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, May 22, 2026

All About 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, and it isn't magic."

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. 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. The water comes into the house through pipes underground."

"The water in the ocean is salty," Mandy went on, "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, May 15, 2026

There's Sunshine in the Rain!

Billy and Charlotte had to walk Freckles and Pierre early, because it was supposed to rain soon.

"I wish it wouldn't rain," Billy said when they got back to the house. "I wanted to go for a long bike ride today, but if it starts to rain, I'll get wet. The rain is cold."

"We need the rain, Billy," Charlotte said. "The rain helps the plants grow and lets us wash things and gives us water to pretend to drink."
"But my teacher told us the earth is mostly covered with water," Billy said. "Why do we need any more?"
"That's almost all in the oceans, Billy," Charlotte explained, "and it's salty."
"What's wrong with salty?" Billy asked.
"I'm not sure," Charlotte answered. "Let's ask Mandy."

The dolls found Mandy in the living room window. She was knitting. She looked up when the dolls came in.

"Mandy," Charlotte began, "Billy and I have a question about the oceans."
"Yes," agreed Billy. "We have so much water in the oceans, why can't we use it to pretend to drink and to water our plants?"

"That's easy," Mandy replied. "We can only pretend to drink what human people can drink. Human people's bodies need salt, but too much salt will make them sick. The water in the oceans is very salty, much too salty to drink safely. You can taste it and even cook with it, but you can't drink it, because you will get too much salt. It would make the plants sick, too."

"That's too bad," Charlotte said. "There's so much of it! It's too bad we can't use it."

But we do use it," Mandy exclaimed. "That's where our drinking water comes from, and the water we use to wash things and bathe, and to water our plants, but the sun takes the salt out first."

Mandy put down her knitting as Charlotte and Billy looked at each other in surprise.

"Come into the kitchen," Mandy said, "and I'll show you how it works."
Mandy led the two dolls into the kitchen. Jolena was there. She had been looking in the pantry to see what was needed so she could make a grocery list for The Writer.

"Jolena, I need a glass cake pan," Mandy said. "We are going to see how the sun takes the salt out of the water from the ocean."
"I would like to see, too," Jolena exclaimed, pulling out a square cake pan from the cupboard."

"You can use a metal pan for this," Mandy explained, "but I want to use glass, so we can see what's happening. Now we need some other things." Mandy asked Jolena for a small dish that would fit inside the cake pan, some salt, a spoon, a cup of warm water and some plastic wrap.
Jolena knows where everything is in the kitchen, so she found everything Mandy needed.
Mandy filled the cup Jolena gave her with warm water. Then she asked the dolls to help her pour the water into the cake pan.

Next, Mandy had Jolena put a half teaspoon of salt into the water and stir it.

Jolena stirred the water until the salt disappeared. Mandy said it dissolved (dih-SOLVD). She explained that meant the water melted the salt so it couldn't be seen anymore. Then Mandy had each doll dip a finger into the salted water and pretend to taste it. The all agreed that it tasted salty.

Next Mandy asked Billy to place the smaller dish into the cake pan, right about in the middle.

Finally, Mandy and Jolena worked together to cover the whole thing with plastic wrap.

"We need one more thing," Mandy said. "We need something to weigh down the plastic wrap, but only right in the middle, over the smaller dish."
"There are plenty of rocks outside," Billy suggested.
"Rocks will be great," Mandy agreed. "We're going outside anyway. Now please help me take the pan outside."
Each doll took a corner of the cake pan. They worked together to carry the dish outside and place it on the deck. Then Mandy told them to put some small rocks in the middle of the plastic wrap, right over where the small dish was.

"Now we wait," Mandy said. "The sun will do the same thing here that it does when it shines on the ocean."

"But it's supposed to rain soon," Billy said.
"Yes," Jolena agreed, "and this place will be in the shade in a little while."

"That's OK," Mandy told them. "As long as the sun is in the sky, this will work. It just works faster if it's bright sunshine. People use the sun to make electricity, too, and that still works as long as it's daylight," she said. "When we use the power of the sun to work for us," Mandy added, "it's called solar power."

"Hey!" Billy cried. "The sun has a superpower!"

The other dolls nodded in agreement.
"That reminds me! Jolena exclaimed. "We need to make more iced tea. I sometimes use the sun to make it, because it's faster than just putting the jar into the fridge."
"How do you do that?" Charlotte asked. "I like your iced tea."
"I just put some tea bags in a jar with some water," Jolena explained. "Then I leave it in the sun, but Mandy's right. It will work in the shade, as long as the sun is in the sky."

"I have used the sun to dye yarn," Mandy added. "It works the same way as making tea."

"Now," Mandy went on, "we can come back in a couple of hours and check to see what has happened."
The dolls all went indoors to do their homework or read. Mandy went back to her knitting.
Two hours later, Mandy told the other dolls it was time to check their pan of water. When they went back to where they had left the pan, they saw that there was now some water in the little dish.

"How did that get there?" Billy asked.
"It rained in the little dish," Mandy explained. "This is what happens with the ocean, or anywhere there is water. Water is a liquid, like milk or the stuff you use to blow bubbles. When it's warmed by the sun, the water on the surface evaporates (ee-VAH-per-ates). That means it turns into a gas, and mixes with the air. In fact, there is water in the air all around us all the time. When enough water gets together in the air, it turns into clouds."
"So how did it rain in the dish?" Charlotte asked.

"The same way it rains on the earth," Mandy said. "The plastic wrap keeps the air in the cake pan from getting out. That traps the sun's heat inside, so the air outside the pan is cooler than the air inside. When some of the water in the air touches the cooler plastic wrap, it turns back into liquid. We call that condensation (con-den-SAY-shun). When there is enough water, it gets heavier and runs down to the lowest spot, where the rocks makes the plastic wrap lower. Then it drops into the little dish."

"That's because of gravity," Billy said. "Gravity makes the water roll down the inside of the plastic wrap."
"That's right," Mandy agreed.
"So why does it rain here where we live, instead of just over the ocean?" Jolena wanted to know.

"Can anyone guess?" Mandy asked. "Think about how the clouds are made of water."
The other three dolls all though about it.
"Maybe the wind blows the clouds over the land," Charlotte suggested. "If you watch the clouds you can see them move."

"That's right, Charlotte," Mandy agreed. "Now what kind of water did we have in the cake pan?" she asked.
"Salty water," said Billy.
"Like the ocean," agreed Charlotte.
"Let's pretend to taste it," Mandy suggested, "and see if it's still salty. Just stick your finger in and lick the water off it."
The dolls all dipped their fingers into the water in the cake pan and pretended to taste it.

"It's still salty," Jolena said.
The other dolls agreed with Jolena.
"Now let's pretend to taste the water in the little dish," Mandy said.
The dolls took turns tasting the water in the little dish.

"It isn't salty at all," Charlotte said.
They all agreed with Charlotte.
"So the sun moved the water from the pan to the little dish and left the salt behind?" Jolena asked.
"Yes," Mandy agreed.
"So we could just make as much water as we need from the ocean," Jolena said.
"That would be a lot of trouble," Billy pointed out. "That was a lot of work for not very much water."

"There are other ways to remove salt from sea water," Mandy said, "and there are big factories some places in the world where fresh water is scarce," but it's easier if we can get it from rain. Rainwater has the salt removed from it already."

Again, all the dolls agreed.
Suddenly a drop of water fell onto Billy's head. He looked up. "Look!" Billy cried. "It's starting to rain! Isn't that wonderful? I love the rain!"

Cast--
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London

Science project in desalinization from: STEAMsational