Saying It Right

"I can't decide whether it's a Mandy question or a Veronika question," Billy told Emil as the boys were walking home from school.

"I thought it was a question for Veronika," Emil said, "because Justin is being teased because he's different."

"That's true," Billy agreed, as the boys reached the front steps, "but I was thinking that why he's being teased might be more of a Mandy question."

"I know," said Emil, "that dolls who are different get teased, because that happened to me. Some of the dolls even picked on me, which is worse."

The boys took turns helping each other up the stairs to the house, not because either of them needed help, but they liked to practice helping others. Some dolls need help from time to time.

"Picking on other dolls isn't nice," Billy said. "I wanted to hit them, but I remembered that Veronika told me that hitting was wrong. That was when some of the other dolls were picking on Mariah for being different."

"You got in a fight, didn't you?" Emil asked as the boys reached the door to the house. (It was before he came, but he remembered hearing about it.)

"Yes," Billy agreed, "but now I know there are better ways to handle bullies. Veronika helped me understand that bullies often have problems we don't know about."

"Veronika," Billy continued, "explained that bullying is just a way to get attention and to feel better about something they feel bad about. If you ignore them it stops being fun, and they stop."

The boys found both Veronika and Mandy in the living room, reading, so they didn't have to decide which one to look for. Mariah was there, too, helping Pippa with her homework. The girls all looked up when the boys came in.

"We have a question," Billy said to the girls. "Maybe you can help us with something."

"What's up?" Veronika asked. She closed her book.

"Well," Emil began, "our friend Justin is getting picked on because of the way he talks."

"I know we aren't supposed to hit the other dolls," Billy said.

 "I know we're supposed to just be friendly with Justin and pay no attention to the bullies," he added.

"That's right," Veronika agreed, nodding. Mandy was nodding, too.

"It's because of the way he talks," Emil explained, as the boys climbed up onto the couch. "He has trouble getting words out."

"Some of the other boys said Justin was faking," Billy said. "They said he was pretending to talk that way to get attention."

"Why did they think he was pretending?" Mariah asked.

"It's because he doesn't do it when he sings," Emil pointed out, leaning back so he could look at Mariah.

Emil climbed all the way up onto the couch, so he could see Mariah easily when she had something to say.

"Yes," Billy agreed, "and he can recite poetry, too, with no problem, but I don't think he's faking."

"Justin stutters," said Mandy, who knew all the dolls at the school. "That means he sometimes repeats one sound over and over until he can get the word out out. Sometimes even the wrong word comes out."

"Yes!" Billy exclaimed. "That's exactly what he does! He can sing songs, though, without having a problem."

"It's because singing uses a different part of the brain," Mandy explained. "It's a problem that a child inherits. It's genetic (juh-NEH-tik). That means it runs in families," Mandy explained.

"It starts when a child is young," Mandy explained, "and sometimes they need to have special training to be able to talk so other human people can understand them. Many still have a problem speaking when they are adults." Mandy thought for a moment. "Dolls are supposed to be like real children, so maybe Justin was made that way so he can go live a with a child who stutters."

"I think," Mariah said, "that you should tell Justin that the person who wrote Alice in Wonderland stuttered. I think that's why he was such a good writer. He could say what he wanted in writing and not stutter."

"Lots of people who stuttered or still do," Veronika pointed out, "are famous, but not for their stuttering. Some are famous athletes, singers, actors and writers."

"Yes!" Mandy agreed. "Some people write or recite words they've memorized because they can and go on to be very good at it. Practice will do that sometimes. Or they put their energy into something where you don't have to talk much."

"And some," Veronika explained, "have gone on in spite of their problem with speaking and done something great in some other field, even though they have to work extra hard to talk." 

Then she paused and looked as if there might be something more she wanted to say, so the boys waited. Actually, everyone waited.

"I wonder if Justin knows this," Veronika suggested. "Maybe he feels bad because he doesn't talk the way everyone else does. Sometimes dolls who are picked on start to think that they are broken."

"Yes," Emil agreed. "I can see that. It's what I thought about myself before I came here and found out how much I could do. I don't have trouble talking, but without my special glasses, I can't see or hear. I need help from others when my glasses are charging."

"Let's tell him tomorrow," Billy suggested, "about all the famous people who stutter. We can look up 'famous people who stutter' on the computer and make a list for him." Then he looked at Veronika, to see what she thought.

Veronika nodded. "That's a great idea!" she agreed. "You and Emil can tell him all the athletes, singers and actors you know of who had to overcome stuttering as they grew up!"

"What's the matter, Mariah?" Pippa asked suddenly.

Mariah was staring off into space. "Well," she said, "I was just remembering that Lewis Carroll, who wrote Alice in Wonderland had planned to be a clergyman. That meant he would have to get up and talk in church. That's why he wrote instead."

"Can you imagine a life without Alice?" Pippa asked. "What if he hadn't stuttered. He might not have written my favorite book."

Pippa's eyes would have become big and round, except that they don't move, so she just stared at the other dolls. And they stared back.

"I'm sorry Lewis Carroll had to go through all that," Pippa said finally, "but I'm sort of glad, too."

Life without "Alice." It didn't bear thinking about.

Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
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

Pippa: Götz Little Kidz Lotta

You can learn more about stuttering from the Stuttering Foundation.

You can see a boy who stutters who spoke to millions of people on television here:

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.

Image on Mariah's yellow T-shirt used with permission, from Free To Be Kids, where human-size shirts with this image are available.

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/19832501/?claim=j3fj3mbb8kt">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Copyright © 2020, 2023 by Peggy Stuart

On the Ballot

"What are the old people doing?" Pippa asked. Emil looked through the door of the kitchen.

"I think they're filling out their ballots," he said.

"What are ballots?" Pippa wanted to know.

"That's how people vote," Emil replied.

"Why don't they just raise their hands the way we do?" the smaller doll asked, because she had been here long enough to know how that works.

Emil wasn't sure. "Maybe it's because everyone would have to be in the same room," he said. "Maybe they use ballots to vote when there are too many people to fit into one room." Then he thought for a moment. "I've been wondering about it, too," he said finally. "Just like you, Pippa, this is my first election. Let's go ask one of the older dolls."

Emil thought about the older dolls. Which one would be best to ask? Who would know? Who would have the best answers? Who was easy to find?

Any one of them would probably be able to answer their questions, but Mariah was right there in the dining room, writing, so Emil thought he would try her first. Emil and Pippa climbed up on the dining room chairs. Mariah put her pencil down and looked up from her work.

"Mariah," Emil began, "I can see you are busy, but I was wondering if you could answer a question for us. It's about voting."

"I would love to talk with you about voting!" Mariah said enthusiastically. "I was just reading about elections in this book. I was just reading how important it is for all voters to do their duty."

Emil climbed over to Mariah's chair, and perched on the arm of it. Pippa climbed up and sat on the table. They both wanted to be where they could see Mariah and pay attention to what she said. When they were settled comfortably, Mariah said, "Now tell me what you wanted to know."

"Well," Pippa began, "The old people we live with were filling out their ballots in the kitchen. I was just asking Emil why they had to do it all on paper, instead of just raising their hands."

Emil added, "And I said I thought raising hands would only work if they were all in the same room."

"That's true," agreed Mariah. "Right now there are millions of real human people all over this country who are filling out their ballots at home, and many more will go to special places called polls or polling places."

"Why do they vote?" asked Pippa.

Emil nodded. "Yes," he said. "I was wondering about that, too. What are they voting about? I know we sometimes vote about whether Jolena should make oatmeal-raisin cookies or chocolate chip."

"Yes," Pippa agreed. "Whichever type of cookie gets the most votes is what she will make, but why would the old people need to vote about that? They can just make what they want, and it doesn't matter what the people who don't live with us want."

"That's true," Mariah agreed, "but when lots of people who all live in the same city or state or country all have to decide something that affects them all, having them raise their hands wouldn't work. You would have to get them all in the same room, and there isn't a room large enough. It would be very difficult to count all the raised hands, too."

The two younger dolls nodded. It made sense for each person to put their vote on a piece of paper. They understood that, but they both felt that there was more to know.

"What kinds of things do they vote on," Emil asked then.

"I'll show you," Mariah said. "They left the Voters' Pamphlet in the living room." She motioned for the other two dolls to follow her.

In the living room, Mariah picked up a big book, and the three dolls got comfortable on the couch. "Our state doesn't have polling locations," Mariah explained. "All voters get their ballots in the mail, so people who live here fill out their ballots at home and either put them into the mail or they take them to a place with a special ballot box that is just for that purpose. This book tells voters where they can take their ballots. It tells them everything they need to know to be able to vote."

Then Mariah found the place in the book where it explained what people were voting on. "Here is where we can read about the ballot measures," she explained. Those are about changes to laws or how to spend money."

Mariah turned a few pages. "Here are the candidates," she said.

Pippa stood up so she could see better. It's hard to see sometimes when you're smaller than everyone else. 

"Candied dates?" Pippa asked.

"That sounds good to eat," Emil said.

Mariah had to laugh. 

"No, nothing to pretend to eat," she said when she could stop laughing. "Candidates. Those are people who want to work in a job that is elected. Many of the people who work for us are elected. That means the person who gets the job is chosen by the people, the voters."

"Like the librarian?" Emil asked. He liked to visit the library and thought the librarian was nice.

"No," Mariah answered. "We don't elect our librarian. That person is chosen by other people in the government and has to be someone with special training. We do get to elect our sheriff, though, and there is a ballot measure to expand and improve the library. That means to spend money make it bigger and better." Mariah opened the booklet to the page where it told about the library.

"I hope they vote for that," Pippa said. "It's already a very big place, but if it's bigger, they will be able to have more books."

"Who else gets elected, then?" Emil asked.

"The people on our city council," Mariah explained, "then county offices. A county is made up of lots of towns and cities in the same part of the state. Then there are people in the state government, like the governor. The governor is in charge of everything in the state."

Pippa nodded. She thought she was beginning to see the picture. "So there are things that we need people for right here in our neighborhood, and then further away, there are things people all over need."

Mariah agreed, although that sounded a little vague. "Then there's the national government," she went on. "We elect someone who lives in our area to go and represent us in the national government. We have two Senators from our state, and one of them is on the ballot this time, and we have Representatives, and then there's the President. That's the person who will have to work to see that everyone else is doing his or her job properly."

"It sounds very complicated," Emil said.

"It gets easier to understand," Mariah suggested, "when you read about it and hear about it on TV. I really want to know all about these things, because I think I may want to be a community organizer someday. That's a person who helps dolls get what they need in their neighborhoods. They come up with ideas and find people to run for office, to become candidates. Then they work to get people out to vote."

Then Mariah had a sudden idea. "There's one other thing I forgot to tell you," she said. "There's another reason the human people have to use a ballot instead of raising their hands. It's because no one can see how they voted. That means they don't have to worry about upsetting their friends and neighbors if they want to vote differently from them, and no one can force them to vote for someone they don't want to."

"What if they want to tell them?" Emil asked.

"Of course," Mariah answered, "they can tell everyone if they want. People even put up signs in their yards and stickers on their cars to let people know how they are voting, but if they want to keep it secret, no one knows."

"It must be complicated to be a human," Emil said.

"It's certainly more complicated than being a doll," Mariah agreed, "but they start out as children, and they have lots of time to learn everything as they grow up. They can't vote until they are grown up."

The dolls heard the sound of chairs scraping on the floor. "They must be done with the ballots," Mariah said. "They will drive in the car to the drop box and put them in. Then when election day comes, they will watch the news to see how the election comes out."

Then they heard the garage door open and the car doors close in the garage. Then the garage door closed.

"We have the house to ourselves," Emil said. "They will be gone for a while. What would you like to do?"

The dolls thought about that. Then Mariah suddenly had an idea. "Pippa is small enough to ride on the robot vacuum cleaner!"

"Yes," said Emil. "Pippa, you hardly weigh anything, and it will be fun!"

Pippa is always ready for anything, so that's what they did. They didn't even have to vote about it!

Cast--
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia

Pippa: Götz Little Kidz Lotta

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.

Image on Mariah's yellow T-shirt used with permission, from Free To Be Kids, where human-size shirts with this image are available.

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/19832501/?claim=j3fj3mbb8kt">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Copyright © 2020, 2023 by Peggy Stuart