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.

Showing posts with label atmosphere. Show all posts

Friday, November 8, 2024

Twinkle, Twinkle

"I love that song," said Emil. "Do you know what it's called?"

"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," Mariah replied. "Charlotte often plays it to warm up when she practices. It's one of the first things she learned."

Emil and Mariah were sitting on the windowsill in the workroom late in the afternoon when they heard Charlotte start practicing her violin.

They were quiet for a few minutes, listening.

"I thought stars were big," Emil said, as Charlotte started playing scales, going one step higher for each note. "I thought stars were like our sun, and our sun is much bigger than our earth, and that's very, very big. Why does the song say the stars are little?"

"It's a very old children's song," Mariah replied. "Before children learn that stars are really very big, they think they are little, because that's how they look when we see them."

"I know they look little because they are far away," Emil said. "I wonder why they twinkle."
"I wonder that, too," Mariah said.

Both dolls were lost in thought for a few moments.

Then they sat up. "Let's ask Mandy!" they both exclaimed at once.

Emil and Mariah found Mandy in the living room. Jolena was reading a story out loud to Mandy, who was knitting.

Mandy looked up from her work."What's up?" she asked.

"We were upstairs, listening to Charlotte play 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,'" Emil began, "and we started to wonder why stars twinkle."

"I would like to know that, too," Jolena said.

"Hmmmm. I may need to draw a picture," Mandy said as she moved her reading glasses to the top of her head.

"I left my notebook and pencil here," Mariah said. "You can use it," she offered, handing the notebook and pencil to Mandy.

The three younger dolls gathered around Mandy as she put her glasses back on her nose and drew a picture on the paper.

This is what she drew. (It wasn't easy, because her fingers don't move.)

"This is the earth," she said, pointing to what appeared to be part of a ball. "Here's the thick layer of air and stuff that covers the earth."

"That's the atmosphere (AT-mus-fear)," Mariah said. "I remember that from when you explained why we don't see the stars in the daytime."

"That's right, Mariah," Mandy agreed. "The stars are out here," Mandy went on, pointing to the area outside the atmosphere. "Their light has to go through our atmosphere for us to see it."

"The atmosphere is moving around all the time," Mandy continued. "Different parts of it are warmer or cooler, and there are other differences in it that bend the light one way or another and back again."

"Like looking through water that's moving in a stream or brook?" Mariah asked. "The moving water makes the rocks at the bottom look like they're wiggling."

"A lot like that," Mandy agreed, "only the water is thicker and there isn't as much of it, but that's the idea."
"So why don't the planets and the moon and the sun twinkle?" Emil asked.

"That's a very good question," Mandy said. "What do you know about the planets, the moon and the sun that might be different from the stars?" she asked.
The three younger dolls were quiet as they thought.

"The planets and the moon are like the earth" Jolena said. "They don't have light of their own. But the sun is like a ball of fire...but so are the stars."

"That's true," Mariah agreed, "The sun does have its own light, because it's a star, too. The planets that are close enough for us to see them get their light from the sun shining on them."

"I was just thinking," Emil said, "if there are planets too far away for us to see them, and the only star that doesn't twinkle is the sun, maybe the stars twinkle because they are far away."
"Very good, Emil," Mandy said. "Now you're on to something."

"But that's where I get lost," Emil sighed. "I don't see why that makes a difference."

"Because the stars are far away," Mandy explained, holding up her picture in Mariah's notebook again, "they look very tiny, like little dots. Very little of their light reaches us, so the little bit we see of it bends this way and that as it comes through the atmosphere."

"In the case of the planets, the moon and the sun," Mandy continued, "there is a lot more light light that reaches our eyes, and some of it bends one way as it goes through the atmosphere and some of it bends the other way. With all that bending back and forth, we don't see them twinkle."

All four dolls were quiet while each thought about that. Even Mandy, who knew all this already, had a lot to think about, because when you teach someone something, you learn new things yourself.

That's when they noticed Charlotte's violin music again.

"I'm glad I have my special glasses that help me see and hear," Emil said. "What is that she's playing now?"

They listened for a moment.

"That's a melody from 'The Moonlight Sonata (suh-NAH-tuh),'" Mandy said. "That music was written for the piano, but it's very nice on the violin, even though Charlotte is playing only one note at a time. 'The Moonlight Sonata' is one of my favorites."

They listened some more. Charlotte stopped to fix a mistake she had made, or maybe to turn a page. Then she started again.

"I wonder," Emil said, "why the moon goes around the earth instead of around the sun the way the earth does."

All three younger dolls looked at Mandy.

Mandy would have rolled her eyes, except that her eyes are glued into her head.

"It's getting dark," she said, "and Charlotte seems to be done playing. Let's go out and watch the stars twinkle."

Cast--
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
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.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook and More Classic Tales Untold: Stories 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.

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Friday, April 12, 2024

Heat Wave

It was very hot. The dolls were sitting on the workroom table with the fan running. Veronika was helping Mandy put up her hair, because she was pretending her long hair felt hot on her neck.

"Nothing fancy," Mandy told her. "I just want it up off my neck."
"Why is it so hot," Charlotte asked.

"It's hot because it's summer," Billy observed.

Charlotte tried to roll her eyes, but it's hard to do, because her eyes don't move. "I know that, silly," she said. "I mean, why is it hot in the summer?"

The dolls all looked at Mandy, because it was a Mandy kind of question.

"Remember," Mandy began, "when we talked about the seasons? We pretended the old tether ball was the sun, and my ball of yarn with a needle through it was the earth."

The dolls all thought back.

"Yes," said Mariah, enjoying the breeze from the fan on her neck. "The needle was the earth's axis, except you can't see the real one."

"You can't knit with it, either," Billy added, which caused Jolena to poke him with her elbow.
"You said the axis in the part of the world we live in comes out at the North Pole," Mariah explained. "It's tipped more toward the sun in the summer. I remember, because I got to be summer when we were taking turns being the seasons. I got to hold the earth with the North Pole tipped toward the sun."

"That's right," Mandy said. "Now, think about what happens if the axis at the North Pole is tipped toward the sun. Remember that the air surrounds the earth. It's as if the earth is a ball inside a ball of air."

"I think maybe there is less air for the sun to go through in the summer," suggested Jolena.

"Very good, Jolena!" exclaimed Mandy.
"I have to use the air when I do my tricks on skis," Jolena said. "The air helps me, so I have to know a little bit about it." She could feel the moving air from the fan blowing her hair across her face.

"I can tell that you have been thinking about it," Mandy told her. "Now," Mandy went on, "the air that covers the earth is called the atmosphere (AT-mus-feer). When our part of the earth is tipped toward the sun, there is less atmosphere for the sun to have to shine through."

"But why is that?" asked Billy.

Mandy thought for a moment. "OK," she said, "just imagine you are standing on the diving board over the center of a pool. Suppose you dive straight down through the water to a point on the bottom that is right under the diving board."

"At the same time," Mandy went on, "Jolena is standing over on the side of the pool, away from the board. She dives toward the same spot on the bottom of the pool, but from the side. Who will get there first?"

"I will get there first," Billy said. "Boy dolls are faster than girl dolls."

Jolena gave Billy a playful swat. "No they aren't," she cried.

Mandy laughed. "You're right about who gets there first, but not about why."

Mariah had been looking thoughtful. "I think Billy had less water to go through than Jolena," she said.

"That's right," Mandy agreed. "When you dive at an angle, you have to go through more water before you get there. That's how it is with the sun's rays. In the summer the sun's rays are like Billy's path through the water in the pool. They don't have to go through as much atmosphere."

"I thought," Charlotte said, "that maybe it's hotter in the summer because the days are longer."

"Having longer days in the summer does add to how hot it gets," agreed Mandy, "because the sun heats up the earth during the day. We have to add that to how the sun has much less atmosphere to get through."

"So how can we cool off," Charlotte wanted to know. "I'm tired of pretending to be too hot."

"I feel cooler when I go for a bike ride," Billy said.

"Good point!" Mandy exclaimed. "That's because you're moving through the air. The air moving across your vinyl cools it off and makes you feel cooler, the way this fan cools us," she explained, "so riding your bicycle is a good way."

"We could play in the sprinkler," Veronika suggested, "but we will have to wear swim goggles if we're going to get our faces wet. We don't want water to get into our heads and make the inside moldy."

"Yes," agreed Jolena. "They will have to take your head off to clean out the mold!"

"That's right," Veronika said. "I'd like to keep my head on!"

"How does playing in the sprinkler cool you," Billy asked.

"There are two things," Mandy said. "First, the water coming out of the pipes in the ground is cool, because not so much heat from the sun can reach it. The water makes you feel cooler right away."

"Second," Mandy continued, "when you get your vinyl wet, the water evaporates (ee-VAP-er-ates). It turns back into a gas and goes into the air. It uses the heat from your vinyl to do that, so that cools you off."

"I remember," Charlotte said, "when we did the experiment where we took the salt out of the salt water. We made the water evaporate."

"Yes," Billy agreed. "We used the sun's light to do it." They thought about that fun experiment.

"That's right," Mandy agreed. "It's the same thing that happened in our pan of water. The sun warmed the air under the plastic wrap. That made the water in the pan evaporate. Then it condensed back into water when it reached the plastic wrap covering the pan."
"If we get tired of playing in the sprinkler," Mariah said, "we could go to a movie. They have air conditioning, so it's cool inside."

The dolls talked for a bit about what movie they would like to see. They decided on the Disney movie "Frozen."

Then Charlotte had another idea. "We could make popsicles," she said. "We could sit in the shade and pretend to eat them. That would make us cool inside, because the popsicles are frozen."

"I have a good recipe for popsicles," Jolena said. "I pour the mixture into plastic cups and put them in the freezer. Later, after it starts to freeze, I put a plastic spoon in it." Then she smiled and continued, "but I don't have to worry about the heat for a while."

All the dolls looked at Jolena. She could tell they wanted to know why, so she told them.
"I'm going to fly to Argentina (are-jen-TEEN-uh) tomorrow," Jolena said, "with my skis and the other dolls on the Doll Ski Team. It's winter there, because that part of the earth is tipped away from the sun. We're going to practice skiing in real snow for a week."

"I had better finish packing," Jolena added. "I have to go tomorrow."
"We'll help," Mariah suggested.

The dolls all helped Jolena pack her clothes and her ski equipment.

That gave Jolena time the next day to mix up some juice and yogurt in a bowl for popsicles, so her friends could use them to cool off while she was gone.

"Now we'll keep cool," said Billy. "We know lots of ways we can cool off when it's hot."

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