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 growing. Show all posts

Friday, January 30, 2026

Baby Doll

"What are you looking at, Mandy?" Pippa asked, looking up at the older doll from the floor.

"I was just looking at this photo," Mandy said. "It's of a doll The Writer gave a young relative as a gift."

Pippa climbed up to look. "It's a baby!" she cried.

This is what she saw on the screen.

"Yes," Mandy agreed. "It's a baby doll. The young relative is very young, almost still a baby herself. She loves the baby doll. Her mother said it was her favorite present."

"Is the doll a girl or a boy?" Pippa asked.

"I don't know," Mandy said. "I guess the little girl the doll lives with will decide."

"What does it do?" Pippa wanted to know.

"Well," Mandy replied thoughtfully, "it doesn't really do anything. It's up to the little girl to do things with the doll. She can hold it, dress it and put it to bed."

"What's this thing in the box with it?" Pippa asked, pointing to the screen.

Mandy looked where Pippa was pointing. "That's a pacifier (PA-sih-fy-er). It something for the doll to suck on."

Pippa had to think about that. Pippa's mouth doesn't open, so it was hard to imagine sucking on something.

Pippa was quiet for a long time, thinking. "I don't think I would want to be a baby doll," she said finally. "I like doing things. I don't think I would like lying in bed or just being carried around and held. I mean, those things are nice, but I would get bored after a while if that was all I got to do. Even sucking on a pacifier wouldn't make up for that."

"That's because you are a child doll, Pippa," Mandy explained. "Child dolls were made to pretend to play and do the other things that real children do. A baby doll just wants to be held and carried. They're made just for that. They like to be pretend fed and changed, and to suck on a pacifier if they have one."

That was a lot to think about, so Pippa did just that. "So lying around makes baby dolls happy?" she asked.

Mandy realized that she hadn't really thought about it like that. "I guess they are like real babies in that way," Mandy decided. "Real babies like to be held, fed and changed."

"So do real babies spend their lives being held, fed and changed?" Pippa asked.

Mandy laughed. "Only when they are still babies. Real human babies grow up. They get bigger and become children. The children grow up to be grown-up human people."

"Charlotte told me I wouldn't grow any bigger," Pippa said.

"That's right," Mandy agreed. "Real babies and children grow, but dolls don't. You won't get any bigger than you are, and I will always be this size."

"That means," Pippa mused, "that you and Veronika don't have to worry that I'll grow out of the clothes you made for me." That thought made Pippa happy. "I wouldn't mind being as big as you are, but I'm glad I can always wear my new clothes."

"Making clothes for you was a challenge at first," Mandy said, "because all of the patterns we had were for dolls our size, but you're shaped the same as the rest of us, just smaller all over. We figured out how much smaller you are, and Veronika reduced her sewing patterns on the computer so they would fit you. She made them smaller by setting the printer to print smaller. Then she checked to make sure they would be the right size."

"Is that what you did with the knitting patterns?" Pippa wanted to know.

"Knitting is a little different," Mandy said. "Changing the size isn't that hard, but you have to do some math. (Math is like arithmetic, only more complicated.) I had to rewrite the patterns so they had fewer stitches and fewer rows of stitches in each section. That's what I did with the dress you're wearing."

"What are you making now?" Pippa asked, leaning over to look at Mandy's work."

"This is a sweater for you," Mandy said, holding it up. "It won't fit me. It won't fit any of your other sisters and brothers. It will only fit you."

"I like it!" Pippa cried. "It's beautiful! Thank you!" Pippa took Mandy's knitting from her and hugged it.

"You're welcome, Pippa," Mandy replied. "Be careful of the needles, though! I'm glad you like it, but it isn't ready to wear yet."

"I promise never, ever to grow out of it." Pippa said.

Pippa is right. She will never grow out of her new sweater!

Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015

Pippa: Götz Little Kidz Lotta

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.

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. The Writer's author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find our books at Barbara's Bookstore as well, or ask your library to get them 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, January 9, 2026

Pen Pals

"I hope you are enjoying your new home, too," Emil wrote. "Your friend, Emil." Emil put down the pen and looked at the letter.

He was just starting to read it through, when Pippa came in.

"Whatcha doing?" Pippa asked.

"I was just finishing this letter to my friend Holly," Emil replied. "We were together in the doll hospital at the factory before I came here. We both had things that went wrong when we were put together."

"I know you can't hear or see without your special glasses," Pippa said. "Why was Holly in the doll hospital?"

"Holly's legs were made wrong," Emil explained.

"She can't walk," Emil said. "They tried to fix her legs, but it didn't work out, so they gave her a wheelchair."

"What's a wheelchair?" Pippa asked.

"It's a chair with wheels that a doll can sit in," Emil said. "The doll can make the chair roll to where they want to go. It's really kind of cool, and it made Holly happy to be able to go places, even though it still isn't as easy as walking or running is for us."

"It was good, though," Emil continued, "because she went to live with a real human girl who also has to use a wheelchair to get around. It made the girl happy to have a doll who was like her."

"Was the human girl made wrong in the factory, too?" Pippa wanted to know.

"I don't know," Emil said. "Maybe I can ask Holly."

"Why don't you read me your letter," Pippa suggested. "I'm interested to know what you had to say. If it isn't too private," she added.

Emil nodded. "There's nothing private in it," he said. "I'll read it to you."

Emil began reading.

Dear Holly,

It has been more than a year since we went to our new homes, and a lot has happened. I thought I would write to you and let you know I am doing well and tell a bit about what I've been up to.

Everyone here has been very nice to me. My problem with seeing and hearing hasn't caused too many problems for me. One time my special glasses didn't charge because the cat knocked them out of the charger, but Billy (that's my brother) found them under the bed and helped me get them back into the charger.

Another time, the smoke alarm went off in the middle of the night, and I didn't hear it, but Billy did, and he woke me up. It was a false alarm, but it was good practice for all of us.

Billy didn't like his hair. He thought it looked like a girl with hair cut off, so he decided to get a wig. I thought it was a good idea, so we both have wigs now. We think it makes us look more like real boys.

I have six sisters now. When I came, there were just five of them and Billy, but Pippa came last month, so now there are eight of us.

My sisters and Billy are all the same kind of dolls, but we're different from each other, and that makes things interesting.

We live in a big house with two old people. They are The Writer, who writes these stories, and her husband. They let us do what we want, as long as it is safe, but we try to be good. When they leave to go somewhere, though, we sometimes explore places they don't take us. Sometimes we go out the dog door to the backyard to play.

We like to ride bicycles along the trail near the house.

The girls like to try on The Writer's clothes sometimes.

Sometimes we help the old people by cleaning the house or doing the dishes. My favorite thing is making the robot vacuum cleaner clean the floor.

Of course, we go to school with other dolls. Sometimes some of the other dolls are not as easy to get along with as my brother and sisters, but we talk things over at home, so we can learn to get along with them.

I found out that I can hear and understand the thoughts of animals. One of my sisters says I probably developed that ability because I couldn't see or hear in the beginning, and the part of my brain mostly used for seeing and hearing started being used for that.

The most important thing about my family is that we are very different from most doll families. Most dolls go to live with children to help teach them to take care of someone besides themselves, or to have adventures using their imaginations. Some go to live with older people who like to dress them and admire them. Those dolls may have lots and lots of sisters and maybe a brother or two. Our doll family is different, though. We get to be in stories for human children and grown-ups to read.

This makes me feel very important, Holly. It's even a good thing that I wasn't made perfectly, because there are some children who have problems like mine, just as there are some real children who have problems like yours. They need to know that they can have adventures, too, I think.

Please write me, if it isn't too much trouble. I would like to know how you are doing and what you're up to. I hope you have friends and that you're having adventures. I hope you are enjoying your new home, too.

Your friend,

Emil

Emil put the letter down and looked at Pippa.

"It's a good letter, I think," Pippa said. "I could see everything in my head when you were reading it. It was interesting."

"That's good," Emil said. "Maybe Holly will find it interesting, too. Now I just need to address the envelope and find a stamp," he added.

Pippa was staring off into space. Well, she was actually staring at the light in the laundry room, but she was thinking, so what she was looking at was not important. It did not reach her brain. "You know," she began, "I'm a little bit like you and Holly."

"Well," Emil replied, "you're a doll, too."

"I mean," she said, "I'm different in a way that gives me problems. Because I'm so small, some things are hard for me to do. I'm not getting any bigger, either. Dolls don't grow, you know."

Emil thought he knew what she meant. "I wonder if there are real children who will always be small, too," he suggested.

The two dolls thought about that.

"I think maybe you have a special purpose, Pippa," Emil said.

"Veronika told me that we all have a special purpose," Pippa said, "but maybe I just found mine.

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