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, July 26, 2024

Hidden Talents

Mariah looked up from her writing. "How do you see and hear what dogs and cats are thinking?" she asked Emil.

Emil thought for a moment. "I don't really know," he replied. "I guess, when I noticed it with the dogs, I thought everyone could do that."

"What did you see and hear with the dogs?" Mariah asked then.

"Nothing important," Emil said. "It was just things like finding a worm in the backyard, or chasing a squirrel, or it's time to go for a walk."

"I suppose," Mariah suggested, "the dogs are happy and have everything they need. What Marmalade needed to say was important."
Emil nodded. "Yes, Marmalade really wanted Mandy to know that she belonged to him now," he agreed.

Mariah was still puzzled. "I wonder why I can't see or hear the animals in my head," she said. "I wonder if Mandy can explain it.

"Maybe we should go ask," Emil said. "I'd like to know, too.

The two dolls found Mandy on the table in the workroom, selecting yarn for a project. She looked up when they climbed up onto the table.

"Mandy," Mariah began, "we have a question we think you might be able to answer."

Mandy put down the yarn she was holding. "What is it?" she asked.

"Well," Mariah began. "Emil can't see much without his glasses, and he can't hear at all without the hearing aids in his glasses, but he can see and hear what dogs and cats are saying, just the way we see and hear in our heads what other dolls are saying without using our eyes or ears."

"Yes," Emil agreed. "I wondered how I can do that when other dolls can't. We thought you might know."

"You know," Mandy began, "I had been wondering about just that very thing ever since we found out that Emil has this special ability."

"So I decided to do some research," Mandy went on.

"What did you find out?" Emil asked.
"Well," Mandy continued, "We are made to be like people, so we react like people in a lot of ways."

Mariah and Emil looked at each other and nodded. They knew this already.

"I have known for a long time," Mandy went on, "that people who are born blind or deaf often grow to have special abilities, like being really good at music or hearing things most people can't hear, or a deaf person noticing things they see that hearing people don't."

"I've read about that," Mariah said. "It's as if they have a superpower to make up for what's missing."

"I remember being in my box," Emil said. "My box was lined up with with a lot of other dolls in their boxes. They were talking about what they could see, but all I could see was when it was light and when it was dark."

"Sometimes they talked about noises or sounds," Emil continued, "but I didn't understand what they meant. I didn't find out about hearing until I came out of my box and I got these special glasses with the built-in hearing aids."

"That's what I thought," Mandy agreed. "You are like a human person who was born deaf and nearly blind, because you couldn't hear, and you couldn't see much of anything."

"I thought, of course," Mandy went on, "that people who are blind or deaf just learn their special abilities, because they need them to make up for not being able to see or hear."

"That would make sense," Emil agreed, and Mariah nodded.

"However," Mandy went on, "I found out that some scientists (SY-en-tists), those are people who study things in the real world and figure out how things work. Scientists have learned that there is a part of the human brain for hearing and a part of the brain for seeing. When these parts of the brain are not used because the person is deaf or blind, they do other things that the person needs or can use."

"So that's why I can hear what animals say," Emil said.

"I think so," Mandy agreed.

"Some of the dolls had pets, usually dogs, with them in their boxes," Emil went on. "There were doll pets alone in boxes, too. I could hear the animals, and see what they were thinking."

"Yes," Mandy agreed. "Maybe you were able to use that part of your brain to listen to the animals, because you weren't hearing anything with your ears or seeing with your eyes. At least I think that's what happened."

"I wonder what part of my brain that is," Emil said thoughtfully.

"Actually," Mandy said, "if we took your head off, we would not be able to see a brain in there. We might see the inside of your eyes, but no brain."

The dolls all thought about what that might look like. Emil did not offer to take his head off.

"Dolls only have a pretend brain," Mandy continued, "but they work for us the way human brains work, and maybe yours is like the brain of someone who was born deaf and blind but had some other ability instead."

"Wow!" Mariah exclaimed. "I wish I could talk to animals." She looked at Emil. "You're really special, Emil!"

"You're special, too, Mariah," Mandy said. "You have a gift for writing, and if you keep working on it the way you do, you can make your writing even better. You are really good at putting words together."

"I'm special, too?" Mariah asked.

"Yes," agreed Mandy. "We are all special, but the way each one of us is special is different for each doll. Children need us to be different from each other, because each child is different and special, and when children meet other children, they need to know that it's normal for them to be different. It's what makes human people––and dolls––interesting."

Just then, Marmalade came into the workroom. He jumped up on the table and came over to the dolls. He looked at Emil.
"Meow!" Marmalade said.

"Marmalade says that cats are very special," Emil said.

"Of course they are!" Mandy exclaimed. "Marmalade is sweet and beautiful. I'm glad he found me!"

"Meow," said Marmalade.
"He says he loves you, too," Emil told Mandy.

"I always wondered what meow meant," Mariah said, "and now I know."

"Meow means cats are special," she said, "but it also means 'I love you.'"

Cast--
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia
Marmalade: Purrrfect Cats from KTL

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.

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Friday, July 19, 2024

A Hole in the Sky

Pippa and Pam were walking in the woods, talking about this and that, when suddenly, something hit Pippa on the head. “Ouch!” she cried.

Pam looked on in alarm and then looked at the thing that fell. “What happened?” she asked.

Pippa picked up the object and showed it to Pam. “This fell from the sky and hit me!” she exclaimed.

Both dolls looked up. They saw nothing but the sky above.

Then they looked at each other. “The sky is falling!” they both yelled at once.

“We have to take this to someone and tell them,” Pippa said, and Pam agreed.

Pam took the kerchief off of her head and they put the piece of sky in it. They found a twig and put it through the kerchief, so they could carry the package between them.

Then the two dolls walked as quickly as they could to the trail, carrying their burden with them. They walked down the trail as quickly as they could.

When they reached the paved part of the trail, they came upon Pauly, who was playing with a ball. He looked at the bundle they were carrying. “What have you got there?” he asked.

“It’s a piece of the the sky,” Pam told him. “The sky is falling!”

“We’ve got to tell someone,” Pippa added. “It could be bad!”

“Maybe we should go and tell The Writer,” Pauly suggested.

The three dolls agreed that The Writer should know about this. She would know what to do. The sky must be saved!

The three dolls walked on, taking turns carrying the big bundle and Pauly's ball.

A little farther along the trail, they noticed two dolls coming toward them. As those dolls got closer, they recognized Charlotte and Billy, who were out walking Pierre and Freckles.

“It’s Charlotte and Billy,” Pam said. “Maybe they’ll help us carry this piece of the sky.”

“Hi, kids,” Charlotte called out. “What’s up! What’s that you have in that bundle?”

“It’s a piece of the sky,” Pauly told them. “It fell and hit Pippa on the head. We’re taking it to The Writer.”

“We think she’ll know what to do,” Pam explained.”

Charlotte and Billy looked at each other.

“The Writer will definitely know what to do,” Billy said.

“Maybe you could carry the piece of sky for us,” Pippa suggested. “We’ve been taking turns, but it’s getting heavy.”

Charlotte handed Pierre’s leash to Pam and took one end of the twig.

Pauly took Freckles’ leash from Billy, as Billy took the other end of the twig.

When they were all set, off they marched to big house where The Writer lived with her husband, her dogs and her family of dolls.

The dolls carried the bundle with the piece of the sky all the way to the house. They climbed up the front steps. They had to work together, because it was even getting heavy for the bigger dolls.

The door opened as if by magic to let them in. Right away, they saw Mandy in the doorway.

“I saw you coming up the walk,” Mandy said. “What do you have in the bundle? she asked.

“It’s a piece of the sky,” Billy explained. “Part of the sky fell and hit Pippa on the head.’

“We’re bringing it to show The Writer,” said Pauly, who had been struggling with Freckles’ leach, which had wrapped around one of his legs.

Mandy thought for a moment. “Let’s have a look,” she suggested. “The Writer and Mariah are working on a story, and they didn’t want to be disturbed, but maybe I can be of help.”

The dolls carried the bundle with the piece of sky over to the stairs. They put it down on the bottom step.

Then they unwrapped their package, so that Mandy would see it.

Mandy looked at what was in the kerchief. Then she looked at the other dolls. “I don’t think we need to bother The Writer with this,” she told them.

“The sky isn’t falling,” she explained. “This is a fir cone,” she said, gesturing toward the thing in the kerchief.

“You see,” she said, “it only seemed to fall from the sky. You must have been close to a fir tree when it happened. Fir cones fall to the ground on their own, or the wind blows and they fall, or a squirrel scampers over the branch and knocks them off. It has the seeds that cause new fir trees to grow.”

“Well,” Charlotte said then, “I feel pretty dumb.”

“We never looked in the bundle,” said Billy, who knew a fir cone when he saw one.

Mandy noticed the three smaller dolls looking rather embarrassed. “It’s an easy mistake to make, though,” she told them, “if you’ve never seen a fir cone before.”

“It was very smart of you to realize the danger, too,” Mandy added. “The sky was really in danger once,” she explained, “but human scientists worked together with countries around the world to fix it.”

All the dolls were interested now. “Tell us about it, please,” Pam begged.

“Well,” Mandy began, “long before any of us were made, there was a hole in the sky, in a part called the ozone layer. The ozone layer filters the sunlight that falls on the earth. Because of the hole, people had trouble with their skin burning easily. (Their skin doesn’t actually catch on fire when it burns; it just gets red and sometimes makes blisters.) That can cause skin diseases if it happens often.”

“Another problem with the hole,” Mandy continued, “was that it damaged food crops. Scientists figured out what was happening, though. They found out that it was because human people were using a certain kind of chemical for making things like insulation, (the stuff they put between the walls of a house to keep the temperature right). They also used it in refrigerators so they could get cold enough to keep food from spoiling quickly. Some of it was leaking out and going up to where the ozone layer is. It made the hole, and the hole was getting bigger all the time.”

“Is it still there?” Billy asked.

“Yes,” Mandy replied, “but it’s much smaller now. When human scientists found out what was causing the hole, they worked together and with other human people around the world to find other chemicals they could use instead of the ones causing the damage. They made everyone stop using those chemicals. The hole is closing up again now.”

“So the sky can’t fall, exactly,” Charlotte suggested.

“No, it can’t,” Mandy agreed, “but things can fall from the sky, like hail.”

“Little balls of ice,” Billy explained to the younger dolls.

“I remember that!” Pippa said. “I know what hail is. This didn’t look like hail, though.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Mandy agreed. “Now you’ve learned that these things fall from the trees, not the sky, so you don’t need to worry.”

“I learned something, too,” Charlotte said.

Everyone looked at Charlotte.

“I learned that when someone says something terrible is happening,” she explained, “you should check it out before you get all excited.”

“Yeah,” agreed Billy. “You should look inside the bundle to see if it really is a piece of the sky or not.

Children who want to know more about the ozone layer and what happened to it can read here.

Image of ozone hole from NASA.

Readers may recognize the old folk tale known as Chicken Little, Chicken Licken or Henny Penny. The mistakes made by the characters in the old folk tale may also be made by dolls, or even human people.

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

Pippa: Götz Little Kidz Lotta

Pauly: Götz Little Kidz Paul

Pam: Götz Little Kidz Springtime, from My Doll Best Friend