed and turned out the light. "Make me do something I don't want to do! I don't think so!" he said to himself.

Then Billy pulled on his sleep mask and went to sleep. This time he had a happy dream. In this dream he was using the computer to make his photos better. It was fun. Billy smiled in his sleep.

Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London

You can follow The Doll's Storybook here.

Do you have questions or comments for us? Would you like to order an autographed copy of one of our books? You can email us at thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz, Classic Kidz or Little Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or any organization that supports pediatric cancer research and treatment. We are not affiliated with St. Jude in any way other than these donations.

“The Doll’s Storybook” is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.

Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.

Do you like our stories? Some of them are available in print:

The stories in Mariah: Stories from The Doll’s Storybook are Being Little, Besties and Distraction.

The stories in Emil: Stories from The Doll’s Storybook are Best Buds, Getting What You Want and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll’s Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

Our book of poems, Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll’s Storybook includes Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll’s Storybook are Welcoming a Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.

Available now from BookBaby and other booksellers: Billy: Stories from The Doll’s Storybook. The Stories in Billy: Stories from The Doll’s Storybook are Talking About Boys, Changes, Shhhhh!, Staying After and Money in a Jar.

Royalties go to an organization that provides pediatric cancer research and treatment. If you don’t get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to our designated charity. Other booksellers pay much less, because the vendor gets a cut. The Writer’s author’s page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you, or ask your library to get our books for you.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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Friday, July 24, 2026

Skiing with Kiwis

“I’m glad you’re here,” Pippa said, as she let Pam in. “Jolena is back from skiing in New Zealand,” she told her. “She was just getting ready to show us her photos!”

“But it’s summer,” Pam pointed out. “I know you need snow to ski. We get snow in the winter.”

“But they do have snow in New Zealand,” Pippa told her. “The whole Southern Hemisphere (HEM-iss-feer) has snow right now.”

“It must be very cold in the Southern Hem-Hemisphere!” Pam struggled with the new word. “Do human people live there? I know human people don’t like the cold. It’s why they heat their houses.”

“It’s colder there right now,” Pippa told her friend as they walked down the hall. “but that’s because they have winter when we have summer. It’s complicated. Just ask Mandy to explain it.”

While Billy was setting up The Writer’s laptop so they could all look at the photos, the other dolls settled in their places, where they could see the screen. Billy made sure he could turn the laptop easily, to allow each of them to see. Before Pam arrived, he had shown Jolena how to send her photos to the cloud, so they could pull them up on the laptop. (She wondered how the photos knew which cloud to go to, but she was happy to see her pictures appear on the screen.)

“Did you get to practice your Spanish?” Pippa asked the older doll after she and Pam had climbed up into one of the big chairs.

“Only with the team from Spain,” Jolena replied. “There are lots of countries where Spanish is spoken, but most of them are in South America, where it’s winter now, too, so they can practice at home.”

“They don’t speak Spanish in New Zealand,” Jolena continued, “unless they know Spanish and someone who speaks it is visiting. I mean it’s not an official language of the country.”

“What language do they speak there?” Billy asked. “Did you have time to learn it before you went?”

Jolena laughed, “I’ve had plenty of time to learn it,” she replied. “Most human people speak English there, like here, and the dolls do, too, although it does sound a little different from how English sounds here.”

“I did find out, though,” she went on, “that New Zealand has two other official languages. One is Māori (MAH-oh-ree), or Te Reo Māori. That’s the language spoken by the human people who were already living in New Zealand before the English-speaking people came to live there. That's my first picture,” she told them.

“We went to see a music and dance performance of the Māori people while we were there,” Jolena said.

The dolls all looked at the photo. Billy turned the laptop a bit, so Pippa and Pam could see. When they had had time to look at the picture, he turned it back so Emil could see, too.

Jolena turned to Emil. “And Emil, you will like this!” she said. “New Zealand Sign Language is the third official language of the country.”

She knew he would be interested, because he was learning a sign language called Signing Exact English, so he could understand what human people who couldn’t hear, even with special glasses, were saying when they use their hands to talk. He had taught Pippa a few signs.

“I wonder how it’s different,” Emil pondered.

“I wondered that, too,” Jolena told them, “so I asked. I found out that there are lots of different kinds of sign language, just as there are many spoken languages all over the world.”

“New Zealand Sign Language,” Jolena said, “isn’t just American Sign Language or even British Sign Language with an accent (AK-sent), because an accent is the way the words sound. It borrowed from British Sign Language, but it has changed over the years.”

The dolls had to think for a bit to take it all in.

“What else did you learn about New Zealand?” Billy asked.

“Well,” Jolena began, “I learned that the country is made up of mostly of two big islands. Where’s the photo of the map, the one I took at the airport after we landed?” she asked Billy.

He found the photo of the map of New Zealand and opened it up on the screen.

“We went to the island on the bottom,” she told them. “That’s South Island. We flew into Christchurch. That’s a city on South Island.” Jolena showed them where it was on the map. She had to climb up onto the table to be able to reach the screen to point to the right place. When Billy and Emil had seen where she was pointing, she moved the laptop around so the two smaller dolls could see.

“Then we took a short flight to another place, closer to where we would be skiing,” she explained. “The name of that place is Queenstown.” She pointed to where that town was on the map. Then she turned the laptop back so Billy and Emil could see.

“From there,” Jolena went on, as she climbed back onto the big chair, “we had a bus that took us to the ski area. I took the next photo out of the bus.”

Billy turned the laptop so the smaller dolls could see.

“I took another photo from where we were staying at the ski resort,” she told them.

Billy turned the laptop around again for Pippa and Pam.

“You can tell it was getting late by then. They had lights turned on on the runs the skiers were using,” she added.

“Did you win any medals in New Zealand?” Pippa asked.

“This was just practice,” Jolena replied. “We’re getting ready for the competitions next February, but it was great for practice. I finally did a triple cork. I was really nervous when I was ready for my turn, because I knew I was going for it,” she added. “This photo was taken by our coach. I think you can see how nervous I was!”

“What’s a triple cork?” Pam asked.

“A triple cork,” Jolena told them, “is where you go up into the air and turn over three times. I could only do two times before. (That’s what we call a double cork.) Maybe I’ll even get a medal next time we compete, if I can do it right again.”

“After I took off my skis, my teammates all cheered and clapped their hands,” Jolena told them, remembering how proud she felt. “My teammate Elizabeth took this photo while they were clapping.”

“Wow!” the other dolls all said at once.

“You must be happy about improving your tricks,” Emil suggested.

Jolena thought about it and agreed. It made her feel good that all her practice was paying off.

“It sounds like a lot of work,” Billy said.

“It was a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun, too. We went back to Queenstown on our way to come home,” Jolena continued, “and we went to a special zoo there.”

Billy brought back the map of New Zealand so they could all look at it again and remember where Queenstown was.

“We saw some animals only found in New Zealand, unless they're in a zoo,” she told them. “I took a photo of a kiwi (KEE-wee),” Jolena said, as Billy found the kiwi and the dolls saw it on the screen.

“It looks like a bird,” Pippa said.

“That’s what it is,” Jolena agreed. “The kiwi has wings, but they’re so tiny, you can’t see them, and they can’t fly. They are native (NAY-tiv) to New Zealand. That means they evolved (ee-VOLVD) there.”

“I found out that if you call someone a Kiwi, it isn’t an insult. It just means the person is from New Zealand. The kiwi sleeps in the daytime and comes out at night,” Jolena explained. “The bird, I mean, not the person. Well, maybe some human people do that, too. They say a creature is nocturnal (nok-TER-nel) when it is only active at night and sleeps during the daytime.”

“Another one of New Zealand’s special animals is also a bird,” Jolena told them. “That bird is called a kea (KEE-uh). The kea is a kind of parrot, and the only parrot in the world that lives in the mountains.”

Billy pulled up the photo of the kea.

“It’s kind of plain,” Pam pointed out. “The parrots in Maryanne’s bird book are all bright colors,” thinking of the human girl she lived with.

“The kea hides its bright colors under its wings,” Jolena told her. “It shows in the next picture.” She looked at Billy, so he would know she was ready for the next one.

Billy opened up the photo Jolena was talking about and turned the laptop so Pam and Pippa could see.

When the dolls had seen all of Jolena’s photos, Pam climbed down from the chair in the dining room. “This has been fun, but I need to talk to Mandy,” she told them. “I need to find out about this alternate universe you can go to where it can be winter in summertime and summer in wintertime.”

Just like that, she was gone.

The three larger dolls looked at each other and then at Pippa. “Alternate universe?” Jolena asked.

“The Southern Hemisphere,” Pippa replied with a sigh.

Cast--

Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia

Pippa: Götz Little Kidz Lotta

Pam: Götz Little Kidz Springtime, from My Doll Best Friend

Do you want to know what makes the seasons change and how it can be winter in one place and summer in another? Read about when Mandy explained it to Billy, Charlotte and Mariah in It’s Spring!

Photo of traditional Māori man: Swain Destinations

Photo of map of New Zealand: Honey Bee Suite

Photo of ski area: Snowpak

Photo of ski area with skiers: Coronet Peak Ski Area

Photo of Kiwi: Reader’s Digest Canada

Photo of Kea: A-Z Animals

Photo of Kea in flight: Kea Conservation Trust