"I can't believe they're out of valentines!" Billy said to Emil as they climbed the steps to the house.
"Maybe they will have more before the 14th," Emil pointed out.
"That's only two days, and what if they don't?" Billy exclaimed. "Then we'd be stuck with no valentines to give out."
"Maybe we can make some," Emil suggested.
"Yes," Billy agreed. "We can't have Valentine's Day without valentines!"
Emil thought about that while taking off his jacket and scarf. "I'll see what I can find for us to use," he offered.
"I'll come and help," Billy agreed, "but first I need to walk Freckles before I take my jacket off."
"I promised Charlotte we would walk the dogs together," Billy explained. He went off to find Charlotte and the dogs.
Emil started looking for paper, scissors and something to color with.
When Billy came back from his walk, he found Emil at the dining room table, already sorting through the things he had found.
"How should we start?" Emil asked Billy as Billy joined him.
"Most valentines have a picture," Billy replied, "and they have some writing on them that say something like 'Be my valentine!'"
"Sometimes they have a poem," Emil observed. "Maybe we could start there."
"I know one," Billy agreed, and he started to write. He wrote this:
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Sugar is sweet...
Then Billy stopped. "I don't remember the last line," he said.
"Let's make something up," Emil said then, "what could come next?"
"But it can rot your teeth?" Billy asked.
Both boys laughed. You can't tell from this photo, but they really were laughing. Their faces don't move, as you know, but they thought it was very funny, and they they could hear each other laughing, inside. Their little vinyl bodies shook with laughter. They knew they didn't really have any teeth to rot.
"It's supposed to be a valentine poem," Emil pointed out, when they were done laughing. "How about, 'But I think you're even sweeter?'"
"That's better for a valentine," Billy agreed, "but it doesn't really sound like a poem. I wish I could remember how it really goes."
"Where's Mariah?" Emil asked. "She would know how it ends."
The boys looked for Mariah. They found her talking with Pippa at the top of the stairs.
"Mariah," Billy said, "we need your help. We're trying to write something pretty for our valentines."
"Sure," she said, jumping to her feet.
Mariah and Pippa followed Billy and Emil to the dining room. When they were all settled around the big table, Billy showed Mariah what he had written. Pippa looked over Mariah's shoulder. Well, she tried to look over Mariah's shoulder, so she could see, but she is very small.
"We don't remember the last line of the poem," Emil explained. "We tried to come up with something to end it with, but it didn't sound right."
Mariah read:
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Sugar is sweet...
"And so are you!" She said, looking up at the boys. "That's the last line of the poem."
"That's it!" cried Billy, and he wrote out the last line. "I knew you would know what it was!"
"Now it sounds like a poem," Pippa said. "Why is that?"
"Well," Mariah began, "A poem is something written that makes you feel something or that sounds pretty. Many poems have a form to them. Often they rhyme (RIME). That's when a word in one line ends with the same or similar sound as another line, like blue and you, but that isn't needed to make it a poem."
"Often it has rhythm (RIH-thum)," Mariah explained. "That means there's a beat that's repeated in some other lines in the poem, but not all poems have that."
"This one repeats the same rhythm in each line," she said. Mariah tapped on the table as she recited the poem.
"Roses are red." Tap-tap-tap-tap.
"Violets are blue." Tap-tap-tap-tap. (She said "violets" like "VY-lets.)
"Sugar is sweet." Tap-tap-tap-tap.
"And so are you." Tap-tap-tap-tap.
"The word violets actually has an extra sound in it," Mariah pointed out, "VY-oh-lets," but it's one you almost don't hear, so the word only gets two beats."
The dolls all thought about that.
Then Pippa decided she had thought long enough. "Would it be OK if we help you make valentines?" she asked.
"Sure," said Billy. "It will be more fun with more of us working on them." He moved the supplies to where Pippa and Mariah could help themselves.
"Pippa is, too," Pippa said as she picked out what to use.
"Is what?" Emil asked, pausing in cutting out the heart he wanted to make.
"Sweet," she replied. "I gave the poem a new ending. 'Pippa is, too.'"
It had the right number of beats, although a poem doesn't need that. The last word rhymed, although a poem doesn't need that, either. No one could argue with the idea that Pippa is sweet.
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
"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.
