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.

Showing posts with label Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook. Show all posts

Friday, March 13, 2026

This Is Who I Am

Jolena and the boys were looking for someone to join them in a game of cards. They needed at least four people for the game they wanted to play for it to be fun, and Emil had come up with a way they could hold the cards more easily.

He wanted to try it out. They found Mariah sitting in front of the mirror in the bathroom, trying on a scarf.

"What are you doing," Jolena asked.

"I'm trying to see how I would look in a hijab (HIH-jub)," Mariah replied.

"What is a hijab?" Billy asked, moving around behind Jolena so he could see Mariah.

"It's a special kind of scarf to wear on your head," Mariah explained. "I wish I could see how it looks in the back," she added.

"One of us could hold up another mirror," Emil suggested. "Then you can see the back."

The dolls looked in the drawers to see if they could find a small mirror one of them could hold.

While they were looking, Pippa appeared in the doorway. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"We're looking for a small mirror," Billy told her. "Mariah wants to see how her hijab looks from the back."

"What's a hijab?" Pippa asked.

"It's a scarf to wear on your head," Emil replied.

"It's a special kind of scarf," Mariah corrected. "It's for older girls and ladies to wear, not boys."

"That's interesting," Pippa said, "and it's pretty. Hey, I know where there's a small mirror," she added.

Then Pippa ran off, returning after a couple of minutes with the small mirror she remembered when she had looked through the drawers and cabinets in the other bathroom. "Here," she said after she climbed up to where they were. "Try this."

Pippa handed the mirror to Jolena, who held it up for Mariah, so she could see the back of her head. In the small mirror, Mariah could see her face and the reflection (re-FLEK-shun) of the big mirror showing the back of her head.

"Are you dressing up for a costume party?" Pippa asked as Mariah turned her head from side to side to see how she looked from the back.

"No," Mariah replied. "I just wanted to see how I would look in a hijab. You see, real human girls who believe the way I do and go to the mosque (MOSK) to worship on Fridays can wear a hijab when they get old enough if they want."

"Will you do that when you get old enough?" Pippa asked.

"I'll never be old enough," Mariah said. "Dolls never grow up. Remember? I just wanted to see how it would look."

"But I've seen grown-up dolls," Pippa said. "They wear high heels and lipstick and everything, like grown-up human ladies."

"Yes," Mariah agreed, "but those dolls start out grown-up."

The dolls all thought about that.

"But why would you want to cover your beautiful hair?" Jolena asked.

"Well," Mariah explained, "I might want to do it so other dolls would look at my face and not just my hair. It also would tell them something about me before I even say anything. They would know that I'm a girl who is part of a special group."

Jolena still looked puzzled.

"Look," Mariah went on. "It's like your helmet. Why do you wear a helmet when you ski?" she asked Jolena.

"Skiers wear helmets to protect their heads," Jolena said, "because they sometimes fall and can hit their heads."

"But you're a doll," Mariah pointed out. "If you didn't wear a helmet and you fell the wrong way, you might get some scratches in your vinyl, but you wouldn't hurt your doll brain."

"Oh, I think I see!" Jolena exclaimed. "I wear a helmet so everyone knows I'm a skier! They know that before they even talk to me. I love that I'm a skier. I want everyone to know that! It's an important part of who I am!"

"They will still know you're pretty," Pippa said, looking at Mariah. "I think you look lovely in a hijab."

"Well, we don't want to wear hijabs," Billy said, turning to Emil. "We don't, do we, Emil? Not that there's anything wrong with them, but hijabs are for girls. We boys have our own kind of head covering that shows that we are boys. That's what we want everyone to know about us!"

"You mean our wigs?" Emil inquired.

Billy nodded. That was exactly what he meant.

The two boys smiled at each other. At least, they pretended to smile, but their faces are vinyl and don't move. The dolls all knew they were smiling, though. They knew that Billy and Emil were glad everyone could tell they were boys. It was an important part of who they were.

"Now," Jolena observed, "we have enough dolls to play the card game that takes at least four, so if Mariah or Pippa will join us...or better yet, both of you!"

Mariah left her hijab on her head while they played cards. It was fun to pretend to be a real grownup girl.

Emil discovered that it was difficult to pull the cards out of his new card holder. It held up the game, but the other dolls didn't mind. It was fun to watch him use his new invention.

New and different things can be interesting.

Cast--
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
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 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.

Do you like our stories? Some of them are available in print:

The stories in Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Being Little, Besties and Distraction.

The stories in Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Best Buds, Getting What You Want and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

Our book of poems, Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook includes Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Welcoming a Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.

Available now from BookBaby and other booksellers: Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook. The Stories in Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Talking About Boys, Changes, Shhhhh!, Staying After and Money in a Jar.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less, because the vendor gets a cut. The Writer's author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find our books at Barbara's Bookstore as well, or ask your library to get them for you.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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Friday, January 16, 2026

What's Behind the Door?

Pippa joined us in 2020. This is one of her early adventures.

"What are you doing up there, Pippa?" Mariah called up from where she was standing by the bathroom door.

Pippa peeked over the edge of the counter. "I'm checking out what's in the cabinets here," she said.

"How did you get up there?" Mariah called up to her.

"Right here," Pippa said, pointing to the drawers in the lower cabinet. "I used the drawers and their handles to climb up. It was easy."

Mariah looked at how Pippa had climbed up. "You little monkey!" she exclaimed. "I don't know if I can get up there from here."

Mariah is not very big, but she's bigger than Pippa. She had to pull out each drawer a bit to climb on.

"It turns out," Pippa said, when Mariah had reached the top of the counter, "I'm pretty good at climbing."

"I thought you must have sprouted wings," Mariah said. "Now, tell me, what are you doing in the cabinets?"

"Well," Pippa began, "I remembered how Emil said that sometimes you look in the drawers and cabinets when the old people are away. I thought this cabinet on the wall looked interesting."

Mariah looked up where Pippa was pointing. "That's the medicine cabinet," she said.

"Well," Pippa said again, "I decided to check out what's in it. I found lots of interesting bottles and things."

Pippa pointed to an assortment of bottles on the countertop. "I found all this!" she explained.

Mariah looked at all the things Pippa had pulled out of the cabinet. "You know," she said, "these things are mostly medicines."

"Yes!" Pippa agreed. "They're interesting! Smell this!" Pippa took the cap off of a bottle of blue liquid. "This stuff smells yummy!"

Mariah took a sniff of what was in the bottle. "Yes," she said. "It does smell yummy, but we have to be very careful with these things."

"I know!" Pippa said. "They don't belong to us! I'm going to put them all back." She put the cap back on the bottle.

"It isn't just that," Mariah said. "We shouldn't mess with things that don't belong to us, but some of these things could make a child very sick. Children should not take things from the medicine cabinet, and especially they shouldn't eat or drink any of it. Not only that, but this stuff is mouthwash. People rinse their mouths with it after they brush their teeth, and then they spit it out. They're not supposed to drink it!"

"I didn't think about eating or drinking any of it," Pippa said. "Not even to pretend to!"

"Well," agreed Mariah, as the two dolls sat down on the edge of the counter, "we're dolls, so pretending to eat medicines wouldn't hurt us, except just make us pretend to be sick, but we have to set a good example for the children who read our stories."

"Why do they have these things," Pippa wanted to know, "if they can make them sick?"

"It all depends on what it's for," Mariah said, as Pippa picked up one of the bottles,"but grownup humans know to read the labels. If it says to take two every four hours, for a headache or a tummy ache, that's what they do. If it says not to take it if you're taking some other kind of medicine, they don't."

"Many children know how to read directions," Pippa said, holding out the bottle. "They would know how many pills to take," she added, as Mariah took the bottle from her.

"That's true," agreed Mariah, "but human children have smaller bodies than human grownups. What is safe for a grownup to take might not be safe for a child. Besides, small children might have trouble reading this. The print is very tiny!"

"Children have smaller bodies, like mine?" Pippa asked.

"Not that small," Mariah said. "Even human babies are bigger than you are, Pippa."

Just then, both dolls heard something.

"It's the garage door!" Mariah exclaimed. "The Writer and her husband are back."

"What do we do?" whispered Pippa.

"Let's just hurry and put everything back where it was," Mariah said.

The dolls worked quickly. Pippa climbed up to where she could reach the medicine cabinet. Mariah handed the bottles up to her, and she put each one away.

Then they climbed down and closed the drawers, just as they heard the door to the house open.

They ran to The Writer's workroom and got back to their places on the windowsill, where they had been when the old people left to go out.

After she put away her hat and coat, The Writer went upstairs and into the bathroom to comb her hair. "Sweetie?" she called to her husband. "Did you take my mouthwash out and leave it on the counter?"

She was sure she had put it away before they left. Hmmmm....sometimes it seemed as if they weren't alone in the house, she thought, as she put the mouthwash away where it belonged. They often found things out of place when they had been out or when they got up in the morning.

The Writer went to the workroom to check on the dolls. Everyone was right where she had left them, but Mariah and Pippa seemed to be looking at the ceiling.

"I wonder what they think about all day," she said to herself as she slowly closed the door to the workroom.

Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia