Bear

Veronika thought Mariah looked sad.

She climbed up next to Mariah, moving Mariah's notebook and pencil aside. "Is something the matter?" she asked.

"I'm feeling bad about myself," Mariah said. "I'm not sure if I did something wrong. I didn't mean to."
"Tell me about it," Veronika suggested.

"Well," Mariah began, "We were supposed to write a poem for school, so I did."

"It sounds like a good thing to do," Veronika said. 
"I was happy with it," Mariah said. "I thought about your Mato and pretended he was a real bear. I wrote about Mato and me."

"I typed it on the laptop," Mariah continued. "Then I printed it off, so it would look nice. I got a good grade on it, but Blair, that's a girl in my class, said I copied it from someone else. She said I cheated."

"Did you?" Veronika asked.
"No, I don't think so," Mariah said, "but I've been thinking that maybe I read it somewhere and it stayed in my mind, but maybe I forgot that I read it."
"May I read your poem?" Veronika asked.
Mariah nodded. She took a piece of paper from her notebook.

Veronika read:

Bear

By Mariah

Bear peeks in my window.

I know he is my friend.

I know my big friend likes me,

And Bear knows I like him.

I don't play with this friend,

And he stays far from me.

Still we can share a moment

Every now and then.

I was made by people

Who live very far away.

My friend's a part of nature.

In nature he must stay.

Bear peeks in my window.

I give my friend a nod.

He lumbers off contented

To find food in the wood.

"It's very nice," Veronika said when she was done reading. "I like it. I can just imagine Mato as a real bear, looking in the window at you."

"Blair said it doesn't rhyme (RYM)," Mariah said. "That made me feel bad, too. Some of the ends of the lines don't sound the same as some of the others."
"Poems don't have to rhyme," Veronika pointed out. 

"Of course, a nursery rhyme will rhyme," Veronika said, "or else it's a nursery poem, but some poems do and some don't. 'Away' and 'stay' rhyme, but those are the only two words that rhyme exactly in your poem, and that's OK." Veronika looked at the poem again. "Your poem has a rhythm (RIH-thum) to it," she went on. "I like to think of rhythm as the beat, like in music. Your poem has a beat to it, but a poem doesn't have to have rhythm, either."

"But what if I just remembered it from having heard it before?" Mariah asked. "I didn't mean to copy from someone else."

"I think your teacher would have known," Veronika said, "but just to be sure, let's go upstairs and get the laptop. We can look up Bear poems."

The two dolls found the laptop and brought it into the living room. Veronika opened it up. She typed in "Bear poem" in the little slot at the top. Poems about bears came on the screen. There were lots and lots of them. Most of them mentioned honey and bees. Some of them rhymed and some had rhythm. Some had both rhyme and rhythm, and some didn't have either.

"I don't see your poem here," Veronika said after they had read all the poems.

"They are all nice poems," Mariah said. "They made me see pictures in my head."
"But yours isn't here!" Veronika said.

Mariah still looked doubtful, so Veronika picked up Mariah's pencil and pointed to the end she doesn't write with. "What's this?" she asked.

"That's the eraser," Mariah replied. "I use it when I want to change words I don't spell right or when I change my mind about how to say something."
"It's a well-used eraser," Veronika said. "You didn't copy your poem. I've seen you write. You write and erase, and then rewrite. If you had it in your head already, you would have just written it out."
"Then why did Blair say those things to me?" Mariah wanted to know.

"Without knowing what's going on in her life," Veronika said, "I can only guess. It seems, though, is if she might have been trying to hurt you."
Mariah thought about that. "Why would any doll want to hurt another doll?" she asked. "That isn't how dolls behave!"

"Sometimes dolls who try tohurt others are suffering inside." Veronika explained. "If someone is mean to them, they think being mean to someone else will make them feel better."
Mariah thought about that. "But being mean to someone would make me feel bad," she said. "That's why I don't do it...at least not on purpose."
"That's smart," Veronika agreed, "because it doesn't work. You can't feel better about yourself by hurting others."

 Mariah thought for a moment about what Veronika had said. "Blair must feel really bad if someone has been mean to her," she said finally. "Maybe I should pretend she is my friend. If I do it long enough, maybe she will be. Maybe she will feel better about herself, too."

"I think that would be nice," Veronika agreed, "but if it doesn't work and she still wants to hurt you, at least you should know that it isn't your fault, and whatever she says about you can't hurt you if you don't let it. You should feel sorry for her instead."

Mariah thought about that, too. Then she said, "I know what I'll do! I'll write a poem about that!"
"That's a great idea," Veronika agreed.
"Maybe this one will rhyme," Mariah said, "or maybe it won't."

Veronika got Mato and brought him to the windowsill where the girls had been sitting. Mariah read her poem to Mato.

Then she gave Mato a kiss, because he had been a very helpful bear.

Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Mato: "Mato" (Lakota for "bear") by Running Strong for American Indian Youth

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.

Our latest book is available from BookBaby and other booksellers: Billy: Stories from The Doll’s Storybook. The Stories included are Talking About Boys, Changes, Shhhhh!, Staying After, and Money in a Jar.

Royalties go to an organization that provides pediatric cancer research and treatment. If you don’t get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to our designated charity. 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, or ask your library to get our books 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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Copyright © 2020, 2026 by Peggy Stuart

Staying After School

Billy and Pauly closed the front door to Billy's house. "I should call Jeffy, Pauly said. "He must be worried about me."

"You can use our phone," Billy told him, taking Pauly's jacket from him. "The one the dolls use is usually in the kitchen, on the counter next to the refrigerator."

"Thanks," said Pauly as he ran off down the hall to the kitchen. He was familiar with the house now, because he spends most of his time there when Jeffy is not at home. He likes to be home when Jeffy is, because Jeffy needs him!

"You're pretty late coming home," Mariah said when Billy came into in the living room.

Emil hadn't mentioned to Mariah that Billy would be late. He thought it was better to let Billy explain when he got home.

"Yes," Billy said as he walked himself slowly toward them. "Well, you see some of us got into trouble and had to stay after school."

Billy heaved himself and the jackets up onto the big hassock in front of the couch. Mariah just looked at Billy. She wondered what he would have done to have to stay after.

Billy could tell Mariah really wanted to know more, so he began his story. She would find out anyway.

"You see," he said, "Pauly, Parker, Jackson and I were playing soccer in the school yard during recess. Well, actually, we were just practicing. I was showing them some moves I had learned. Then everyone tried it."

"When it was Parker's turn, he accidentally kicked the ball over the fence," Billy said. "His knees don't bend, and he hit it really hard. He didn't mean to. It's just what happens when you're learning something. Your aim is off."

Mariah nodded. She knew that was true.

"Pauly and I got to the fence first," Billy explained. "We could see the ball, but we couldn't reach it!"

"So there was the ball, on the other side of the fence," Billy went on with the story. "Recess was almost over, and the ball belongs to the school. We had to get it."

"You couldn't just leave it there," Emil agreed.

"So you found a teacher," Mariah suggested, "who could watch you get it or go with you to get it."

"We tried to," Billy explained, but all of the teachers who were out there were busy helping other dolls with things."

Mariah thought she could see where this was going. She knew there was a very strict rule that you don't leave the school yard until school is over. A human person might see you there and pick you up, thinking you didn't belong to anyone. They might take you home and keep you. They might never know they were dollnapping, because you would be where you didn't belong. They wouldn't know that you got there on your own, because many human people don't notice when dolls move around and do things. "You didn't go outside the school yard to get the ball!" she exclaimed. 

Billy looked a little sheepish. "We decided to risk it," he said. "We didn't want the ball to get lost, so the four of us went out of the yard and got the ball. We thought it would be safe, because we were all together."

"When we were coming back with the ball," he went on, "one of the teachers caught us. She was very upset with us. She had seen us go outside the fence."

Emil had seen this part, so he just nodded.

"I can imagine!" Mariah exclaimed. "What did she do?" (She was sure he was going to tell them.)

"She told us we all had to come to her classroom after school," Billy replied. "She said we were going to be punished for breaking the rules."

Billy remembered how the four of them had worried about what the punishment was going to be. It was hard to think about anything else for the rest of the school day.

"So she made you stay after school," Mariah concluded. Now she knew as much as Emil did.

"Well," Billy said, "there was more than that. She showed us the whiteboards in her room. There are four of them. She assigned each of us one of the whiteboards. She told us we had to write 'I will not break the rules again' until our whiteboard was filled up."

"That teacher must be very old," Mariah suggested. "I didn't think they did that anymore."

"That must have been a lot of work," Emil put in.

"It was," Billy agreed, "but it was a lot harder for Pauly, because he couldn't reach very high and he writes smaller than the rest of us. He really struggled with it. I had to stand on a chair to reach the top of it, but Pauly had to pile some books on his chair and still couldn't reach very high up, so he started from the bottom."

"Then what did he do?" Mariah asked. Now she was very concerned for Pauly, because she knows he tries hard to do everything the others do, but like Pippa, he's very short.

"He did his best," Billy said, "but when the rest of us had finished, he was still only about a quarter done and was looking around in the teacher's cupboard to find more books to stand on."

"After a while, the teacher started looking at the clock on the wall," Billy said. "That made Pauly nervous, so it was harder for him to write."

Mariah glanced toward the kitchen. She was't sure if Pauly could hear or not. She wasn't sure how he would feel about being talked about when he wasn't there.

"The teacher said she had to leave," Billy continued. "She said Pauly could stop writing and we could all go home. Pauly didn't have to finish."

"So that's when you came home," Emil suggested.

"Yes," Billy said, "but there's more. Parker and Jackson didn't like it that Pauly didn't have to finish the punishment," he told them. "They started complaining that he should have to come back the next day to finish, because they had finished theirs, and it wasn't fair to them if he got off only doing part of it."

"I wanted to punch them both," Billy admitted, "but I remembered when I had gotten into a fight at school. Veronika told me I should never hit another doll, no matter what."

Mariah remembered that. "You were defending me," she said. "Veronika is right, but I was glad you stuck up for me. We just need to find better ways to stick up for someone than fighting."

Billy was glad Mariah had appreciated his support. "I remembered that Veronika said we should try to understand why someone does something we think is wrong or unfair," he said, "so I thought about how they had finished the punishment but Pauly hadn't. I thought about how the only dolls they live with are about their size. It made me realize that they didn't really understand how hard some things are for smaller dolls like Pauly and Pippa. Sometimes they need help!"

"So instead of hitting them," Billy went on, "I explained how difficult it was for Pauly to reach the white board. They must not have noticed, because they were working hard, but it was really a lot more work for Pauly than it was for them."

"I told them," Billy continued, "that just because someone else gets a break that you didn't get doesn't take anything away from you. You should be happy for them. Besides, Pauly wasn't the one who kicked the ball over the fence!"

"I reminded them that sometimes," Billy explained, "dolls without elbow and knee joints get help from smaller dolls, when there's something that's difficult for them to do." 

"What did they do?" Emil asked.

"Jackson was still upset with Pauly," Billy replied, "but Parker apologized to him. Maybe Jackson will think about it and change his mind. I hope so."

"Then," Billy continued, "when we were leaving, the teacher did something odd, I think. She has sleeping eyes. You know, the kind that close when you lie down? I don't know how she did it, but she looked at me and closed one of her eyes. It was strange!"

"She winked at you!" Mariah exclaimed. "I know what that means! It means she thought you had done something good by trying to explain to Jackson and Parker."

This surprised Billy. He had only thought about how the teacher had been upset with him for breaking a very important rule. Maybe a teacher can be angry with you about something you did wrong and then pleased with you if you do something they like.

Just then, Pauly came back into the room. "Jeffy was glad I called," he told them. "I told him what happened, the whole story. He says to stay here, and he will come to get me. He doesn't want me to walk home alone when it's this late."

"We could have walked you home," Billy told him. He wondered why Jeffy hadn't thought about that.

"I think Jeffy wanted to come get Pauly," Mariah said. "Sometimes human people have to do something about their worry once it's over. It makes them feel better."

"Jeffy is a very special boy," Pauly told them. "I'm lucky to belong to a boy who doesn't just stand me on a shelf like something to look at!"

"You're lucky for lots of things," Mariah said, glancing at Billy. "You're a very lucky doll! We all are!"

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

Pippa: Götz Little Kidz Lotta

Pauly: Götz Little Kidz Paul

Old teacher: Madame Alexander Madeline ~1950

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, Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook and More Classic Tales Untold: Stories 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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Copyright © 2022, 2025 by Peggy Stuart