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, November 22, 2024

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."

"The reason I think it comes from the earth," Emil said, "is 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. You see, water is made up of tiny things call molecules (MAWL-ih-kewls). When it's warm, the molecules 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 molecules get cool enough, the air around them shrinks. That means it takes up less space than it did when it was warm. The water molecules connect with other molecules.Then they are no longer a gas, but a liquid. 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 here, so, like most people in our town, we buy water from a company that gets the water from underground or from a reservoir and cleans it, so it's safe to drink or wash with."

"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. Too much salt can make them very sick."
"I remember that!" Billy exclaimed. "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, "but it wasn't really an experiment, because we knew what would happen ahead of time. An experiment is where you have an idea––that's called a theory (THEE-uh-ree)––and you want to find out if it's true. I would call what we did a lab exercise."
"The water left the salt behind when it evaporated," Billy remembered, "but you knew it would."

"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. "Now," she went on, "people have developed a special windmill that can take the water out of the air and another kind of 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, "so there were no dolls then. 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."

"Scientists think 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 the molecules 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, like the sink or the toilet."
"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, "some dolls need to keep it out of their eyes, because they can get silver eye if their eyes get wet! That would make their eyes look strange."

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.

The story about the lab exercise Billy mentioned is here.
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.)

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, November 15, 2024

Rules for Success

"The game stopped being fun after Sarah changed the rules," Charlotte said, as Mariah sat down on the steps.

"I think so, too," Mariah agreed, making room for Charlotte. "Everyone knows you aren't supposed to step on a line in hopscotch."

"That's the first thing we told Billy when we taught him to play the game last summer," Charlotte added.

"I think Sarah wanted to change the rules," continued Charlotte, "because she didn't want to have to do four over again. She knew she was going to lose if she had to wait for another turn to try again."

"It was good, though," Mariah said, "that you insisted that stepping on the lines had to be OK for everyone, if it was OK for her."

"Except then no one was having any fun anymore," Charlotte complained. "I wonder why it wasn't fun when we could step on the lines."

Both dolls thought about that for a while.

"Maybe hopscotch is fun because it isn't easy," Mariah suggested. "I mean, when you finish your turn safely, without stepping on a line or losing your balance, or having your stone land in the wrong space, you just feel good that you did it right."

"Success!" Charlotte cried suddenly.

Mariah looked a little startled and maybe confused. "Success?" she asked.

"It's success!" Charlotte explained. "It's like when I play my violin, I think. If it's an easy piece, and I only have to practice it a few times before I can play it right every time, I feel good, but if it's something harder, and I have to practice it over and over, it feels wonderful when I finally get it right."

Mariah thought about that for a bit. "I think I know what you mean," she said. "Sometimes I try to write a poem, and the words aren't quite right, or they sound OK, but it doesn't say what I want it to say. I have to erase and change the words. Then, suddenly I find the right word, and I just want to jump up and hug someone!"

"Then I wonder," Charlotte mused, "why Sarah doesn't know that."
"It's as if she is afraid to lose," Mariah pointed out.

"But it isn't winning," Charlotte said, "if you win only because you changed the rules. It isn't the same game."

Both dolls thought about that for a while.

"Do you suppose maybe Sarah has never done anything that was difficult?" Mariah suggested. "If she's afraid of losing, maybe it's because she has never failed at anything. We know losing a game isn't the end of the world. You find that out when you lose. It hurts for a while, but you get over it. You think about what you could do better next time, and you try again."

"Do you think that the human person she lives with never lets her try anything difficult?" Charlotte asked.
Mariah nodded. "Maybe when she goes home from doll school each day," she suggested, "she just has to go and stand on a shelf and look pretty."

"Aren't we lucky?" Mariah went on. "The Writer lets us run around the house when we get home. She lets us write stories and be in them."

"She lets us play music if we want," Charlotte said.

"There are rules for writing and making music," Mariah said. "If we didn't follow the rules for those things, they wouldn't be fun at all."

"Billy gets to take pictures with the special phone camera," Charlotte said. "He had to learn how to take care of the phone and how the camera works. He had to learn how to get the photos into the computer. There are rules for that."

"We can ride Brownie whenever we like, too," Mariah pointed out. "There are rules for that. Brownie might accidentally shake you off, if you don't get on her the right way."

"Or if you don't put the saddle on the right way," Charlotte added. "Once you learn how to ride a horse, it's fun and safe!"

"The Writer lets Veronika use her sewing machine," Charlotte continued. "I know, because I've watched her do it. Veronika is very careful. She knows what she's doing. There are rules for that. She is teaching me. The machine won't work if you put the thread in wrong, and you have to be careful, so you don't sew your fingers."

Mariah nodded. "Mandy can use The Writer's knitting needles any time she wants," Mariah pointed out, "as long as she doesn't need them herself. Using knitting needles could be dangerous for Mandy if she didn't know how."
"She has to follow the knitting directions, too," Charlotte added. "If you don't do it right, what you make won't be any good."

"You might start out to knit a sock and find out you had a good start on a sweater, instead!" Mariah pointed out.

"Or you work hard on a sweater and find out you've made a sock!" Charlotte laughed.

"Yes," Charlotte agreed, "but Mandy has learned the rules well enough that she can make up her own patterns now, like Pippa's sweater."

"I remember how she used the computer to make a chart to use," Mariah said.

"That's right," Charlotte agreed. "I remember she kept switching colors, but she used the darker color for the dark squares and the lighter color for the lighter ones. It turned out great, but she almost ran out of the grey yarn!"

"Jolena gets to cook when she likes," Mariah said. "She had to learn the rules, so she wouldn't cut off a finger or melt her vinyl."

"She even is allowed to do flips in the air on her skis," Charlotte said. "That could be dangerous for a doll who doesn't know what she's doing! She had to learn all the rules for how to do that."

"Almost anything we do can be dangerous," Mariah said, "but we learn how to do things the right way, so we stay safe, like wearing helmets when we ride bicycles."

"Or like wearing a seat belt in the car," Charlotte said.

"Imagine if people didn't know how to follow the rules for driving automobiles," Charlotte continued. "It could be a mess!"

"Some rules save us time," Mariah agreed, "and help us get along with other dolls."
"I can't even imagine a world without rules," Charlotte said. "I don't always like them, but I'm glad we have rules."
"I'm glad I don't have to go stand somewhere and just look pretty," Mariah said. "That would be fun for about five minutes!"

"Or have to stay in your box!" Charlotte exclaimed. "Some people buy dolls to keep for a while and then sell. The dolls are worth more if they are never removed from their boxes."

"It keeps them safe, but it wouldn't be fun." Mariah added flatly. "Of course, before I came out of my box, I had no idea what running around indoors or outdoors was like, so I guess I didn't mind. I hadn't learned all the things we need to know about the world."
"I guess there are rules for more things than hopscotch," Charlotte decided. "Maybe we need to play games not just so we learn how to work to do something hard, and that losing isn't the end of the world, but also so we learn how to follow rules for life."

"Do you know what I think?" Mariah asked. "I think Sarah needs to get out more!"
Charlotte nodded. "And I think," she added, "Sarah needs to learn to follow the rules!"
"I think so, too," Mariah agreed. "Let's see if she will play hopscotch with us again tomorrow!"

"Maybe if we explain first why following the rules is so important," Charlotte added, "she'll understand."

"Let's read her this story first!" Mariah exclaimed. "Reading about it in a story is better than having someone explain."

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

Traffic photo by Sorin Gheorghita on Unsplash.

Pippa's sweater free pattern: Pippa's Chilly Days of Fall (Not a beginner project. You will need to learn a lot of rules before you attempt it.)

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.

"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.