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, March 13, 2020

Staying Well

"Eddie says the boy he lives with is sick," Emil said. "He says it's something called flu. Eddie is afraid he is going to get sick, too."

Veronika closed her book and looked at Emil and Charlotte, who had just come in from school. "Dolls can't get sick," she said. "Not for real. We can pretend to be sick, but then we can just pretend to get well again when we're tired of pretending to be sick."
Charlotte pulled a chair over and sat down nearby.

"We can get damaged," Charlotte said. "We can fall and get scrapes, like real children, but the scrapes don't heal."
"Some dolls can get silver eye," Emil pointed out, "but that doesn't heal, either."

"No," agreed Charlotte. "They have to take off your head and change your eyes for new ones."
Emil sat down on the bean-bag chair. "How do real children get sick?" he asked. He looked at Veronika, because he thought she might know the answer.

"Well," Veronika began, "it depends on what kind of sickness it is, but Eddie said it was the flu, and that he thought it was catching, so I'll tell you about that."

Charlotte and Emil looked at Veronika expectantly. That means they thought she was going to say something important.
Veronika put her book down, so she could talk with both hands. "The flu is caused by something called a virus (VY-rus)," She explained.

"It's a thing that's alive, but it's so small you have to have a special microscope (MY-krow-skope) to see it. A microscope is a thing you can look through to see things that are very tiny. An ordinary microscope is small enough to sit on a desk."

"Viruses are so tiny," Veronika went on, "you have to use a special kind of microscope. It's called an electron (ee-LEK-tron) microscope. An electron microscope needs its own room, it's so big."

"What do viruses look like when you use an electron microscope?" Charlotte asked.

"The pictures of viruses I've seen," Veronika replied, "look like pretty little balls. You would never know they were bad things."

"There are lots of different kinds of viruses," Veronika said. "There are good viruses and viruses that make people and animals sick. Some people call the viruses that make them sick germs (JERMS) or bugs. When these things enter a human person's body, they grow and spread and make the person sick. That person might tell people they had caught a bug."

"I thought a bug was like an ant or a fly," Emil said.
"Yes," agreed Veronika. "Insects like ants and flies are called bugs, but they are different. These bugs get inside the person's body and make them sick. How sick the person becomes depends on the virus and how healthy the person is."
"How do they get there?" Charlotte asked.

"Lots of ways," Veronika replied. "Sometimes a sick person sneezes, and the tiny virus bugs go into the air around them. Then another person breathes them in."

"I'm glad I don't need to breathe," Emil said. "Is that why dolls don't get sick?"
"That's part of it," Veronika agreed. "Only living things can get sick, and we aren't alive in that way. We're alive in imagination."
"So that means we can't make children sick!" Emil exclaimed.

"Well, not usually," Veronika replied, "but it is possible for a child to get a virus from us."
"But if we can't breathe out the viruses,"Charlotte said, "how can we make a child sick?"

"It's because another way a human person can get a virus is by touching something that a sick human has touched," Veronika explained. "Let's say Eddie's boy, who is sick, is playing with Eddie. He wipes his nose with his hand, plays with Eddie some more and then puts Eddie down. Then another child, say the boy's sister, picks Eddie up and plays with him. She could get the virus on her hands. Viruses can live on Eddie's vinyl for several days."
"Then the sister would get sick!" Charlotte exclaimed.

"Maybe," Veronika replied, "if the sister rubbed her eye or scratched her nose. Maybe if she went to get something to eat and touched her food with her hands."
"So then she would get sick?" Emil asked.

"She could get sick, yes," Veronika agreed, "but if she washed her hands before she touched her face or ate something, she might not get sick. She could still get sick from breathing in the air close to her brother, especially if he is coughing or sneezing."
"So to keep from getting sick," Emil said, "children should not get too close to someone they know is sick and should wash their hands if they touch anything that person touches?"

"Washing hands is very important, anyway" Veronika agreed. "Children need to wash their hands before they eat and after they use the toilet, but if they are around someone who is sick, it's even more important."

"Why after they use the toilet?" Emil asked.
"I know that," Charlotte said. "Mandy and I have cleaned the toilets in the house. That's where people get rid of waste from their bodies."

"Yes," Veronika agreed. "Because people are alive they need food and water to fuel their bodies. When their bodies take everything they need out of what they eat and drink, they have to get rid of what's left over along with anything else that would be bad to leave inside them. They put it in the toilet."
"So the waste must be dirty," Emil said, "if their bodies need to get rid of it. Is that why people need to wash their hands?"

"That's right, Emil," Veronika agreed. "They don't want to leave the bathroom and touch things other people might touch. It's important not just to wash their hands, but to wash their hands completely."

"People need to wash both sides of their hands," Veronika explained. "They need to wash all of their fingers and their thumbs, and in between their fingers, and use lots of soap. Soap kills most viruses. I know if I sing 'Happy Birthday To You' to myself twice or recite my A-B-Cs once while I'm washing my hands, use lots of soap, rub it on both sides of my hands and all sides of each finger, my hands will be clean."

"We can't wash between these two fingers," Charlotte said, holding up her right hand, the one with the two fingers stuck together. She knew this because it was the reason she couldn't learn to play the piano.

"That's OK, Charlotte," Veronika said. "Viruses can't reach between those two fingers, so you can just wash what you can reach. Most real children can reach between those two fingers, so they need to wash there, too."
Emil had been thinking. "But if people can still get sick from touching something a sick person has been touching, there could still be a lot of places a virus could be."

Veronika nodded. "There are a lot of things a sick person can do to help keep others from getting sick," she said. "Sick people can use a tissue to blow their noses and then throw the tissue away."

"They should always cover their mouths if they cough or sneeze," Veronika went on, "and they should wash their hands before they touch something another person might need to touch."
"What if Eddie had the virus on him when he came to school?" Emil asked. "He's in my class. I could have the virus on me right now. I could give it to the human people we live with."

"I played with Eddie today, too," Charlotte exclaimed as she stood up. "Let's go wash our hands right now, Emil, before we touch anything else."

Charlotte and Emil went straight to the bathroom and washed their hands completely. They sang "Happy Birthday To You" twice as they washed, and they washed between all the fingers except the two fingers on their right hands, the ones that are stuck together. They used lots of soap.

Their human people did not get sick.

Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia

Photos credits from this story:
Microscope: Pawel Czerwiński on Unsplash
Electron microscope: Science in HD on Unsplash
Virus: CDC on Unsplash
Hand washing model: Johan Stuart

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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, March 6, 2020

Water, Water....

Mandy was knitting peacefully in the workroom, when she heard the door open. It was Emil, Billy and Mariah.
"What's up?" Mandy asked, looking up from her knitting.
"Well," Billy began, "we were having an argument."

"A disagreement," Emil said.
"We were looking at things differently," Mariah corrected.
Mandy looked at the three dolls. "About what?" she asked.
"About water," Emil said. "About where it comes from. We know it doesn't just come out of the faucets by magic."

"I said the water comes from inside the earth," Emil explained.

"I said it comes from the sky," Billy said.

Mariah said, "I said I think that it comes from the oceans."

"I think it comes from the earth," Emil said, "because the pipes that bring water into the house come out of the ground. I know, because I've seen where the controls for the sprinklers are, and they are underground."

"But when it rains," Billy pointed out, "we get water everywhere, and it comes from the sky. You can see it coming from the sky if you're outdoors when it rains."

"The oceans are full of water," Mariah said. "There's so much of it there, I'm sure that must be where water comes from."

"Well, you're all right," Mandy said, "but there's more to it than that."

The other dolls were puzzled.
"You see," Mandy began, "All the water we have on earth is connected."

"When it rains," Mandy continued, "some of the rain runs down into the earth, where it is stored underground. People can dig down to get water. They make a well, which is a place where you can get water from under the ground. You need a pump, or a bucket on a rope to get the water from a well."

"Some of the rain runs off," Mandy continued. "That water ends up in lakes and rivers."

"The water in the lakes, rivers and the oceans evaporates (ee-VAP-er-ates)," she explained. "That means the air takes up the water, so it disappears. When it's warm, the tiny drops of water spread out in the air and rise to where it's cooler higher up in the atmosphere. Then they cool off. When the drops of water get cool enough, the air around them shrinks. The tiny drops connect with other tiny drops. That makes them heavier, and they come back down as rain."

"We save the rain water and water from streams and rivers in a place called a reservoir (REH-zih-vor)." Mandy explained. "That's like a lake designed to hold water for when people need it. We don't have a well, so, like most people in our town, we buy water from a company that gets the water from underground and cleans it, so it's safe to drink or bathe in."

"We're a long way from the ocean," Mandy went on, "but the water in the ocean is salty, so people can't drink it without taking out the salt."
"I remember that!" Billy exclaimed. "Before you came, Emil," he said, "we used the sun to change salt water into fresh water. We made the water salty first, so it would be like the ocean. It was a fun ex...experiment (ex-PER-a-mint)."

"Yes," Mandy agreed. "We used the sun to make the salt water evaporate," she explained.
"It left the salt behind," Billy remembered.

"That's right, Billy," Mandy agreed. "When the water in the ocean evaporates, it leaves the salt behind, so the rainwater isn't salty."
"So we know how to make drinking water from the ocean," Billy pointed out, "but the rain gives us the water from the ocean already drinkable. Interesting."

"Yes," Mandy agreed, "but they clean the water first, before it comes into our home. Now," she went on, "people have developed a special windmill that takes the water out of the air and another machine that does the same thing but that runs on fuel, so people can have water where there isn't any. But that's the same water. All the water we've been using has been on the earth for about four billion years."

"How much is a billion?" Emil asked.

"It's a lot, especially in doll years." Mariah said. "It's like almost how old the earth is."

"People hadn't invented vinyl yet," Billy pointed out. "It was even before dinosaurs. Real ones, even, not just vinyl ones," he added.

"Where was the water before that?" Mariah wanted to know.
"Scientists are still figuring that out, Mariah," Mandy replied. "They think that some of it came from comets that struck the earth. A comet is a big chunk of ice and dust that comes from space, far outside our atmosphere. A comet looks like a streak of light in the night sky."

"Some of our water also came from the sun," Mandy continued. "The earth keeps reusing the same water over and over. Maybe someday people will figure out how to make water from its elements (EL-uh-mints), that's what we call the little bits that make up everything. Water is made from a gas called hydrogen (HY-druh-jun) and another gas called oxygen, (OX-uh-jun), but right now its dangerous and complicated to make water from them. We can only use what we have for now."

"We have to keep our water clean," Mandy told them. "That means we shouldn't throw trash on the ground or dump medicine or chemicals onto the ground or any place it can end up in the water."
"We should put trash in the trash can or waste basket," Emil agreed.

"We should ask a grownup where to put medicine or chemicals," Mariah pointed out. "We shouldn't put those in the trash if we don't need them anymore."

"And even if the water is clean," Billy said, "most dolls need to keep it out of their eyes. Some dolls can get silver eye if their eyes get wet!"

The dolls all agreed that it was true. There was no difference of opinion, but they all wondered if a doll with silver eye could still see, with or without special glasses.

Cast--
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia

Ocean photo by Sean O.
Pump photo by Fikri Rasyid
River photo by Jon Flobrant
Comet photo by Casey Horner
All of the above available on Unsplash.

You can learn more about how to have clean water here.
You can learn more about silver eye in dolls here. (You will have to scroll down to find silver eye.)