Getting the Answers

Billy looked for Veronika as soon as he got home. He found her reading a book.

"Veronika," he said, "we need to talk."

Veronika put the book she was reading down on her chair. "What is it, Billy?" she asked.

"I want to know what's the right thing to do," Billy began. "I know you say we should help people in need if we can, but I'm not sure about this, so I didn't, but now I feel bad."

"Tell me about it," Veronika urged.

"Today we had a science quiz," Billy explained. "We had to know all the planets in order of their distance from the sun. I knew them, because Mandy helped me study for the quiz. She taught me a sentence where each word starts with the first letter of the name of the planet. Then I just had to remember that Mercury is the first 'm' and Mars is the second one, because there are two that start with the letter 'm'. That way, it's easy," Billy explained. "Mandy showed me in a book what each one looks like through a telescope. It showed where each planet is in our solar system. (That's what we call our sun with all the planets circling around it.) That way, I can see it in my head. It isn't just a word," he added.

Veronika nodded encouragement. "It sounds as if you didn't have any trouble with the quiz," Veronika said. "So who needed help?"
"The boy behind me––I don't know his name yet, because he wasn't in my class last year––anyway, the boy behind me asked me quietly to hold my paper so he could see as I wrote my answers." 

"I wasn't sure if that was a good idea," Billy went on, "so I shook my head. He was mad at me."

Veronika got down from her chair and climbed up on the box with Billy. "I can see why you didn't want to, Billy," she said, "but tell me why you didn't think it was a good idea?"

"Well," Billy said, "I think Mr. Jackson, that's the teacher, wants to know if we have learned what we were supposed to learn. He didn't want to know if we could just copy the words when we see them."

Veronika nodded.
"I also think," Billy went on, "that the boy behind me didn't want the teacher to know he was asking to copy from me. He asked me in a way that made me think it should be a secret."

"You did the right thing, Billy," Veronika told him. "What he wanted to do is called cheating, and cheating is wrong. It would be wrong for him to copy your paper and wrong for you to let him."

"Cheating!" Billy said. "There's even a word for it. I didn't know that." Then Billy looked down at his hands.

"I felt sorry for him, though," Billy said. "He told me out on the playground that he was going to be punished for failing the quiz. I wish I could have helped him."
"You have helped him, Billy," Veronika explained. "He has learned that you won't let him copy your paper. He has learned that he needs to study for quizzes and tests if he wants to get a good grade."

"If he didn't ever learn that, he would someday find himself with a problem he couldn't solve by cheating, and that problem probably would be a much bigger one than a quiz."

Billy thought about that. "I see what you mean," he said. "I still feel sorry for him and wish I could help."

"It isn't cheating to help someone study," Veronika suggested, "the way Mandy helped you. If you really want to help him, you could do that."

"How do I do that?" Billy asked.

"You could work together on your homework," Veronika said. "It isn't cheating if you don't give him the answers but just discuss the question with him and show him how to find answers for himself. You could even quiz each other about what the teacher says will be on the test or quiz. That will help both of you."

"That sounds like a good way for me to learn, too," Billy said. "That's just what Mandy did. We talked about the planets, not just the names. Then she had me draw a picture of the sun and all the planets with their names. She knows so much!" he added.
"Yes," Veronika agreed. "When we teach someone else, we learn what we're teaching even better."
"Maybe," Billy said "that's why you're so good at knowing how to help people, and what's right and wrong. You teach the rest of us."

For once, Veronika was speechless. She didn't know what to say.


Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London

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.

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Copyright © 2019, 2024 by Peggy Stuart

Too Tiny To See

"What are you looking at, Billy?" Emil asked when he found his best friend in the living room, looking through a magnifying (MAG-nih-fy-ing) glass at what appeared to be a blank piece of paper. Emil didn't see any writing on it. What was Billy looking at?

"Mandy told me that everything is made up of atoms (AH-tums)," Billy replied. "I thought maybe I could use the magnifying glass to see the atoms that make up this paper, because they are supposed to be very tiny. A magnifying glass makes tiny things easier to see."

As Emil climbed up on the stool next to Billy, Billy moved aside so the other doll could have a look. "It does look different," Emil said, "but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to see."

"Let's go ask Mandy," Billy suggested. They both knew it was a Mandy question. "Maybe we aren't using the magnifying glass right."

The boys took the magnifying glass and paper, and climbed up the stairs to look for Mandy in the workroom, where they thought she would be playing with her yarn.

Mandy looked up when the boys came in. She was knitting, which was not a surprise. She was wearing her earbuds plugged into a tablet, apparently listening to a music or a podcast about knitting or science. "Hi!" she said when they appeared in the doorway.

"Hi!" both boys replied in unison."

"We have a Mandy question," Billy said, after the boys had climbed up to the table. "We've been looking at this piece of paper with this magnifying glass to see if I can see the atoms, but I'm not sure what I'm looking at. The paper does look different with the magnifying glass, but it's sort of all one thing, not a lot of little tiny things. We're not sure if we're seeing the atoms or not."

"Well," Mandy began, "that's because you can't see atoms with a magnifying glass, or even with a regular microscope (MY-kro-skope), which lets you see things that are much tinier than with a magnifying glass. A regular microscope can sit on a table when you use it."

She pulled the ear buds away from her ears and moved her glasses to the top of her head. She knew this conversation was going to take some time, but it was interesting, and she liked to talk about it.

"You can only see atoms with a special microscope," Mandy explained, "and then, you aren't really seeing the atoms the way you would see things like this yarn, for instance."

"Those microscopes are really very special, too," Mandy pointed out, "so they're much too expensive and much too big for someone to have in their house!"

"Gee," sighed Billy. "I really wanted to see what an atom looks like."

Mandy thought both boys seemed disappointed.

"We may not be able to see an atom with out eyes," Mandy told them, "but we can see it with our minds. We know enough about atoms to be able to imagine what they look like."

The boys looked more hopeful. 

"You see," Mandy began, "We know there are parts to an atom. How many of each kind of part is what makes the difference between one thing and another, like my yarn and your piece of paper."

Mandy thought for a moment.

Then she said, "Just imagine an atom is a tiny solar system." 

"I know what a solar system is," Emil exclaimed, happy to have something he knew about. "We learned about it in my class at school. It's a sun, like our sun, with planets going around it, like our Earth!"

"Like Mars!" Billy added, excited now, "or Jupiter (JOO-pih-ter)."

"Right," Mandy agreed, "only instead of a sun in the center, an atom has a nucleus (NOO-klee-us). Nucleus is a special word for the center of something. It's used in science for atoms, as well as some other things."

"Let me find a picture," Mandy suggested, "to show you what we think an atom looks like, so you can imagine it in your head." She reached for the tablet and opened it up. 

Mandy tapped on the tablet keyboard. 

In just a few seconds, she had the picture she wanted. 

"Here!" she said, turning the tablet so the boys could see. "This is what an atom should look like if we see it with our minds. Here's the nucleus," she said, pointing to the thing in the center. "In this picture, the nucleus looks like a clump of balls all stuck together."

"Those little balls," Mandy explained, "are parts of the atom. The red ones are called protons. The blue ones are called neutrons. They aren't really red or blue. They just have those colors in this drawing, so we can tell them apart."

"The protons have what's called a positive (PAW-zih-tiv) charge," she told them. "That's the name given to a type of electricity. They use a plus sign (+) as a symbol (SIHM-bul) to show that it's positive, because we use a plus sign for adding numbers."

"The other little balls," Mandy went on, "the red ones, those have no charge. We say they're neutral (NEW-trul), because they are neither positive nor negative. We don't need a symbol for that, because it isn't either one."

"What's negative?" Emil asked. "It doesn't sound happy."

"You're right," Mandy said. "We say our feelings are positive if we're happy and negative if we're sad. Those expressions come from how we talk about electricity, but there's nothing sad about this kind of negative."

Mandy pointed to the little green balls outside the nucleus in the drawing. "These green balls," she said, "are electrons (ee-LEK-trons). They have a negative charge. Scientists use a minus sign (-) for negative, because that's the symbol we use to subtract or take away numbers in arithmetic. It doesn't mean they're sad. In fact," she added, "these lines are there to show where the electrons go flying around the nucleus. What fun that must be!"

"It's like they're in orbit around the nucleus!" Billy exclaimed. "Now I see why you said the atom is like a little solar system! The planets in our solar system are in orbit around the sun."

Mandy nodded. "Not all atoms have the same number of protons, neutrons and electrons," she said. "Atoms form substances called elements (EL-a-mints). Each element has a different number of each of these parts. It's what makes them different from each other."

"I think we should stop now," Mandy suggested. "If I tell you more than you can remember at one time, everything in your head will probably just drain down through your neck and out through your knee joints. Besides, this story is long enough. 

"I won't forget what I learned just now," Emil said, "but I learned something that isn't just about atoms." The other two dolls looked at him. They wanted to know what else he had learned. 

Emil knew that when someone just looks at you after you just said something, that meant they were waiting for you to say more. "Just because we can't see something," he said, "doesn't mean it isn't there.

"That's right!" Mandy exclaimed, happy that Emil had learned something unexpected from the little lesson.

Billy picked up the magnifying glass again. "Let's go down to the kitchen. Let's look and find out if we can see some cookies," he suggested.

Billy would not need the magnifying glass to find cookies in the kitchen.

Cast--
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia

Diagram of atom: Freepik

Photo of microscope: Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

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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Copyright © 2022, 2026 by Peggy Stuart