Bear

Veronika thought Mariah looked sad.

She climbed up next to Mariah, moving Mariah's notebook and pencil aside. "Is something the matter?" she asked.

"I'm feeling bad about myself," Mariah said. "I'm not sure if I did something wrong. I didn't mean to."
"Tell me about it," Veronika suggested.

"Well," Mariah began, "We were supposed to write a poem for school, so I did."

"It sounds like a good thing to do," Veronika said. 
"I was happy with it," Mariah said. "I thought about your Mato and pretended he was a real bear. I wrote about Mato and me."

"I typed it on the computer," Mariah continued. "Then I printed it off, so it would look nice. I got a good grade on it, but Blair, that's a girl in my class, said I copied it from someone else. She said I cheated."

"Did you?" Veronika asked.
"No, I don't think so," Mariah said, "but I've been thinking that maybe I read it somewhere and it stayed in my mind."
"May I read your poem?" Veronika asked.
Mariah nodded. She took a piece of paper from her notebook.

Veronika read:

Bear

By Mariah

Bear peeks in my window.

I know he is my friend.

I know my big friend likes me,

And Bear knows I like him.

I don't play with this friend,

And he stays far from me.

Still we can share a moment

Every now and then.

I was made by people

Who live very far away.

My friend's a part of nature.

In nature he must stay.

Bear peeks in my window.

I give my friend a nod.

He lumbers off contented

To find food in the wood.

"It's very nice," Veronika said when she was done reading. "I like it. I can just imagine Mato as a real bear, looking in the window at you."

"Blair said it doesn't rhyme (RYM)," Mariah said. "That made me feel bad, too. Some of the ends of the lines don't sound the same as some of the others."
"Poems don't have to rhyme," Veronika pointed out. 

"Of course, a nursery rhyme will rhyme," Veronika said, "or else it's a nursery poem, but some poems do and some don't. 'Away' and 'stay' rhyme, but those are the only two words that rhyme exactly in your poem, and that's OK." Veronika looked at the poem again. "Your poem has a rhythm (RIH-thum) to it," she went on. "I like to think of rhythm as the beat, like in music. Your poem has a beat to it, but a poem doesn't have to have rhythm, either."

"But what if I just remembered it from having heard it before?" Mariah asked. "I didn't mean to copy from someone else."

"I think your teacher would have known," Veronika said, "but just to be sure, let's go upstairs and get the computer. We can look up Bear poems."

Veronika brought the computer into the living room and opened it up. She typed in "Bear poem." Poems about bears came on the screen. There were lots and lots of them. Most of them mentioned honey and bees. Some of them rhymed and some had rhythm. Some had both rhyme and rhythm, and some didn't have either.

"I don't see your poem here," Veronika said after they had read all the poems.

"They are all nice poems," Mariah said. "They made me see pictures in my head."
"But yours isn't here!" Veronika said, "And poems don't have to rhyme."
Then Veronika picked up Mariah's pencil and pointed to the end she doesn't write with. "What's this?" she asked.

"That's the eraser," Mariah replied. "I use it when I want to change words I don't spell right or when I change my mind about how to say something."
"It's a well-used eraser," Veronika said. "You didn't copy your poem. I've seen you write. You write and erase, and then rewrite. If you had it in your head already, you would have just written it out."
"Then why did Blair say those things to me?" Mariah wanted to know.

"Without knowing what's going on in her life," Veronika said, "I can't say. What I wonder, though, is if she might have been trying to hurt you."
Mariah thought about that. "Why would any doll want to hurt another doll?" she asked. "That isn't how dolls behave!"

"Sometimes dolls who hurt others are suffering inside." Veronika explained. "If someone is mean to them, they think being mean to someone else will make them feel better."
Mariah thought about that. "But being mean to someone would make me feel bad," she said. "That's why I don't do it...at least not on purpose."
"That's smart," Veronika agreed, "because it doesn't work. You can't feel better about yourself by hurting others."

 Mariah thought for a moment about what Veronika had said. "Blair must feel really bad if someone has been mean to her," she said finally. "Maybe I should pretend she is my friend. If I do it long enough, maybe she will be. Maybe she will feel better about herself, too."

"I think that would be nice," Veronika agreed, "but if it doesn't work and she still wants to hurt you, at least you should know that it isn't your fault, and whatever she says about you can't hurt you if you don't let it. You should feel sorry for her instead."

Mariah thought about that, too. Then she said, "I know what I'll do! I'll write a poem about that!"
"That's a great idea," Veronika agreed.
"Maybe this one will rhyme," Mariah said, "or maybe it won't."

Veronika got Mato and brought him to the windowsill where the girls had been sitting. Mariah read her poem to Mato.

Then she gave Mato a kiss, because he had been a very helpful bear.

Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Mato: "Mato" (Lakota for "bear") by Running Strong for American Indian Youth


Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz or Classic Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to a charity that supports pediatric cancer, such as CURE Childhood Cancer, St. Baldrick's Foundation or St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
"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 2:00 PM Pacific Time.


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Copyright © 2020 by Peggy Stuart

Growing Things

Billy was showing Emil the garden. We were going to grow some vegetables this year.
"Last year, before you came," Billy told Emil, "we grew only radishes."

"Tell me about it" Emil said.

"Well," Billy began, "Mariah and I were reading a book together, when Mandy climbed up on the couch and showed us a packet of seeds. They were radish seeds."

Billy explained to Emil how Mandy invited them to help her plant the seeds. "We went into the kitchen," he said, thinking back. "Mandy had a clear plastic cup and some rocks. We put the rocks into the cup."

Mandy had filled the cup with dirt. "She called it potting soil," Billy explained. "That's special dirt you use when you plant something in a pot."

Mandy added water to the cup. She added water until the dirt was damp.

Then it was time for the seeds. Mandy tore off the top of the seed packet.

Mandy poured some seeds from the packet into a little bowl. "The seeds were tiny things," Billy said.

Mandy picked up a chopstick. She used it to push the seeds down into the soil just a little bit. She made sure the seeds were up against the sides of the cup, so the dolls could see them as they grew.

Mandy said that they would have to wait, and the seeds would do the rest.

Mandy put the cup in a little bowl on the windowsill. She checked it every day and sometimes added water.

After a few days, the dolls were able to see the seeds change shape. They grew little arms that curled around in the dirt.

After a few more days, the arm had started to go down in the dirt.
"So maybe it was a leg, instead of an arm," Emil suggested to Billy.
"Mandy told us it's called a root," Billy explained. "She said it would grow bigger and bring water and food to the plant."

"We took turns checking on what was happening in the cup," Billy remembered. "The little plants were a bit bigger each day."

One day the little plants had leaves.

Mandy brought the cup to the workroom, so all the dolls could see.

"Mandy told us the plants were growing," Billy explained.

"When we looked at the side of the cup, we could see that the roots had tiny hairs sticking out," Billy explained. "Mandy said those were roots, too."

Every day there were more leaves on the plants and the plants were taller.

When the weather was warm, the dolls took them outside and planted them in the garden.

"They grew and grew," Billy explained to Emil. He showed Emil where they had planted the radishes. There were other vegetables there now, but there would be some radishes soon, too.

"When they are big enough, we'll pull them out of the ground," Billy explained. "That's what we did last year."

Billy remembered how Jolena had cut up the radishes last year and put them into a salad. The dolls had pretended to eat them for supper.

Just then Mandy came out of the house and heard what the boys were talking about as they walked back to the dog door. "You don't have to plant some plants in the ground for them to grow enough to eat," she said. "We've been growing some sprouts in the house. Come and I'll show you."

The boys got up and followed Mandy into the house. On the counter was a jar full of little leaves and tiny roots. "These seeds grow inside a jar. They are ready to eat in a just a few days. These are sprouts," Mandy explained. "They grew from broccoli (BROK-uh-lee) seeds."

"If we planted them outside and let them keep growing," Mandy said, "they would turn into broccoli plants. We could cut the broccoli and bring it indoors for Jolena to cook."

"We can pretend to eat them this way, too," Mandy said, "by growing them in jars."
"How do you do that?" Emil asked.
"First you put some seeds in a jar," Mandy began. "Then you put some water in with the seeds and close the jar with a special lid that has a screen in it."

"You leave it for the seeds to soak overnight," she continued. "In the morning, you drain the water out of the jar. It's easier if you have a screen in the lid or a special lid with holes to keep the seeds in the jar." she told them. "You leave the jar tipped over in a bowl, so the water can drain and the air can get in. Some seeds taste better if you leave them in the dark. We use one of the kitchen cabinets for that, but these are OK out on the counter."

"We rinse them with water every morning and every night." Mandy explained. "You have to pour water into the jar through the lid, then tip it over so the water drains out."
The boys took a close look at the seeds. Some looked looked puffy, but they still just looked like seeds. Wet seeds.

"These will be a different kind of sprouts," Mandy said. "They are a mix of several different kinds of seeds."

(Here's what Mandy's seeds looked like when they had been growing for a day or two.)

"These sprouts have grown enough to eat," Mandy explained, showing them some sprouts in a bowl on the counter.

"How do you pretend to eat them?" Billy asked. 
"Jolena puts these in salads or sandwiches, like lettuce," Mandy replied, "but you can throw them in with food you cook, too." 

Now all the dolls like to pretend to eat sprouts. They like to grow them, too. It's fun to see how much bigger they are in the morning when you get up.

Jolena explained to Charlotte that sprouts are easy to grow, because you don't have to dig in the dirt. You don't have to wait for warm weather. You can even grow them in the winter.
Jolena likes to think of different ways to serve the sprouts. 

Sometimes the the dolls like to sprout a special kind of beans. They soak them overnight and then rinse them with water twice a day, just like the small seeds.

They keep these in the dark. When the sprouted beans grow to fill the jar, they are ready to eat.

Jolena likes to cook with the bean sprouts. She usually cooks them with other vegetables.

Veronika has been using a special indoor garden to grow herbs (ERBZ). 

Herbs are plants that are used to add more flavor to foods. Veronika's special garden grows the plants in water. It has a light that comes on and stays on all day to make sure the plants have enough light. Plants need light to grow. Jolena likes to use the herbs in her recipes. 

Children grow, too. They don't stay in a jar or get planted in the ground. They run around and play. They sleep in a bed at night, the way dolls do, not standing up in the dirt or squished in a jar.

Eating foods that grow in the ground or in a jar helps them grow. They grow until they are as big as they are meant to be.

Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia

Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz or Classic Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to a charity that supports pediatric cancer, such as CURE Childhood Cancer, St. Baldrick's Foundation or St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
"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 2:00 PM Pacific Time.

Whole radishes photo: Matilda Bellman
Cut radishes photo: Louis Hansel @shotsoflouis
Broccoli photo: Annie Spratt
all of the above on Unsplash.


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Copyright © 2020 by Peggy Stuart