"Can you help me, Mariah?" said a small voice. Mariah looked down and saw Pippa. "Do you want to get up onto the couch?" she asked.
"Well," Pippa replied, "I can get up there by myself. I can use this doll chair, but I need help with my homework." She started to climb onto the couch.
"Wait," Mariah said. "I was just getting ready to go into the dining room, so I can use the table for writing. Come along. Maybe you will need to write, too."
The girls climbed down and went into the dining room. Emil and Billy were building something with Legos, but the dining room table is very, very big, so there was plenty of room.
Mariah helped Pippa climb up on the chair so they could reach the table. Then she handed up her book and her notebook, and Pippa's notepad.
"Show me what you need help with," Mariah said when they were both at the table.
Pippa showed Mariah what was on her pad of paper. "We're studying the apos...apos...apostrophe (ah-POSS-troh-fee)," Pippa explained. The teacher said it was very important to learn, and that many dolls just let Autocorrect do it for them, but Autocorrect isn't always right. I tried to pay attention, but the boy who sits right behind me kept kicking my chair."
"What your teacher said about Autocorrect is true," Mariah agreed. "Autocorrect is there to help, but dolls have to use their brains as well. The apostrophe has several jobs to do."
While the girls talked quietly about Pippa's homework, the boys continued to work.
Mariah looked at Pippa's note pad. I see your homework has different ways the apostrophe is used. "Tell me what you remember from the lesson, and we'll start from there," she suggested.
"Well," Pippa began, "I remember that the teacher said that the apostrophe's used to show that something is left out, like when you shorten two words to make one word, or when you leave out numbers in a set of dates, like 'the '90s' for 'the 1990s.'"
"That's correct," Mariah said. "In fact, I'll bet the writer has already used a few apostrophes in this story."
Pippa thought back through what they had talked about.
"I said 'I can't get up onto the couch,'" Pippa said, "and that is like saying 'I cannot get up onto the couch,'" she suggested.
"That's right," Mariah agreed. The dolls went back over everything they had said to each other.
(Can you figure out when the dolls had used apostrophes when they were speaking to each other?)
When the dolls had mentioned all the apostrophes they could remember, Mariah asked Pippa what else she remembered about what the teacher had said.
"I remember," Pippa said thoughtfully, "that the apostrophe is used to show that something belongs to some one when you use the person's name or who they are, and that works for things, too."
"Billy's Legos," Emil said.
"You'll notice," Mariah said, "that the apostrophe came after the 's' when Billy said, 'The dolls' Legos.' That's how we know he meant the Legos belong to all of the dolls, not just one."
"I didn't hear it," Pippa said, "but I can see it in my head."
"Mariah's helping!" Pippa exclaimed, laughing. "I just found a way that I can use the apostrophe in two different ways with the same words."
"That's right," Mariah agreed. "Tell me the two different ways you used the apostrophe."
"Well," Pippa began, "I could have meant, 'Mariah is helping,' and you are, but I also could use those two words like 'I couldn't get through my homework without Mariah's helping.' You see? 'Helping' is a thing."
"I think you learned the lesson very well," Mariah said.
"Not exactly," Pippa disagreed. "I felt all confused, but talking with you about it helped me to get unconfused."
"Well," said Mariah, "Then we should talk about when not to use an apostrophe."
Pippa looked thoughtful. "When is that?" she asked.
Mariah thought for a moment. "We have words that show something belongs to someone but we don't want to use the name of the person or the thing. Can you think of some of them?"
Now it was Pippa's turn to think again. "Maybe if I said 'his Legos' instead of 'Billy's Legos?'" she suggested.
Mariah nodded. "Yes!" she exclaimed. "'His' is a kind of word called a pronoun. It's a word we use instead of the name of the person or thing. Some pronouns show when something belongs to someone or something."
"His Legos," Emil chimed in.
"Ours," Billy corrected.
"Theirs," Pippa said.
"Right,"Mariah agreed, "but 'its!'" she exclaimed. "That's the one that gives us the most trouble, because it's just like 'it is,' and I just used that, but if it means something belongs to it, there's no apostrophe."
"I meant 'It is just like' but I said, 'It's just like,'" Mariah explained. "Your teacher has included that in these exercises."
"The piece we needed was still in its box," Billy said. "No apostrophe."
'It's' is spelled just like 'its' except that it has an apostrophe when it means 'it is,'" Pippa said. "I see, I think. "if you can put back the missing word parts, then you need an apostrophe, and if you can't put back any missing word parts you don't?" She said it like a question, but she really meant she thought she understood.
"I think you understand the most important uses of the apostrophe," Mariah said.
"Maybe," Pippa said, doubtfully, "but what about all the apostrophes The Writer used in this story that were not something missing or showing that something belonged to someone." Pippa showed Mariah this line in her head:
Mariah laughed. "That does look like an apostrophe," she said, "but it isn't. It's a single quote. It's made the same way, and it looks the same, but it has a different purpose."
"A quote is something someone said," Billy said.
"Yes," Mariah agreed, "and it's also a punctuation mark, like the apostrophe. We use a single quote when we've already used the double quote."
"Like when someone says something about what someone said?" Emil asked, as he fit two pieces together.
"Yes," Mariah agreed, "but that wasn't part of Pippa's homework. Maybe we should save that for another day." Mariah stacked the dolls' books and papers, showing she thought they were done.
"Do you know," Billy asked, "the most important thing I learned about apostrophes?"
The other dolls shook their heads.
"Don't think because a word ends in 's' that it needs an apostrophe," he said. "I made that mistake once on a writing assignment. The teacher marked off for every time I did it and then gave me an extra assignment, like Pippa's exercises!"
"I'll remember that, Billy!" Pippa said. "I think I can do these exercises by myself, now. Thanks, Mariah! Thanks boys!"
"Something smells good," Emil said then. He had been noticing it for a few minutes.
The dolls all sniffed the air.
"Jolena's baking something," Mariah said. "I think she said she was going to bake cookies today."
"Jolena's cookies are the best!" Billy exclaimed.
The dolls would have looked at each other and grinned, but their mouths don't move. They can, however, pretend to eat cookies. Their cookies are so big, they will have to share, but that's more fun.
Jolena's cookies are delicious! Hers are the best!
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 2:00 PM Pacific Time.
Image on Mariah's shirt used with permission with thanks, from Free To Be Kids, where human-size shirts with this image are available.
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