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, September 12, 2025

The Homecoming

"There she is!" Mariah called from the window.

Veronika and Mandy were in the upstairs hall when they heard Mariah's voice. "She's home!" they both said at once.

Then they both went down the stairs as fast as they could, which isn't fast, because they are small and the stairs are as tall as chairs.

All of the dolls rushed out to help Jolena with her things. Veronika and Billy carried her suitcases in for her.

Emil brought the big bag with the skis and ski poles.

Charlotte brought Jolena's ski helmet and goggles.

While Mariah paid the driver, Mandy walked with Jolena into the house.
It was so good to see Jolena again. She gave each of them a hug, because she likes hugs, and she knows they do, too.

While the other dolls put Jolena's ski equipment away and her laundry into the basket in the laundry room, Mandy and Mariah made some pretend tea, which is very easy and quick to make. When the tea was ready, the dolls all sat down in the living room to enjoy their tea and catch up on everything Jolena had done in Chile.

Jolena talked about seeing her friend Elizabeth and getting to ski with her.

She talked about the dolls who had come from other countries to train in Chile, too, because they didn't have snow in July where they lived.

She told them about all the new tricks she had learned to do on her skis.

Finally, when she had told them all the important things about her trip, she looked around at her sisters and brothers. "Now," she said. "Tell me what you all have done! What did I miss?"

All the other dolls started talking at once. Jolena couldn't make any sense out of it. "Wait!" she cried.

"Let's do this one at a time," Jolena suggested. "We'll just go around the circle, and one person at a time can talk." They thought that was a good idea, so that's what they did.

First Emil said, "I got locked in the dishwasher when Billy and I were cleaning up after cooking dinner!"

"Oh, my!" Jolena exclaimed. "What did you do?"
"I banged on the door," Emil said. He held out his hands to show Jolena how he banged on the door of the dishwasher.

Then he explained that Billy and Charlotte had let him out.

Jolena thought about that. "I guess," she said, "if I need to teach anyone else how to cook, I will have to tell them to be sure not to climb into the dishwasher...or the oven, or the fridge."

When it was Billy's turn, he said, "Some workmen came last week and replaced all the windows on the back of the house."

"We got to watch!" Billy added.

Veronika was next. "Mandy and I got new shoes last week," she said, holding up her feet, so Jolena could see.

"Veronika," Mandy said, "That's what I was planning to say."

"Go on, everyone," Mandy added, "and I'll think of something else that happened while Jolena was gone. You can come back to me."

Charlotte said, "I've been learning a new piece on my violin. It's by Mozart (MO-tsart) and very...um...challenging (CHA-lun-jing). I have had to work hard on it, but I think I can play it for you soon."

Mariah said, "I'm going to be in a play at school at the end of the month. Billy has been helping me learn my lines. They picked me for it because they needed a few dolls who look different from the others."

"My, you all have been busy!" Jolena said. Then she looked at Mandy. "Did you think of anything else, Mandy?" she asked.
"Yes," Mandy said. "Wait until you see the zucchini (zoo-KEEN-ee) plants! They already have blossoms and that means that soon we will have some zucchini to pretend to eat."

"Let's go look!" Jolena said. "Zucchini is good roasted or in soups and stew."

"I like zucchini on pizza!" Billy put in.

"If you wait too long to pick one," Emil suggested, "It will get very big, and you can use it for a baseball bat."

Mariah laughed. "When you get done playing baseball with it," she said, "you can scoop out the seeds, fill the hole with some yummy filling and bake it, maybe with some cheese or bread crumbs on top."

All the dolls wanted to go look at the zucchini plants, so they did. They were all happy to have Jolena back home again.

Then they turned around, so Jolena could see the new windows on the back of the house.

"Lovely!" Jolena exclaimed.
"Yes, they are very nice," Emil agreed.
"They are something called energy efficient (IN-er-gee ee-FIH-shint)," Billy said. That means they will help keep the house warm in the winter and cooler in the summer. That will save The Writer and her husband money."

"That's wonderful," Jolena agreed, "but I meant it's lovely being home with my brothers and sisters!"
It was lovely to have Jolena home again, too.

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

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

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

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.

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

Coming soon: Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less, because the vendor gets a cut. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well, or ask your library to get them.

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, September 5, 2025

The Boys Cook Dinner

"When did Mandy say Jolena was coming home?" Emil asked Billy as the boys stared at the empty kitchen.

No one was cutting vegetables at the sink. No yummy smells were drifting through the air. No beeps or buzzes or whirring sounds came from the appliances sitting on the countertops.

"I think it was Monday," Billy replied, "but I'm pretty sure she won't feel like cooking for a couple of days. She was pretty tired when she came home from last year's Doll Ski Team practice in South America."

Billy knew that Emil was missing Jolena––he missed Jolena, too––but they also missed her cooking. The dolls hadn't hadn't pretended to eat a really good, home-cooked meal since she had left, and they were missing it. All the dolls could cook, but no one could cook like Jolena! She often organized the other dolls so each one had a job to do. She would show them how to do their jobs correctly. Billy could remember Jolena in the kitchen, teaching and encouraging the other dolls, and would be very happy when she was home again.

"Well, it's our turn to cook," said Emil, turning to look at the refrigerator, which was the first place to start when trying to decide what to have for dinner. "What should we fix?"

"We need to be sure what we fix is good for us," Billy said. "We need something from each of the different food groups."

"Let's fix an extra food, too," Emil said, thinking about cookies or pudding.

"Let's see what's in the refrigerator," Billy said. The boys knew some easy dishes they could cook all by themselves. All they needed to do was see if what they needed was on hand.

There were lettuce, mushrooms, sprouts and other things for salad in the refrigerator. They found some frozen vegetables and cooked chicken in the freezer. There were some bottles and jars of sauces in the pantry. There is always rice. That suggested to them one of the easy things they knew how to fix. If they cooked some rice, heated up the vegetables and chicken with a sauce, made a salad and gave each doll a glass of milk, it would make a meal that would give them some of each of the kinds of foods they needed to be healthy.

After they decided what to cook, the boys got to work. First they helped each other tie cloth napkins around their waists to keep spills off of their clothes.

Then the boys washed the bottoms of their shoes and their hands before getting up on the countertop. (They know real children should not sit or stand on the countertops, but for some things the dolls have to because they are so small.)

Now they were ready to cook. They put water and rice into the big rice cooker.

Emil plugged in the rice cooker. He made sure his hands were dry. He was careful not to get his fingers too close to the electrical outlet, because he didn't want to get a shock.

Billy turned the rice cooker on and set it for the kind of rice they were using. Then the boys mixed the frozen vegetables and cooked chicken with a sauce from a bottle.

They put it next to the microwave to cook later when the rice was done.

They made a salad with some lettuce, some sprouts and the other vegetables they had cut up.

They baked some cookies from some of Jolena's cookie dough that was in the freezer. They made sure that they had enough for each doll to have one cookie to pretend to eat. Usually that would be seven, but Jolena wasn't going to be eating one, so they baked only six cookies.

They put the vegetables and chicken into the microwave and set it for the time they knew it would take.

While the vegetables and chicken were heating up, they cleaned up after themselves. The other dolls would put their own plates into the dishwasher after they all pretended to eat. The boys could put a few things into the dishwasher now, but they had to wash some things by hand.

Then they washed the countertops, because they had been standing on them. Billy was just closing the dishwasher door when Charlotte came into the kitchen.

"How is it going?" Charlotte asked.

"We're all done now," Billy replied, "except for putting it on the table."

Charlotte looked around. "Where's Emil?" she asked.

Billy looked around, too. He was surprised not to see Emil standing next to him. "I don't know," he said. "He was just here. We were putting some things into the dishwasher."

Charlotte and Billy heard a thumping sound coming from the dishwasher.

When they opened it, there was Emil!

"Oh, I'm sorry, Emil!" Billy cried. "I must have closed the door without looking to see if you were out!"

"It's OK, Billy," Emil said, as he climbed down. "I'm just glad you didn't turn it on! The dishes need washing, but I don't, and the water might have ruined my special glasses and my hearing aids!"

"Boys," Charlotte said, "please be careful. You should pull the tray out to load the dishes. Climbing inside could be very dangerous."

"Yes," Billy agreed, "I see that now, and I should have looked inside before closing the door!"

"Well," Charlotte said, "It's a good thing we were right here to let you out. You could have been stuck inside there for hours! The doors to dishwashers and refrigerators are hard to open from the inside. The people who make the appliances don't expect dolls to be in there and need to get out."

"I won't do that again!" Emil promised. Just then the rice cooker and the microwave both beeped. It was time to put everything on the table

.
"Let's call the others!" Emil said. "We can pretend to eat!"

Cast--
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia

Photo of cookies by Isabelle Acheson on Unsplash.
This story appears in the book Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook.