The Boys Cook Dinner

"When did Mandy say Jolena was coming home?" Emil asked Billy as the boys stared at the empty kitchen.

No one was cutting vegetables at the sink. No yummy smells were drifting through the air. No beeps or buzzes or whirring sounds came from the appliances sitting on the countertops.

"I think it was Monday," Billy replied, "but I'm pretty sure she won't feel like cooking for a couple of days. She was pretty tired when she came home from last year's Doll Ski Team practice in South America."

Billy knew that Emil was missing Jolena––he missed Jolena, too––but they also missed her cooking. The dolls hadn't hadn't pretended to eat a really good, home-cooked meal since she had left, and they were missing it. All the dolls could cook, but no one could cook like Jolena! She often organized the other dolls so each one had a job to do. She would show them how to do their jobs correctly. Billy could remember Jolena in the kitchen, teaching and encouraging the other dolls, and would be very happy when she was home again.

"Well, it's our turn to cook," said Emil, turning to look at the refrigerator, which was the first place to start when trying to decide what to have for dinner. "What should we fix?"

"We need to be sure what we fix is good for us," Billy said. "We need something from each of the different food groups."

"Let's fix an extra food, too," Emil said, thinking about cookies or pudding.

"Let's see what's in the refrigerator," Billy said. The boys knew some easy dishes they could cook all by themselves. All they needed to do was see if what they needed was on hand.

There were lettuce, mushrooms, sprouts and other things for salad in the refrigerator. They found some frozen vegetables and cooked chicken in the freezer. There were some bottles and jars of sauces in the pantry. There is always rice. That suggested to them one of the easy things they knew how to fix. If they cooked some rice, heated up the vegetables and chicken with a sauce, made a salad and gave each doll a glass of milk, it would make a meal that would give them some of each of the kinds of foods they needed to be healthy.

After they decided what to cook, the boys got to work. First they helped each other tie cloth napkins around their waists to keep spills off of their clothes.

Then the boys washed the bottoms of their shoes and their hands before getting up on the countertop. (They know real children should not sit or stand on the countertops, but for some things the dolls have to because they are so small.)

Now they were ready to cook. They put water and rice into the big rice cooker.

Emil plugged in the rice cooker. He made sure his hands were dry. He was careful not to get his fingers too close to the electrical outlet, because he didn't want to get a shock.

Billy turned the rice cooker on and set it for the kind of rice they were using. Then the boys mixed the frozen vegetables and cooked chicken with a sauce from a bottle. 

They put it next to the microwave to cook later when the rice was done.

They made a salad with some lettuce, some sprouts and the other vegetables they had cut up.

They baked some cookies from some of Jolena's cookie dough that was in the freezer. They made sure that they had enough for each doll to have one cookie to pretend to eat. Usually that would be seven, but Jolena wasn't going to be eating one, so they baked only six cookies.

They put the vegetables and chicken into the microwave and set it for the time they knew it would take.

While the vegetables and chicken were heating up, they cleaned up after themselves. The other dolls would put their own plates into the dishwasher after they all pretended to eat. The boys could put a few things into the dishwasher now, but they had to wash some things by hand.

Then they washed the countertops, because they had been standing on them. Billy was just closing the dishwasher door when Charlotte came into the kitchen.

"How is it going?" Charlotte asked.

"We're all done now," Billy replied, "except for putting it on the table."

Charlotte looked around. "Where's Emil?" she asked.

Billy looked around, too. He was surprised not to see Emil standing next to him. "I don't know," he said. "He was just here. We were putting some things into the dishwasher."

Charlotte and Billy heard a thumping sound coming from the dishwasher.

When they opened it, there was Emil! 

"Oh, I'm sorry, Emil!" Billy cried. "I must have closed the door without looking to see if you were out!"

"It's OK, Billy," Emil said, as he climbed down. "I'm just glad you didn't turn it on! The dishes need washing, but I don't, and the water might have ruined my special glasses and my hearing aids!"

"Boys," Charlotte said, "please be careful. You should pull the tray out to load the dishes. Climbing inside could be very dangerous."

"Yes," Billy agreed, "I see that now, and I should have looked inside before closing the door!"

"Well," Charlotte said, "It's a good thing we were right here to let you out. You could have been stuck inside there for hours! The doors to dishwashers and refrigerators are hard to open from the inside. The people who make the appliances don't expect dolls to be in there and need to get out."

"I won't do that again!" Emil promised. Just then the rice cooker and the microwave both beeped. It was time to put everything on the table

.
"Let's call the others!" Emil said. "We can pretend to eat!"

Cast--
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia


Photo of cookies by Isabelle Acheson on Unsplash.
This story appears in the book Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook.

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

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

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.

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

Coming soon: Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the Book Baby Bookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less, because the vendor gets a cut. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my 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.

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

Copyright © 2020, 2025 by Peggy Stuart

Mariah's Play

Billy found Mariah in the living room. She appeared to be reading some papers, except she kept looking away from them and mumbling to herself from time to time.

"What are you reading?" he asked her.
"I'm not reading, actually," Mariah explained. "I'm going to be in a play at school. This is the script (SKRIPT). That's the play all written down, with the things the characters say and do all explained."

Billy thought that was interesting. "I didn't know you were in the acting class," he said.
"I'm not in the acting class," Mariah replied. "The teacher who is putting on the play came to my class and asked if I would be in it. She said they really needed me and a few other dolls who are not in the class."

"So what are you doing with the script?" Billy asked.
"I'm studying my lines," Mariah explained. "My lines are what I'm supposed to say. It's my part in the play."
"What's the play about?" Billy asked.

Mariah pointed to her papers. "There are some dolls," she said, "who all look like Veronika and Jolena and have all lived in the same place all their lives. They all believe the same things. They are all girls. In the play, they have a problem they are trying to work out, and they can't figure it out." 

"Then," Mariah went on, "they start talking with some other dolls, dolls who have different faces or different-colored vinyl, like me, some boys, some dolls who come from different places, and dolls who have different beliefs. They get different ideas from the dolls who are different from them."

Mariah explained that the play shows how important it is to have something called diversity (dih-VERS-ih-tee) when you're trying to figure something out or solve a problem or build something new. "Having diversity means having different kinds of dolls in your group," she said.

"Did that help with the problem?" Billy asked.

"It did," Mariah told Billy. "I think why it worked has to do with seeing things differently or having a different point-of-view. If I could just think of an example...."

She thought about that for a few seconds. "I know!" she cried suddenly. "Look at your hand!" she said.

Billy looked.
"What do you see?" Mariah asked.
"I see some jam I didn't get off when I washed my hands after I pretended to eat lunch," Billy said.

"What else?" Mariah asked.
"I see four fingers and a thumb," Bill said.

"Yes!" Mariah exclaimed. "Those four fingers are very much alike. They all come from the same direction. They are very good at what they do and at working together, but even when they work together, there are things they can't do. They are like dolls who are all alike. They are like dolls who all see things the same way."

"It's hard to pick things up with just my fingers," Billy said. "I usually need to use my thumb."

"That's right," Mariah agreed. "Your thumb comes from a different direction. It's able to do different things from the fingers. You have diversity in your hands, because your fingers and thumbs are different from each other. When they work together, they are able to do things they can't do alone."

"There are things that are hard to do with my right hand," Billy said. "I have these two fingers stuck together." Billy held up his right hand for Mariah to see.

"Yes," Mariah agreed. "We all do. It's one of the many ways we're all alike.
"My two hands are different from each other," Billy observed.

"Yes," Mariah said, "and they come from different directions, so you can do things with both hands that would be difficult to do with just one."

"It would be hard for me to pick up and use my camera without my thumbs," Billy agreed, "and I need both hands to set it up to take photos."

"Yes," Mariah concluded, "Your fingers and hands are like the dolls in the play. When they were all just alike they couldn't work out the problem. If you have a problem to solve or a project to work on in a group, it's better to have some dolls who are different from you in your group."
"When will the play be?" Billy asked. "I want to come."

"It's at the end of next month," Mariah said. "We have a lot of rehearsing––that's practicing––to do before then. Would you like to help me learn my lines?"

"What do I do?" Billy asked.
Mariah handed him her papers. "My part is underlined," she explained. "You read me what all the other dolls say except what's underlined. I'll say my part, and if I get stuck and can't remember, you prompt me. That means you tell me the beginning of that line to remind me."

"I'll be your thumb," Billy said. "I'll help you do something you can't do by yourself!"

Mariah agreed Billy was indeed being like a thumb. It was going to be much easier for her to learn her lines with Billy's help.


Cast--

Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Coming soon: Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook.

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. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well, or ask your local 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.

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

Copyright © 2020, 2025 by Peggy Stuart 

Beliefs and Facts

Note: This story originally came out in April, 2020, during the Muslim celebration of Ramadan.

"I'm worried about Mariah," Emil said, sitting down next to Jolena on the front steps.

"Why?" Jolena asked. "What's wrong with her?"

"She isn't pretending to eat," Emil said. "She didn't have any breakfast, and she didn't come to lunch. I wonder if she's pretending to be sick."

Jolena laughed. "No, she isn't pretending to be sick," she said. "She's fasting. Ramadan (RAH-mah-dahn) has started, and she doesn't pretend to eat or drink anything during the daytime. She will do that for a month. She will pretend to eat after it gets dark, though, and she got up early this morning to have something to eat before sunrise."

"Why is that?" Emil asked. "What's Ramadan?"

"Muslim people and dolls fast during Ramadan," Jolena replied. "Ramadan is their name for the month of fasting."
Emil thought about this. Then he asked, "Why do they do that?"

Jolena had to think back to when Mariah explained it to her. 

She remembered they were on a bike ride, and Mariah didn't take water with her. Yes, that was how the subject came up! She wouldn't even take any when Jolena offered her bottle.

"Mariah told me that she and other Muslim people and dolls fast all day each day during Ramadan. That means that they don't eat or drink, pretend or for real," Jolena explained. Then she thought some more.

"She said it made them feel closer to God, only she used a different name for God. I think she called God Allah (AH-lah). She said fasting also made her feel grateful for what she had, because it showed her what it was like to do without," she added.

Emil thought about that. "I wonder why we don't all believe the same things," he said. "I mean, why is Mariah Muslim, but Charlotte and I are Jewish, and you and the others are Christian?"

"I've been wondering that, too," Jolena agreed. "Let's find Mandy or Veronika and ask. I'm not sure who would know more about it."

Veronika and Mandy were sitting together on the workroom table. Mandy was knitting, of course, and Veronika was reading to her.
"We have a question," Jolena began, as the two older dolls looked up.

"Yes," Emil said. "We're wondering why the dolls in our family believe different things. I mean, why we have different religions. Why is that?"

Mandy and Veronika looked at each other.

Then, as if by an unspoken agreement, Mandy began. "We exist...we are here ...to help children learn how to grow up to be kind, responsible adults. That's a doll's job," she explained.

"Yes," Veronika agreed. "Real children come from families that practice different religions or none at all, and some families, like ours, have more than one religion."

Jolena looked thoughtful. "But how do you know which religion is right?"

"Remember the experiment we did with the salt water?" Mandy asked, looking at Jolena. 

Jolena nodded. "Yes, I remember," she said. "It was before you came, Emil," she added, looking at her brother. "We put salt water in a dish, covered it with plastic, and the sun turned it into fresh water. The sun warmed the salt water and turned it into a gas. The gas rose to the plastic wrap that covered the dish and then dripped down into a smaller dish where the plastic wrap was weighted down with stones. That water wasn't salty."

"You're remembering that experiment well," Mandy told her. "We do experiments," she explained, "so we can test an idea we have. We call the idea a hypothesis (hy-PAW-thuh-sis). If the experiment proves the idea is right, we can call it a fact."

"With the salt-water experiment," Mandy continued, "our hypothesis was that we could make fresh water out of salt water using the energy from the sun. It worked, so we can say that it's a fact that we can make fresh water that way. Every time we try it the same way, it comes out the same."

Jolena and Emil looked at each other. They weren't sure they knew where Mandy was going with this talk about experiments.

Mandy knew what they were thinking, though. "You're wondering what experiments and facts have to do with your question," she said. "I want you to understand the difference between facts and beliefs," she explained. "Facts are things that can be proven, or if proven wrong, then they are not facts, but incorrect guesses."

"Religion is made up of beliefs," Mandy continued. "Beliefs are things we think are true but can't prove or disprove."

"Yes," Veronika agreed. "We may know in our hearts that our belief is true, but we can't prove it, and no one can disprove it, either. It doesn't mean it isn't true."

"So, when it comes to religion, we don't know who's right?" Emil asked.

"Maybe we're all right," Mandy replied. "Maybe the different things we believe are just different ways of seeing the same thing. We have no way of finding out, so you can't make other dolls believe something you believe if they don't."

"At the same time," Mandy continued, "We have to allow other dolls to believe what they believe. We don't have to all believe the same things."
"That takes us back to your first question," Veronika said. "Why don't we all believe the same thing? I think it's because real human people don't all believe the same thing. Real children need to learn to respect each other's beliefs so they will treat each other kindly when they grow up."

"All of our religions," Mandy pointed out, "teach that God or Allah or whatever we call the Supreme Being wants dolls to be kind to each other. Even dolls who don't have a religion think that's a good idea."

Suddenly the dolls in the workroom notice a pleasant aroma reaching their noses.

Charlotte is helping Mariah in the kitchen. They're cooking for Ramadan. Mariah won't eat until the sun goes down, but she is looking forward to it, because she is pretending to be very hungry.

All the other dolls decide to wait until the sun goes down to eat, so they can share the feast with Mariah. It will be fun!


Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia

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

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

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.

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

Coming soon: Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook.

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. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well.

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.

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

Copyright © 2020, 2025 by Peggy Stuart