The Doll's Storybook: September 2023

Friday, September 29, 2023

Planting Bulbs

From the window, Charlotte could see Mariah and Jolena out in the yard. They looked busy, so she went out to see what they were doing.

Each doll had a spoon in her hand. They were sitting in the garden near the little cherub statue.

The two dolls appeared to be trying to dig dirt from the ground with spoons. They looked up when she came close.

"What are you doing, girls?" she asked them.

"We learned that if you plant bulbs in the fall," Mariah replied, "you'll have lovely flowers in the spring."

"Yes," said, Jolena. "We want to have flowers to cheer up the little cherub statue when spring comes, because he has to stay out in the cold all winter."

"It's very nice to have flowers in the spring," Charlotte said, "but where are your bulbs?"

"Why, they're right here," Jolena replied, showing Charlotte a collection of bulbs on the ground. "Didn't you see them?"

"This is a small bulb," Mariah explained. "We think it will give us a small plant with small flowers."

"This bulb is not so small. It's big," Jolena said. "We think it will grow big flowers."

"Here's one that's bigger. It should grow even bigger flowers," Mariah explained.

"This bulb is the biggest," Jolena said. "We think it will grow flowers that are the biggest of all."

"So you're planting these?" Charlotte asked. "These bulbs won't give you flowers."

"They won't?" Asked Mariah.

Mariah and Jolena looked at each other, puzzled.

"But we read in an online gardening blog that if you plant bulbs in the fall, you will have flowers in the spring," Jolena explained.

"It was online, so it must be true," Mariah added.

"Not everything you read or see online is true, Mariah," Charlotte said, "but in this case the person who wrote the blog probably just thought that if you were smart enough to be reading a gardening blog, you would know what kind of bulbs to plant," she continued. "You are smart dolls. You can read and understand what you read, but you haven't been out of your boxes long. This is new for you. You need flower bulbs to get flowers from the bulbs you plant."

"Then what are these bulbs for?" Jolena asked.

"These are light bulbs. They will give you light if you put them into a lamp that is plugged into an electrical outlet," Charlotte explained. "That's a special hole in the wall that brings electricity to where we need it in and around the house."

"The little bulbs give a little bit of light. The big ones give more light, and the biggest bulb gives the most light of all."

"Then how can we give the cherub some flowers in the spring?" Mariah wanted to know.

"I'll go into the house and look," Charlotte suggested. "I think I saw some flower bulbs in the garage. You two can go back to digging while I run get them."

The girls picked up their spoons and began to dig. After a while Charlotte appeared, dragging a bag of something that looked to Jolena, who liked to cook, a little like garlic.

"These are flower bulbs," Charlotte said.

"We can open the bag and plant them here, so the little cherub will have flowers to look at after the long, cold winter."

The three dolls thought about that. They could imagine daffodils.

Or maybe it would be tulips growing in the flower bed.

Charlotte gave each doll a bulb to plant.

Then she picked up one for herself.

"Mandy told me that not all flowers come from bulbs. Some come from seeds," Charlotte said. "We wait until spring to plant flowers that come from seeds. Some flowers plant their own seeds, like the dandelion.

They do that in the summer or in the fall. The yellow dandelion flower turns into a white, fluffy ball. The wind or animals blow the seeds away, and they fly through the air, like little umbrellas."

"Then in the spring, new plants grow. They make more dandelion flowers," Charlotte continued.

Charlotte brought another spoon from the house. The three dolls dug holes in the dirt and placed a flower bulb in each one. While they did that, they imagined the pretty flowers coming up in the spring.

Their backs were turned, so they didn't notice the little cherub smiling.

Can you see the cherub smile?

Cast--

Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen

Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris

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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.

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

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Copyright © 2018, 2023 by Peggy Stuart

Friday, September 22, 2023

Scary Things

The girls were looking at decorations for Christmas.

"I found a sheep," Jolena said. "It has a string on it."
"That's so you can hang it on the Christmas tree," Charlotte explained. "There's another sheep in the box, and I found this tree. It has a string on it, too. It will be pretty hanging on the tree. A little tree on a big tree!"

Charlotte lifted the tree up, so Mariah and Jolena could see it.

"I found this pretty ball," Mariah said, "and it has a string on it, too. Does that mean this ball is supposed to hang on the tree, too?"

"Yes, Mariah," Charlotte agreed. "Veronika will love the ball. It looks like folded fabric."

Jolena reached into another box. "Here's something strange," she exclaimed. "Very strange!"

She pulled the thing out of the box. "Look at this!"

"That is strange," Mariah agreed. "It looks odd. It doesn't have a string on it, either."

Charlotte nodded. "It looks strange, and it doesn't have a string," she agreed.

"I wonder what it's for. It somehow doesn't look like Christmas, either," Mariah said. "This pretty ball looks like Christmas."

"The two sheep and the tree look like Christmas," Charlotte added.
"How can we find out what it is?" Mariah asked.

"I know," cried Jolena. "I'll go ask Mandy. Mandy knows a lot. Maybe she knows what this is."

Mariah and Charlotte continued to look in the box for more Christmas decorations, while Jolena went off to find Mandy.

She soon found Mandy reading a book. (Mandy can usually be found reading or knitting.)

"Mandy, can you help me?" Jolena asked. "Charlotte, Mariah and I were looking at the Christmas decorations and found this. We think it looks strange. Can you tell me what it is?"

Jolena showed the strange thing to Mandy.

"It's a skull, Jolena," Mandy said. "It's strange because that's for Halloween, not Christmas."

"What's Halloween and what's a skull?" Jolena wanted to know.

"Jolena, Halloween is a holiday that has a very complicated history," Mandy began, "but you probably don't need to know all about how it got started."

"What you need to know about it," she explained, "is that children like to dress up in costumes, wear masks to hide their faces and try to scare each other, and be scared in return," Mandy explained, putting her book down and moving her glasses on the top of her head.

"They have parties and go from one house to another asking for candy or other goodies by saying, 'Trick or treat.' That used to mean that if you give us a treat, we won't play a mean trick on you," Mandy continued.
"That doesn't sound very nice," Jolena said.

"No," Mandy continued, "and grownup people didn't think that was very nice, so they started just handing out treats to children who came to the door and asked nicely."
"But where does the skull fit into all this?" Jolena asked, looking at the skull. "You know, I think it's looking back at me."

"That's part of being scared," Mandy explained. "A skull is the part of a person's body that is inside the head, under the face and hair. That's why you think it's looking at you. It's the head part of the skeleton."

Jolena handed the skull to Mandy, so she could point out where the eyes and nose belong and show her where the teeth were.

"It's scary to children, because parts of the body are missing," Mandy continued. "To people, it's scary to have body parts missing, because they are afraid of being hurt."
"I don't think it's scary," Jolena said. "It just seems strange."

"That's because dolls don't have skeletons or skulls," Mandy explained. "Our bodies are vinyl, which is firm and solid, and we can stand without a skeleton. A person without a skeleton could only lie in a heap on the floor."

"I know that dolls are not afraid of being hurt," Jolena added, "and our heads can be removed to change our eyes, but we can pretend to be hurt or sick or afraid."

"Yes," Mandy agreed. "It's fun to pretend, and it's fun for real children to pretend, too. They like to be scared when they know it's pretend, because it makes real fear less scary. This is just a make-believe skull, but skeletons and skulls can't hurt you, even real ones."

"So on Halloween it’s fun to be scared when you know you’re safe?" Jolena asked.

"Yes, Jolena. "Practice being pretend-scared helps prepare children for when they have something real to be scared about, but it's only good when they are old enough to understand that it's just pretend."

"You know," Jolena said, "Sometimes I think it would be fun to be a real little girl."

"Jolena," Mandy answered, "Sometimes I think you're a regular little Pinocchio."

"What is that?" asked Jolena.

"Pinocchio is a story about a puppet named Pinocchio. He wanted to become a real little boy," Mandy explained.
"Did he get to become a real little boy?" Jolena asked.

"You can find that book in the library, Jolena," Mandy replied, picking up her book again and putting her glasses on her nose. "It's worth reading from the beginning."