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 belonging. Show all posts

Friday, June 21, 2024

How Emil Came to The Doll's Storybook, Part One

The dolls were studying and doing their homework when Veronika came into the room.

"Everyone, you need to listen to this," Veronika said, waving a piece of paper so they would see what she had.

The dolls gathered around Veronika. "It's a letter," she said. Then she began to read.

Here is what the letter said:

Dear Veronika and Cast of The Doll's Storybook,
I heard you were looking for another boy doll, and I am hoping you will choose me.

Before you accept me, you should know something about me. I'm not perfect. It isn't the fault of the factory where we were made. Sometimes these things just happen. Anyway, I wanted to be sure you knew about this before you decide.
First of all, I'm very nearsighted. That means I can't see very far from my nose. This isn't too bad, though, because my special glasses correct my sight to almost normal. I just need to wear my glasses all the time, except when I'm asleep.
My other problem is more serious. I'm almost deaf without my hearing aids. Fortunately, they were able to build my hearing aids into my glasses. I can talk with other dolls with no problem without my hearing aids, because, like other dolls, I talk by sharing my thoughts and listening to yours, but I need the hearing aids so I don't get hurt by things like cars and bicycles, and so I know when water is running and when an alarm goes off. I can't hear those things in my head without the hearing aids in my special glasses.
If you accept me as a new cast member, I promise to try very hard not to let these things make problems for you. I will also try to be the best doll I can be.

Sincerely,
Emil

"It's a good letter," Mandy said when Veronika had finished reading the letter.

Mariah, who had been looking over Veronika's shoulder, pointed at the letter. "There are no words misspelled," she said. "The ideas are easy to understand. He must be smart. He must have worked hard on the letter."

"He could have used Autocorrect," Billy said. "Autocorrect will fix the spelling."

"Yes," agreed Mariah, "but Autocorrect just changes something that isn't a word to something that is. It may not be the right word."
"Sometimes," put in Jolena, "Autocorrect gives you something silly, and it makes you laugh, and the letter looks as if he might have written it out instead of using a computer, and Autocorrect only works if you're using a computer or a phone."

"That's right," Mariah agreed. "You have to know if the word is the right one, and you still have to write what you want to say so it's easy to understand."
The dolls all smiled and nodded. They could remember times when they had seen this happen, and they agreed the letter looked as if it might have been written by hand. "Emil must have had to use a dictionary to check the spelling of all the words he wasn't sure of," Mariah concluded.

Charlotte had been very quiet. Now she had something to say. "I like that he sounds honest," she said.
The other dolls looked up at Charlotte.

"How do you see that in his letter, Charlotte?" Veronika asked.
"Well," Charlotte began, "he wants to be chosen, doesn't he? He could have just told us how wonderful he is, and how he's the best one for the job. He could have left out the part about his problems."

"You're right," Mandy said. "Then we wouldn't have known until he arrived, when it was too late."

Veronika turned to Billy. "What do you think, Billy?" she asked. "If we choose him, he will be your pal. You need to be satisfied with the choice."

"I like the letter," Billy said. "He sounds interesting. He says he isn't perfect, but none of us is perfect. He's different, but we're all different, even though we are alike in lots of ways."

"Like that our eyes don't close," Jolena said, "and we each have one hand with two fingers stuck together."

"It sounds to me," Billy said, "like he can do everything I like to do. I think we will have fun together."

"Let's vote on it," Veronika said, "unless anyone has something else to say."
The dolls shook their heads. They were ready to vote.
"All right," Veronika said, "who wants to choose Emil to be our new brother? Raise your hand if you do."
All the dolls raised their hands.

"Good," said Veronika. "It's unanimous (you-NAN-ih-mus)! That means we all voted the same. Then I don't have to ask who doesn't want Emil to be our new brother. I will write back and let him know."
"Veronika," Billy said, "there is something I would like you to ask him. You said his name like 'eh-MEEL.' How do we know it isn't 'EE-mul' or something else? It's an unusual name. Would you ask him how he says it so we can say it correctly when he comes?"

Veronika said she would ask. It was an important part of helping him feel at home when he arrived.

"When you write, please ask him what kind of food he likes to pretend to eat best," Jolena said. "I want to fix him his favorite food when he gets here."

"I want to find out," Mariah added, "what kinds of books he likes. We can go to the library right before he arrives and check out some things."
"Ask him if he can hear music," Charlotte said. "If he can, please find out what his favorite song is, so I can learn to play it for him on my violin."

"I have something for you to ask him," Mandy said. "Ask him if he needs to plug in his hearing aids at night or if his hearing aids use batteries, and please ask him if he needs anything else we might not think of."

That night, Veronika wrote a letter to Emil and told him that he had been chosen to be their new brother. She wrote that they liked his letter and thought he sounded nice. She asked him how to say his name. She used Autocorrect to make sure she had spelled the words correctly, and when Autocorrect changed something, she looked to see if Autocorrect was just being silly.

Veronika asked Emil what kind of food and books he liked best. She asked him if he could hear music with his special glasses, and if so, what was his favorite song. She asked him if he needed batteries or a charger for his glasses, or if there was anything else he might need. Then she added that they could tell he was special from his letter, and that was good. Then she printed off the letter and signed it. She put it into an envelope. She put a stamp on the letter.
Then all the dolls went to the mailbox together to mail the letter to Emil.

They could hardly wait. They knew Emil would be special.

We are all special, and so are you.

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.

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.

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

Friday, June 25, 2021

Look-alikes

Jolena found Pippa in the bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror. She didn't seem to be fixing her hair or even admiring herself. She was just looking intently at her reflection.

"What are you doing, Pippa?" Jolena asked.

"I thought," said Pippa, "if I looked at myself long enough I would start to look like the rest of you."

"What do you mean?" Jolena asked.

"All of the rest of you are alike," Pippa said sadly. "I just look like Pippa."

"But you're just like us, only smaller," Jolena insisted. "There's nothing wrong with being smaller," she added.

Pippa would have rolled her eyes, if she could just get her eyes to move. She tried really hard, but they wouldn't move.

"I know," she countered when she had given up trying to roll her eyes. "I have two arms and two legs. My arms and legs have joints. I have elbow joints," she continued, pointing to her elbow.

"I have knee joints," Pippa went on, pointing to her knee.

"My body is hard vinyl, not soft stuff covered with cloth. I have hair. I have two eyes, two ears, a nose and a mouth," she continued, "and they are all on my head, just like the rest of you."

"But I don't look like the rest of you. I just look like Pippa," she insisted.

Jolena thought for a moment. "Pippa, look at me," she said.

Pippa did.

"Who am I?" Jolena asked.

Pippa looked at Jolena. "That's a silly question," she responded hotly. "I know who you are! You're Jolena!"

"How do you know?" Jolena asked Pippa. "How do you know I'm not Billy?"

Again, Pippa tried really hard to roll her eyes. She still couldn't, so she threw up her hands instead. "Billy is a boy!" she exclaimed in exasperation.

"So I don't look like Billy," Jolena agreed. "Maybe I could be Mariah."

"Jolena," Pippa said patiently. "Mariah's vinyl looks like milk chocolate. No one would mistake you for Mariah. She even has a different face."

"OK," Jolena agreed, "then how do you know I'm not Veronika? We have the same face."

"Because Veronika has brown hair and brown eyes, and she always wears all of her hair in braids, except for a little curl on each side," Pippa said, even more exasperated.

"See?" Jolena told her. "We're all different, too. Even the dolls who were made just like me at the factory and look just like me are different inside, where you can't see."

"I like to cook," Jolena said. "Some dolls who look just like me don't like to cook. Some don't even know how to boil water, let alone cook pasta."

"I like to fly through the air on my skis," she said. "Some dolls who look exactly like me only like to ski downhill. Some might even be afraid to stand on the bottom of the slide and look down!"

Pippa looked back at her reflection in the mirror. "I know there are other dolls who look just like me," she said. "I just wish I looked more like the rest of you. I wonder sometimes if I really belong."

"Of course you belong!" Jolena exclaimed. "Puzzle pieces are all different, and so are we. Without you, we would be like a puzzle all put together with one piece missing! I hate it when you get done, and all the pieces are used up, but there is still one piece missing!"

Pippa hated that, too. It was frustrating not to be able to finish the puzzle. That's why the dolls were always very careful to put all the puzzle pieces back in the box when they were done.

While Pippa was still thinking about that, Mandy came in and climbed up on the counter to see what the two sisters were up to. "What are you two doing?" she asked them when she had made it to the top of the counter.

Pippa and Jolena explained to Mandy how Pippa was worried that she didn't belong in the cast of The Doll's Storybook because she was so different from all of them.

"It's good that you're different," Mandy said. "We all have to be different, because real children are different, unless they're identical (eye-DEN-tih-kul) twins, and even identical twins aren't exactly alike."

Then Mandy noticed that Jolena was staring at them, first one and then the other. "What?" she asked Jolena.

"I had forgotten," Jolena replied, "that when Pippa first came to live with us, Veronika noticed that you two have the same face, just like she and I have the same face."

"Look in the mirror," Jolena said, "and you'll see that I'm right."

Pippa and Mandy looked at their themselves and each other in the mirror. "That's right!" Mandy cried. "Our faces are exactly alike, except for our hair and eyes, and I have freckles."

"We do look alike!" Pippa agreed joyfully, "except that I'm much smaller than you are," she added. "You look like my big sister!"

"I am your big sister," Mandy pointed out.

Emil came in just in time to hear the girls talking about how Pippa and Mandy look alike. He listened to them talking as he climbed up to the counter. He had something important to say. "I know someone else who looks like Pippa," he stated, once he had reached the girls. "In fact, she looks almost exactly like Pippa, except that she's my size."

The girls all looked expectantly at Emil. He knew they wanted to know who looked like Pippa. He had known they would be interested. "My friend Holly," he said. "She looks just like you, except she would be taller if she got out of her wheelchair and stood up. I never saw her do that though, because she needs the wheelchair to get around, but I noticed that she's my size. Other than that, she looks just like you. She wears her hair differently, but it's parted in the middle, just like yours, and it's the same color, and her eyes are light blue, like yours."

"Goodie!" Pippa exclaimed, clapping her hands. "Next time you write Holly, please tell her her look-alike said hi!"

Emil said that he would. He thought that would please Holly, too.

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

Pippa: Götz Little Kidz Lotta