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 scary. Show all posts

Friday, September 22, 2023

Scary Things

The girls were looking at decorations for Christmas.

"I found a sheep," Jolena said. "It has a string on it."
"That's so you can hang it on the Christmas tree," Charlotte explained. "There's another sheep in the box, and I found this tree. It has a string on it, too. It will be pretty hanging on the tree. A little tree on a big tree!"

Charlotte lifted the tree up, so Mariah and Jolena could see it.

"I found this pretty ball," Mariah said, "and it has a string on it, too. Does that mean this ball is supposed to hang on the tree, too?"

"Yes, Mariah," Charlotte agreed. "Veronika will love the ball. It looks like folded fabric."

Jolena reached into another box. "Here's something strange," she exclaimed. "Very strange!"

She pulled the thing out of the box. "Look at this!"

"That is strange," Mariah agreed. "It looks odd. It doesn't have a string on it, either."

Charlotte nodded. "It looks strange, and it doesn't have a string," she agreed.

"I wonder what it's for. It somehow doesn't look like Christmas, either," Mariah said. "This pretty ball looks like Christmas."

"The two sheep and the tree look like Christmas," Charlotte added.
"How can we find out what it is?" Mariah asked.

"I know," cried Jolena. "I'll go ask Mandy. Mandy knows a lot. Maybe she knows what this is."

Mariah and Charlotte continued to look in the box for more Christmas decorations, while Jolena went off to find Mandy.

She soon found Mandy reading a book. (Mandy can usually be found reading or knitting.)

"Mandy, can you help me?" Jolena asked. "Charlotte, Mariah and I were looking at the Christmas decorations and found this. We think it looks strange. Can you tell me what it is?"

Jolena showed the strange thing to Mandy.

"It's a skull, Jolena," Mandy said. "It's strange because that's for Halloween, not Christmas."

"What's Halloween and what's a skull?" Jolena wanted to know.

"Jolena, Halloween is a holiday that has a very complicated history," Mandy began, "but you probably don't need to know all about how it got started."

"What you need to know about it," she explained, "is that children like to dress up in costumes, wear masks to hide their faces and try to scare each other, and be scared in return," Mandy explained, putting her book down and moving her glasses on the top of her head.

"They have parties and go from one house to another asking for candy or other goodies by saying, 'Trick or treat.' That used to mean that if you give us a treat, we won't play a mean trick on you," Mandy continued.
"That doesn't sound very nice," Jolena said.

"No," Mandy continued, "and grownup people didn't think that was very nice, so they started just handing out treats to children who came to the door and asked nicely."
"But where does the skull fit into all this?" Jolena asked, looking at the skull. "You know, I think it's looking back at me."

"That's part of being scared," Mandy explained. "A skull is the part of a person's body that is inside the head, under the face and hair. That's why you think it's looking at you. It's the head part of the skeleton."

Jolena handed the skull to Mandy, so she could point out where the eyes and nose belong and show her where the teeth were.

"It's scary to children, because parts of the body are missing," Mandy continued. "To people, it's scary to have body parts missing, because they are afraid of being hurt."
"I don't think it's scary," Jolena said. "It just seems strange."

"That's because dolls don't have skeletons or skulls," Mandy explained. "Our bodies are vinyl, which is firm and solid, and we can stand without a skeleton. A person without a skeleton could only lie in a heap on the floor."

"I know that dolls are not afraid of being hurt," Jolena added, "and our heads can be removed to change our eyes, but we can pretend to be hurt or sick or afraid."

"Yes," Mandy agreed. "It's fun to pretend, and it's fun for real children to pretend, too. They like to be scared when they know it's pretend, because it makes real fear less scary. This is just a make-believe skull, but skeletons and skulls can't hurt you, even real ones."

"So on Halloween it’s fun to be scared when you know you’re safe?" Jolena asked.

"Yes, Jolena. "Practice being pretend-scared helps prepare children for when they have something real to be scared about, but it's only good when they are old enough to understand that it's just pretend."

"You know," Jolena said, "Sometimes I think it would be fun to be a real little girl."

"Jolena," Mandy answered, "Sometimes I think you're a regular little Pinocchio."

"What is that?" asked Jolena.

"Pinocchio is a story about a puppet named Pinocchio. He wanted to become a real little boy," Mandy explained.
"Did he get to become a real little boy?" Jolena asked.

"You can find that book in the library, Jolena," Mandy replied, picking up her book again and putting her glasses on her nose. "It's worth reading from the beginning."

Cast--

Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen

Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris

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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 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.

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Copyright © 2018, 2023 by Peggy Stuart

Friday, May 27, 2022

Lost in the Forest

Once upon a time, on the edge of a big juniper forest there lived two dolls.

One doll was a boy.

The other doll was a girl.

(We won't tell you their names, because this story is very scary, and you might become attached to these dolls if you knew their names. Now, you may be frightened when you read this story, but don't close your eyes! After all, the dolls can't close their eyes, so it wouldn't be fair, would it?)

Now, back to the story:

The two dolls liked to go into the juniper forest to play whenever the weather was nice enough.

One day, while the boy and the girl were playing in the forest, they saw a rabbit running by. "Oh, look!" the girl doll exclaimed. It's a bunny!"

Excitedly, the boy suggested, "Let's follow the rabbit and see where it goes!"

The two dolls followed the rabbit, running to try to keep up, but the rabbit ran very fast. It got smaller and further away as it ran. Sometimes it disappeared behind rocks or trees, and then would appear again, even further away. Eventually the dolls could not see the rabbit anymore. It was gone.

"That's too bad," said the boy doll sadly. "I really wanted to see what kind of house the rabbit lives in." The girl doll nodded. It would have been interesting.

Then the girl doll looked around. "You know," she said, "I don't think we've played in this part of the forest before. Do you know where we are?"

The boy looked around, too. "There are the same kind of trees as usual," he pointed out, "but everything looks sort of different."

"Which way is home?" the girl doll asked in distress. "Which way did we come when we were chasing the rabbit. I'm all turned around! Are we lost?"

The boy doll said nothing. He could only think about how chasing that rabbit had been a dumb idea.

The two dolls walked around, looking for something they knew. Eventually they saw a street with some houses right on the edge of the juniper forest.

They didn't recognize these houses, but they knew that human people live in houses. The human people they knew had always treated them kindly, so maybe there would be someone who could help them. They walked up to the front door of the first house they came to and knocked on it.

The dolls heard noises from inside the house, as if someone were walking slowly toward the door. Then the door opened very slowly, wider and wider, making a creaking sound as it did so. The two dolls looked up into the face of a very old human woman, who looked down at them through thick, smudged glasses.

"Well, hello, my sweets!" the old woman croaked as she peered at them through her glasses. She ran her tongue around the edges of her lips as she looked at the boy. "Yum," she said then. Then she sort of...cackled, like a chicken!

She made a smacking sound with her mouth as she looked at the girl doll. "Sweet," she said.

"Tasty," the old woman added, as she opened the door even wider to let them in. "You two must be hungry," she added with a warm smile. "I'll make you some tea and some bread-and-butter sandwiches."

The dolls looked around as they entered the house.

The mention of food made the boy doll and the girl doll realize that they were starting to pretend to get very hungry, so they followed the old person into what she told them was her "sitting room." To the dolls, it looked like a living room.

The old human woman invited the two dolls to make themselves comfortable on the sofa while she made their tea.

"Maybe," the girl doll said, taking off her bonnet, "after we have pretended to eat, we can ask this human person to take us home."

Eventually, the old human person brought the dolls some pretend tea and some bread-and-butter sandwiches. While the dolls pretended to eat, she sat at the table nearby, looking at a sheet of paper and writing things down on a smaller piece of paper.

When the dolls were almost done pretending to eat, the old woman got up. "I need to go out for a bit," she told them. "You stay right here until I get back. Please clean the oven for me, and mop the floor. It's the least you can do for me after I fed you." With that, she was out the door and gone. The dolls watched from the window as she left. They heard a car door close, then an engine starting. Then they heard the sound of the car driving off and sounding further and further away. She was gone!

The girl doll cleaned the oven.

The boy doll found a doll-size mop, and mopped the floor.

Then they sat down to wait.

"I wonder what the old woman was writing," the girl doll said eventually.

"Whatever it was," the boy replied, "she took it with her."

"She left something on the table, though," the girl said. "Let's go look."

"Isn't that nosy?" the boy wanted to know.

"Maybe it is, but who is going to know?" the girl suggested.

"The children reading this story will know," the boy replied solemnly.

"Maybe so," the girl doll agreed, "but I'm sure they will understand and forgive us by the time they have finished this story and know what becomes of us, don't you think? Come on, let's go look!"

The boy nodded, and the two dolls climbed down from the sofa. They went to the table where the old lady had been writing. There was a big piece of printed paper on the table. They looked at the paper. It was sort of mussed, as if someone had used it before many times. It had spots of stuff spilled on it. They read what was on the paper.

"It's a recipe!" the boy exclaimed, "and one of the ingredients is dolls!"

"Yes," agreed the girl. "She plans to eat us for dinner! The old woman must have been making a shopping list to get these other things!"

The two dolls looked at each other and at the paper again. "We need to get out of here," the boy doll said, and the girl doll agreed.

"We're still lost, though," she said. "We don't know where to go."

"Let's see if the old woman has a phone," the boy suggested. "We can call home. Maybe our people can come and get us, but we'd better hurry!"

The two dolls looked quickly around the house. Eventually, they found a cell phone on the table next to the bed.

They were very lucky the old woman hadn't taken the phone with her and that it was charged up! They placed the call as quickly as they could and put it on speaker, so they both could talk and listen at the same time.

"Where are you?" asked the voice on the phone after the dolls had explained their predicament.

The girl doll remembered the name on the street sign. "It's a funny name," she said into the phone. "It was something like 'Sinister Way,' I think," she said. "We're in the last house on the left at the end of the street, right next to the juniper forest!"

"I know right where that is," the voice said. "It's just around the corner from here. Leave the house and go out to the street. I'll be there in about five minutes."

"What if the old woman comes back?" the boy doll asked the phone.

"She will have to catch you before she can cook you," the voice replied. "Find a place to hide where you can see the street. I'll be right there!"

The dolls turned off the phone and the girl doll carefully put it back on the table.

The girl doll got her bonnet and put it back on, because she didn't want to lose it. Also, it was a sunny day, and she didn't want her vinyl to get sunburned. Then they quickly made their way to the front door and opened it.

The two dolls hurried down the front step to the street and looked around for a place to wait for their ride. They noticed the trash and recycling cans outside the house. That would be a perfect place to hide while they waited. They had a good view of the street.

"Maybe we should have left a note," the boy doll said after they felt they were well-hidden from view.

"We are not going back in there," the girl doll replied firmly.

The boy doll was quiet as he thought about that. "You're right." he replied eventually. "The tea was cold, the bread-and-butter sandwiches were very dry, and she made us work!"

The girl doll had been thinking. "You know," she told the boy, "that recipe has been used before!"

Maybe all the children reading this story should go and count their dolls. Are they all there? Be sure to keep them safe!

Question for readers: Was the word eventually new to you? If it was, could you figure out what it means?

Cast--
Girl doll: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Boy doll: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia

Photo of rabbit: Jason Leung on Unsplash

Students of fairy tales may recognize some aspects of Hänsel und Gretel. The rabbit was inspired by his relative from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. (Our own fan of Alice, Pippa, suggested adding that part.)