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, June 21, 2024

How Emil Came to The Doll's Storybook, Part One

The dolls were studying and doing their homework when Veronika came into the room.

"Everyone, you need to listen to this," Veronika said, waving a piece of paper so they would see what she had.

The dolls gathered around Veronika. "It's a letter," she said. Then she began to read.

Here is what the letter said:

Dear Veronika and Cast of The Doll's Storybook,
I heard you were looking for another boy doll, and I am hoping you will choose me.

Before you accept me, you should know something about me. I'm not perfect. It isn't the fault of the factory where we were made. Sometimes these things just happen. Anyway, I wanted to be sure you knew about this before you decide.
First of all, I'm very nearsighted. That means I can't see very far from my nose. This isn't too bad, though, because my special glasses correct my sight to almost normal. I just need to wear my glasses all the time, except when I'm asleep.
My other problem is more serious. I'm almost deaf without my hearing aids. Fortunately, they were able to build my hearing aids into my glasses. I can talk with other dolls with no problem without my hearing aids, because, like other dolls, I talk by sharing my thoughts and listening to yours, but I need the hearing aids so I don't get hurt by things like cars and bicycles, and so I know when water is running and when an alarm goes off. I can't hear those things in my head without the hearing aids in my special glasses.
If you accept me as a new cast member, I promise to try very hard not to let these things make problems for you. I will also try to be the best doll I can be.

Sincerely,
Emil

"It's a good letter," Mandy said when Veronika had finished reading the letter.

Mariah, who had been looking over Veronika's shoulder, pointed at the letter. "There are no words misspelled," she said. "The ideas are easy to understand. He must be smart. He must have worked hard on the letter."

"He could have used Autocorrect," Billy said. "Autocorrect will fix the spelling."

"Yes," agreed Mariah, "but Autocorrect just changes something that isn't a word to something that is. It may not be the right word."
"Sometimes," put in Jolena, "Autocorrect gives you something silly, and it makes you laugh, and the letter looks as if he might have written it out instead of using a computer, and Autocorrect only works if you're using a computer or a phone."

"That's right," Mariah agreed. "You have to know if the word is the right one, and you still have to write what you want to say so it's easy to understand."
The dolls all smiled and nodded. They could remember times when they had seen this happen, and they agreed the letter looked as if it might have been written by hand. "Emil must have had to use a dictionary to check the spelling of all the words he wasn't sure of," Mariah concluded.

Charlotte had been very quiet. Now she had something to say. "I like that he sounds honest," she said.
The other dolls looked up at Charlotte.

"How do you see that in his letter, Charlotte?" Veronika asked.
"Well," Charlotte began, "he wants to be chosen, doesn't he? He could have just told us how wonderful he is, and how he's the best one for the job. He could have left out the part about his problems."

"You're right," Mandy said. "Then we wouldn't have known until he arrived, when it was too late."

Veronika turned to Billy. "What do you think, Billy?" she asked. "If we choose him, he will be your pal. You need to be satisfied with the choice."

"I like the letter," Billy said. "He sounds interesting. He says he isn't perfect, but none of us is perfect. He's different, but we're all different, even though we are alike in lots of ways."

"Like that our eyes don't close," Jolena said, "and we each have one hand with two fingers stuck together."

"It sounds to me," Billy said, "like he can do everything I like to do. I think we will have fun together."

"Let's vote on it," Veronika said, "unless anyone has something else to say."
The dolls shook their heads. They were ready to vote.
"All right," Veronika said, "who wants to choose Emil to be our new brother? Raise your hand if you do."
All the dolls raised their hands.

"Good," said Veronika. "It's unanimous (you-NAN-ih-mus)! That means we all voted the same. Then I don't have to ask who doesn't want Emil to be our new brother. I will write back and let him know."
"Veronika," Billy said, "there is something I would like you to ask him. You said his name like 'eh-MEEL.' How do we know it isn't 'EE-mul' or something else? It's an unusual name. Would you ask him how he says it so we can say it correctly when he comes?"

Veronika said she would ask. It was an important part of helping him feel at home when he arrived.

"When you write, please ask him what kind of food he likes to pretend to eat best," Jolena said. "I want to fix him his favorite food when he gets here."

"I want to find out," Mariah added, "what kinds of books he likes. We can go to the library right before he arrives and check out some things."
"Ask him if he can hear music," Charlotte said. "If he can, please find out what his favorite song is, so I can learn to play it for him on my violin."

"I have something for you to ask him," Mandy said. "Ask him if he needs to plug in his hearing aids at night or if his hearing aids use batteries, and please ask him if he needs anything else we might not think of."

That night, Veronika wrote a letter to Emil and told him that he had been chosen to be their new brother. She wrote that they liked his letter and thought he sounded nice. She asked him how to say his name. She used Autocorrect to make sure she had spelled the words correctly, and when Autocorrect changed something, she looked to see if Autocorrect was just being silly.

Veronika asked Emil what kind of food and books he liked best. She asked him if he could hear music with his special glasses, and if so, what was his favorite song. She asked him if he needed batteries or a charger for his glasses, or if there was anything else he might need. Then she added that they could tell he was special from his letter, and that was good. Then she printed off the letter and signed it. She put it into an envelope. She put a stamp on the letter.
Then all the dolls went to the mailbox together to mail the letter to Emil.

They could hardly wait. They knew Emil would be special.

We are all special, and so are you.

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

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.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook and Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook are available from BookBaby and other booksellers worldwide, such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Author's page on Amazon.

Royalties (net proceeds) go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment. If you don't get free shipping elsewhere, buy from Book Baby. Half of the price goes to charity (specific information available upon request). Autographed copies of all three books are available from the author. (Multiple books to the same address have a discount on shipping.) To inquire, email thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/19832501/?claim=j3fj3mbb8kt">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Friday, June 14, 2024

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.

“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 said, “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 the 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.”

“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 brought it to 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 a bird, too,” 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.”

“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 brought the photo Jolena was talking about onto the screen 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

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.

"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.

Author's page on Amazon.

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/19832501/?claim=j3fj3mbb8kt">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>