Locked Out

The dolls were all out for a walk together when they came home and found their human family had gone out and locked the door. Uh-oh!

"We will just have to wait for our family to come home," said Veronika. She climbed up and sat down on the outdoor couch that sits on the front porch.
The other dolls joined her on the couch.

"I hope they aren't gone too long," Billy said, as he climbed up to join Veronika.
"I'm glad I don't have to pretend to use the bathroom," Jolena added.

"It's good to sit down," Mariah said. "Our legs are so short."

The dolls waited. Dolls are good at waiting. They are good at being patient.

Maybe Billy isn't as patient as the girls. Soon he began to feel bored. "I wish I had something to do," he said.

Veronika looked around to see what was on the front porch. "Look!" she cried. "The recycling is here!"

Veronika was right. The recycling was sitting on the porch, waiting for someone to take it to the recycling bin.

"There's paper in it," she added. "Let's play a game! Everyone think of something we can do with paper."
The dolls thought for a few minutes.
"I have something!" Jolena cried suddenly. 
The other dolls looked at Jolena.
"I like to fly through the air on my skis," she said. "Maybe it would be fun to make a paper airplane and fly it through the air!"

The dolls agreed that would be fun.
"We could make a hat out of a piece of paper," Charlotte suggested. 

"I have an idea, too!" Billy exclaimed. "If we had scissors, a pin and a pencil, we could make a pinwheel!"

"I have pins," said Veronika, "but they are in the house."
"I have a pin in my knitting bag," Mandy said, "and scissors and a pencil."

"Do you take your knitting with you everywhere?" Billy wanted to know.
"Yes," Mandy replied. "You never know when you might have to wait."

"If we have scissors," Veronika said, "we can make a string of paper dolls."

"If we have scissors," Mariah added, "we can make a snowflake."

"If we had some glue or tape," Mandy said, "We could make paper chains."
The dolls all thought that sounded like fun.

The dolls all looked at Mandy's knitting bag.
"I don't keep any tape in there," Mandy laughed, "but I just thought of another thing we can do with what we have. We can make a cootie catcher. There are some fun games you can play with a cootie catcher."

The dolls got busy. Veronika did the cutting, because she is left-handed and can use the scissors with the hand that has all the fingers loose.

They made a paper airplane.
They made a hat.
They made a pinwheel.
They made a string of paper dolls.
They made a snowflake.
They made a cootie catcher.
Just then, Jolena remembered the dog door in the back. "If we can get over the fence into the back yard," she said, "we can get into the house the way the dogs do."
"You're right," Billy agreed. "We're small enough to go in that way. We can get the tape!"
And so they did. Jolena and Billy helped each other climb over the fence and went into the house through the dog door.

They got the tape. Then they went back out through the dog door, carrying the tape, dispenser and all. They helped each other over the fence with the tape, and brought it back to the front porch.

Then the dolls all worked together to make a paper chain while they waited for their human people to get home to let them into the house.

When they were done, they collected all the little scraps of paper they had cut out from the paper and put them into the recycling can.

What would you do with paper if you wanted to have fun?
What would you do if you were locked out of the house but could get in through the dog door?
What do you think the dolls should have done?

Want to make the things the dolls made with paper? Here are some links to directions:Let your parents see these first!
Here's how to make Jolena's paper airplane.
Here's how to make Charlotte's paper hat.
Here's how to make Billy's pinwheel.
Here's how to make Veronika's string of paper dolls.
Here's how to make Mariah's paper snowflake.
Here's how to make Mandy's paper chain.
Here's how to make a cootie catcher.



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

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.

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

Copyright ©2019, 2025 by Peggy Stuart 

Reading, Writing and Recycling Again

Veronika found her three younger sisters writing in the living room. "What are you doing, girls?" she asked.

"We're doing homework," Charlotte said. "We have to write about something that interests us."
"How is it going," Veronika wanted to know.
"I think it's fun. I'm writing about why I like music," Charlotte answered.

"I'm writing about my day at school," Mariah added. "I think school is a lot of fun. I like to write anyway, and writing about what I think is fun is even more fun."

"How about you, Jolena?" Veronika asked.
"Don't ask!" Jolena replied. "I'm having a very hard time."

"Everything I write sounds stupid when I read it," Jolena went on as Veronika came to stand next to her. "Each sentence sounds OK by itself, but when I read the whole thing, it makes my head spin."

"I've started over four times," Jolena continued, pointing to three crumpled-up pieces of paper on the floor.

"Jolena, I hear you saying you're upset that it isn't going better," Veronika said. "We're sisters, and we help each other. Let's see if we can help you."

Veronika thought for a moment. "Mariah doesn't have a problem writing. Maybe she can give you some tips," she said, looking at Mariah, who had continued with her writing.

Mariah looked up. "I would be happy to help if you like, Jolena," she said.
"I would love it!" Jolena exclaimed. "This is really hard."
"Would you read your homework for us, Mariah?" Charlotte asked.

Mariah agreed. She read what she had on her paper. "It isn't finished yet," she said when she was done.
"But it makes sense so far," Jolena said. "Why doesn't mine make sense?"
Mariah came to look at what Jolena had written.

"Each sentence is very nice, Jolena," she said when she had finished reading. Each word is spelled correctly, and your sentences are good. They make sense. The problem is that you seem to be skipping around in your thoughts."

"When we think, our ideas jump around. That make sense to us, but when we write, we need other people to understand. We need what we write to start in one place and go forward to the end," she continued.

 "Here's my little trick, and maybe it will help you. Make a list on a separate piece of paper of your ideas about what you're writing, just as they come from your thoughts." Mariah gave Jolena a piece of piece paper to write on. "What are your ideas?"

"It's about snow," Jolena said. "I know the snow is water that comes from the clouds and falls to the ground." She wrote that down.
"And?" Veronika encouraged.
"It's cold, like ice," Jolena went on, writing that down. Then she looked up. "I don't know what makes it fall."
"You could look that up," Charlotte suggested, looking up from her work.

"That's a great idea," Veronika said.
"Yes, you could look that up and put the answer on your piece of paper," Mariah agreed. "You have a good start, now," she added.

"When you have all your ideas on the piece of paper, you look at what you have," Mariah went on. "Then you figure out what should go first, second and third. You put a number next to each. Then you start writing, using your ideas in order, from the first number all the way through to the last number."
"I think I can do it now!" Jolena exclaimed.
"That's wonderful!" Veronika said. "Now we need to talk about what to do with paper you throw away." Veronika pointed to the balled-up pieces of paper on the floor. "We don't throw paper on the floor," she said.

Jolena gathered up the balled-up pieces of paper. "Where do these belong?" she asked.

"We have trash cans for trash," Veronika explained, "but this is clean paper, and most paper and cardboard can go into the recycling bin."
"What's recycling?" asked Mariah.

"Recycling is one way we show respect for the earth," Veronika explained. "What we throw away in the trash goes into a big hole in the ground called a landfill. The more we throw away, the less natural earth we have where we live. That's one reason we try to reuse or recycle what we can. Many things can be turned into new things. That's what recycling does."
"So we don't have to live in a pile of trash?" Jolena asked.
"Yes, that's one reason," Veronika said. "That isn't the only reason, though. Do you know where paper comes from?"
"I know!" Charlotte cried. "Paper is made from trees."
"That's right," Veronika agreed, "but it's also made from old, used paper. When we recycle used paper we can make new paper out of it. We also save trees, and we need trees."
"I love trees," Jolena said. "They are fun to climb, and you can hang a swing from them," she added, remembering climbing trees last summer.

"Yes, but they also make air for people to breathe," Veronika added. "Without people, we wouldn't have the fun lives we have."
Mariah's eyes  became very big. "I can't imagine our lives without people," she said.
"That's another reason we recycle paper, but we also recycle plastic, metal and glass or reuse it if it's still good. They all come from the earth, using things that might run out or be hard to find, unless we can reuse them," Veronika explained. "Come! I'll show you where we put the things we recycle."
Veronika brought the other dolls to the closet under the stairs.

"Where we live, we put all the things we recycle except for glass and plastic bags in one bin, so paper, cardboard, plastic containers and cans go in here," Veronika explained. "If a can or container had food in it, we wash it first."
"So do I put the paper in here?" Jolena asked.
Veronika nodded. "This is the place," she said.
Jolena put her balled-up paper in the bin.

"When it's full, we empty it into a big container and leave it out at the street, along with one for trash. On trash day, two different trucks come by to empty them," Veronika said.
"Hey, there are glass bottles and jars in this one," Charlotte said, looking into another bin.
"Yes," agreed Veronika. "Glass gets picked up next week, along with next week's trash."

"We take our plastic bags to the grocery store when we shop." Veronika pointed to a grocery bag full of other plastic bags. "If we can't use them anymore, we put them into a bin in front of the store, but we reuse them if they are still good. Many people have grocery bags out of cloth that they use over and over. That's even better than recycling plastic bags."

"Because everything we have comes from the earth, we show our gratitude to the earth for providing all these things every time we recycle," Veronika continued.
"That makes me think." Charlotte said. "Next week is Thanksgiving. Isn't Thanksgiving about being grateful for what we have?"
"Yes," said Veronika. "
"I'm thankful for my sisters" Jolena said. "I learn new things from each of my sisters, and learning is fun."
"We all learn from each other, Jolena," Mariah said. "and I know something you can teach me. I would like to learn to ski!"

"I would love to teach you, as soon as we have enough snow," Jolena replied. "That reminds me. We need to finish our homework, and I have some things to add to my list. I just realized that snow is recycled water!"

Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kids Vroni

Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen

Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris

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.

Image on Mariah's yellow T-shirt used with permission, from Free To Be Kids, where human-size shirts with this image are available.

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

Copyright © 2018, 2023 by Peggy Stuart

Taking Out the Trash

Pippa and Pauly had the day off from school for doll-owner-teacher conferences. It was cold and wet and snowy outdoors, so they were playing on the daybed in the workroom. The sun was playing peek-a-boo with the many snow clouds.

The dolls had been playing for only a few minutes, when they heard a noise from outside.

"What's that?" Pauly asked, jumping up to go look.

"It's trash day," Pippa replied, as she climbed up to the windowsill where Pauly was. "The trucks come every Thursday morning. Besides our trash, they'll pick up the yard waste and glass recycling (ree-SYK-ling) this week. Next week they pick up the other recycling along with next week's trash."

"What's recycling?" Pauly asked.

"That's stuff that can be used again," Pippa replied. "They grind it up or melt it or something and make new things out of it, I think."

"I've seen that truck before," Pauly said, when the truck came into view. "It comes by our house, too. I never knew what it was for."

The two friends watched from the window, as the truck pulled up to the trash container and the blue glass bin in front of the house. The Writer's family didn't have any yard waste this week, just regular trash and glass. As the dolls watched, the driver got out of the truck.

The driver walked over to the glass bin and picked it up. He dumped what was in the bin into a kind of opening on the side of the truck. Even from inside the house, the two dolls could hear a loud clanking and crashing.

"Some of the bottles and jars break when he does that," Pippa told her friend. "Mandy told me that's why they keep the glass separate from the other recycling. If it's broken, it's sharp, and it can cut your vinyl, but even broken glass can still be recycled. It doesn't matter, because they're going to melt it all down and make new bottles and things."

Pauly thought this was important to know. He wondered if it would hurt when your vinyl got cut and if it could be repaired.

"We separate our recycling here in the house," Pippa explained.  "All the paper, plastic and metal cans that don't have a redemption (re-DEMP-shun) value get dumped together into one recycling bin and the glass all goes into another bin."

"What's re-redemption value?" Pauly asked hesitantly, because he was not sure if he was saying it right.

"That's if you paid something called a deposit," Pippa told him, "when you bought whatever came in the can. If you bring the can back, they give you the money back. It helps people remember to return the cans."

"When the recycling bins in our house are full," Pippa continued, "someone takes them out and puts the glass into that blue bin the driver just picked up and emptied into the truck, and the other recycling goes into that big blue container we have. Our recycling container looks like the trash container that's out there on the street, only it's bigger and a different color. They both have wheels built into them. The trash people will come and get our other recycling next week." 

Pauly could remember seeing the big recycling container in front of the garage whenever he came to visit. He knew what it was, because it even said "RECYCLE CART" on the side.

"When is gets to wherever they take it," Pippa continued. "real human people look through it. They have to take out anything that doesn't belong and should have gone into the trash instead, because sometimes someone makes a mistake. Paper has to be clean, and not all plastic can be recycled where we live. They take that kind of stuff out."

"Paper gets ground up," Pippa told him. "Metal and plastic get melted, like the glass. Not together, of course. Then they can use all the stuff to make new things. The trash truck operates the same way as the recycling truck. It just gets what's in the other container. They use separate trucks so it doesn't get mixed together, after everyone worked hard to separate things correctly."

"In a little while," Pippa said, "that recycling truck will come back down the other side of the street. It will pick up the glass and yard waste from the people who live in the houses on that side of the street, and then the trash truck will come from up the street from up there, just like the recycling truck did. They always come from that direction when they're going to stop at our house, because they have to be close to the sidewalk our trash and recycling are on."

Pauly knew that all of the traffic came from that direction. It was the first thing he learned when he learned how to cross the street. 

The dolls didn't have to wait long for the truck to come back. Soon they could hear it. It sounded like the same truck.

The truck stopped in front of the house across the street. Those human people had yard waste as well as glass. The dolls could hear the glass crashing into the place in the truck. They knew what the driver was doing, even though they couldn't see him, because they had seen him do it in front of Pippa's house. Then there was another noise––sort of a grinding sound––and the truck shook a little. This was new. It must be for the yard waste. Pauly wondered what was happening. 

Then the driver moved the truck on down the street, leaving the empty glass bin and the empty yard waste container behind, along with the still-full trash container in between.

"I wish," Pauly complained, "I wish I could see what was happening on the other side of the truck. Does the driver pick up that big bin and dump it?"

"I've seen it," Pippa told him. "That container is too big and heavy when it's full of yard waste. The truck does the work for him. It works the same way with the trash, and we'll see that soon, when the trash truck gets here."

While the dolls were talking, they heard another sound coming from down the street. It was getting closer. "It's another truck!" Pauly exclaimed.

The two dolls watched as a second big truck pulled up in front of Pippa's house. As they watched, a big metal arm came out from the side of the truck. It looked like a big claw. It grabbed the trash bin around the waist. (Does a trash bin have a waist?)

The trash bin moved up the side of the truck until it reached the top.

"It looks like a giant robot arm," Pauly told Pippa, after watching the trash container being turned upside-down, and its contents fall into the truck.

It did, sort of, Pippa thought. "Yes," she agreed, "but the driver operates it from inside the truck, I think." The arm put the trash container back down. "I don't think the truck is a robot. If it were a robot, it wouldn't need a driver, would it?" There was definitely a driver in the truck.

"You're right," said a voice from behind the two dolls. 

They turned and saw Mandy standing in the doorway. "The driver does it," she said.

Mandy climbed up onto the daybed and then up to the windowsill, where she joined the two smaller dolls at the window.

The three dolls watched the trash truck as it continued on up the street amidst the swirling snowflakes.

"They take this stuff," Pippa told her friend, "all the stuff that can't be recycled, to something called a landfill. One reason," she added, proud that she knew something and could explain to her friend, "the main reason, actually, we need to recycle is so we don't run out of places to put our trash, but it's also so we don't run out of the stuff we need to make things with."

"I was wondering," Pauly said, "how does the driver make the big arm come out of the truck at just the right place?"

Pippa turned and looked at Mandy.

Then Pauly looked at Mandy. It was obvious that this was something Pippa didn't know, so it must be a Mandy question.

"Well," Mandy said, when it was obvious to her that they wanted her to help them understand, "I have an idea about how that's done, but I don't want to tell you the wrong thing, so let's go look it up." (You don't have to know everything there is to know in the world if you know how to find things out.)

The three dolls jumped down onto the daybed, being careful not to step on the game board, and then climbed over to the wicker trunk, where The Writer's laptop computer was sitting, conveniently open. Mandy pulled the laptop close and typed in a few words. She found a website of a trash company with photos and descriptions of how trash trucks work. "This will be good information," she told them. "Trash and recycling are what they do, so they will know."

She looked around on the website until she found a photo of one of their trash trucks. The photo showed clearly what they had watched from the window. It showed the arms picking up the trash container to dump its contents into the truck. This one worked a little differently from their trash truck, but the idea was the same.

"Let's see if they explain how they operate the arms to pick up the bins," Mandy suggested.

She typed something into the search slot on the website. "It says," Mandy told them when she got what she wanted, although they could read it just as well as she could, "that the driver operates the arm from inside the truck using something called a joystick." 

"I know what that is!" Pauly exclaimed excitedly. "Jeffy and his dad use those to play a game together. They each use one! They use them to pretend to fight each other. They move the joystick around to make cartoon people move around on the screen."

Mandy looked at him and nodded. "That sounds like a fun game," she said. Then she scrolled down until she came to another photo. This one showed the inside of the cab of the truck, where the driver sat. "Look at this," she said. The three dolls looked at the photo on the screen. 

"Jeffy's joystick looks a lot like this thing in the picture," Pauly told them, pointing to something in the photo of the inside of the truck.

"It must be interesting to live in a family with a real child," Mandy suggested.

Pauly thought it was, but it was also nice to visit a family with other dolls like him and his best friend Pippa. He realized how lucky he was.

Just then, the three dolls heard a truck sound again.

"It's the trash truck!" Pippa exclaimed. "It sounds like it's coming back down the other side of the street."

The three dolls hurried back to the window, careful not to step on the game board, and reached the windowsill just in time to see the trash truck pull up in front of the house across the street.

As they watched, they could just make out the trash container as it was turned upside-down by the trash truck driver using the joystick in the truck. They could see what looked like loose stuff and stuff in plastic bags fall into the truck.

Then Pauly noticed something the other two dolls hadn't. "Hey, look!" he exclaimed. "It's Jeffy! He's coming up to your house!"

The three dolls looked down. It was Jeffy, all right, and he was coming up the walk to the front door.

"He's taking me to a real movie today!" Pauly shouted, jumping up and off the windowsill. "It must be time to go!"

The girls turned to watch Pauly run out the door to the workroom, but he was already gone.

Mandy looked at Pippa, who looked back. "Pauly sure can move fast," Mandy said.

"Yes," Pippa agreed. Then she thought for a moment. "You know," she told her older sister, "I learned something this morning."

Mandy was pretty sure it was going to be about trash trucks, but little Pippa surprised her.

"I learned," Pippa said, "that just because someone hasn't been around as long as I have doesn't mean they don't know things I don't know."

Mandy couldn't argue with that. Pauly had surprised her, too. 

Imagine, playing a game with joysticks!

Questions for readers:

1) Name three things you found out from this story that were new to you.

2) Does your family handle trash and recycling the same way as Pippa's family, or do they do some things differently.

3) What do you think is the most important reason to recycle as much as you can? (It can be different from Pippa's reasons, if you like.)

Cast--
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015

Pippa: Götz Little Kidz Lotta

Pauly: Götz Little Kidz Paul

Photo of people separating recycling: KUOW

Truck photo: Western Elite 

Inside of cab photo: Granger Waste Services 

Joystick image: Computer Hope.

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 and soon Classic Tales Retold: Stories from the Doll's Storybook are available from BookBaby and other booksellers worldwide, such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. 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 St. Jude. Autographed copies of all three books are available from the author for $20 including shipping. (Multiple books to the same address have a discount on shipping.) To inquire, email thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

Image on Mariah's yellow T-shirt used with permission, from Free To Be Kids, where human-size shirts with this image are available.

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

Copyright © 2022 by Peggy Stuart