Friday, January 15, 2021

A Story About a Boy

The boys were looking for Mariah. They found Mandy, Pippa and Veronika in the living room. Mandy was knitting a sweater for Pippa who was watching. Veronika was planning her next quilt.

"Do you know where Mariah is?" Emil asked?

"Have you tried the kitchen?" Veronika suggested.

There were noises coming from the kitchen. The boys decided to go look there.

When they got to the kitchen, they found Jolena putting together the ingredients for something for supper, but no Mariah.

"Have you seen Mariah?" Emil asked.

"I haven't seen Mariah or Charlotte for a couple of hours," Jolena replied. Mariah and Charlotte are best friends, so they're often together.

The boys looked around the house. When they got to the closet off the garage, where the bicycles were kept, they noticed that two bicycles and two helmets were missing. It was a clue!

"They must be riding bicycles," Billy concluded. "Two bicycles are gone, and all the other dolls are here."

Emil nodded. It was logical. "It's pretty cold to ride bicycles, though," he said.

The boys decided to sit down by the front door to wait. If Mariah and Charlotte had been gone for a couple of hours, they would be back soon, and they always came through the front door after putting the bicycles away. 

Waiting is hard for real boys, but not for dolls. Dolls know how to be patient. That's why we can put them down somewhere and come back hours––or days––later to find them right where we left them.

Emil and Billy didn't have to wait long, however. Soon Mariah and Charlotte were coming up the steps and in through the front door. They had put the bicycles and helmets away and were glad to come inside where it was warm.

"Mariah!" Emil exclaimed in greeting. "We've been waiting for you to come back."

"Yes," agreed Billy. "We need your help."

Mariah and Charlotte put their coats away. Charlotte went off to practice her violin, and Mariah came back to where the boys were.

"What do you need?" Mariah asked the boys as she sat down with them.

"I want to write a story," Emil said. "I need to know how you do it."

"I'll just take some photos," Billy said. Then he took a photo.

"What do you want your story to be about?" Mariah asked. "That's the important place to start."

"That's easy!" Emil said. "It will be about a boy who wanted to write a story and decided he needed help from his sister who knew all about writing."

"The boy's brother will take photos," Billy added, "to illustrate the story."

Mariah thought about that. 

"I'll tell you what, Emil," she said finally. "You write down everything you did from the time you decided to write a story. When you have that, come back and show it to me. We will see if it needs editing (EH-dit-ing)." 

"Editing," Mariah went on, "means fixing it to make sure everything is written correctly and makes sense. We'll also talk about a title for your story. It's better to wait, because sometimes the story takes a different turn from what you originally thought."

Emil thought about that. He decided that that would be helpful and maybe fun and interesting. I imagined how he could learn new things from Mariah. It would be easier once he had some things down on paper. He could see it in his head.

"Thanks, Mariah," Emil said. "That would be great!"

"It's a good idea," Mariah assured him, "to write about something you know or something you have done, even if you use your imagination to make it different from how it really happened."

Then Mariah turned to Billy. "Billy, look through your photos and pick out the best ones. After Emil has his story written, you can look to see if you need to take any more photos."

"I need a snack," Mariah said. She stood up. "I'm pretending to be hungry after the bike ride with Charlotte."

"Thank you, Mariah," Emil said.

"You're welcome, Emil," Mariah said, as she headed down the hall toward the kitchen.

The boys looked at each other. "That was easy, Emil said."

"Yes," Billy agreed.

This is the story Emil wrote. Billy had to set the timer on the camera for the photos he was in. The Writer let him use her phone for the photos. It was 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
Pippa: Götz Little Kidz Lotta

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.

"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 2:00 PM Pacific Time.

Mariah: Stories from the Doll's Storybook is available from Amazon worldwide. Also available from BookBaby and other booksellers. Royalties go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment.

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Copyright © 2021, 2024 by Peggy Stuart

Friday, January 8, 2021

Baby Doll

"What are you looking at, Mandy?" Pippa asked, looking up at the older doll from the floor.

"I was just looking at this photo," Mandy said. "It's of a doll The Writer gave a young relative as a gift."

Pippa climbed up to look. "It's a baby!" she cried. 

This is what she saw on the screen.


"Yes," Mandy agreed. "It's a baby doll. The young relative is very young, almost still a baby herself. She loves the baby doll. Her mother said it was her favorite present."

"Is the doll a girl or a boy?" Pippa asked.

"I don't know," Mandy said. "I guess the little girl the doll lives with will decide."

"What does it do?" Pippa wanted to know.

"Well," Mandy replied thoughtfully, "it doesn't really do anything. It's up to the little girl to do things with the doll. She can hold it, dress it and put it to bed."

"What's this thing in the box with it?" Pippa asked, pointing to the screen.

Mandy looked where Pippa was pointing. "That's a pacifier (PA-sih-fy-er). It something for the doll to suck on." 

Pippa had to think about that. Pippa's mouth doesn't open, so it was hard to imagine sucking on something.

Pippa was quiet for a long time, thinking. "I don't think I would want to be a baby doll," she said finally. "I like doing things. I don't think I would like lying in bed or just being carried around and held. I mean, those things are nice, but I would get bored after a while if that was all I got to do. Even sucking on a pacifier wouldn't make up for that."

"That's because you are a child doll, Pippa," Mandy explained. "Child dolls were made to pretend to play and do the other things that real children do. A baby doll just wants to be held and carried. They're made just for that. They like to be pretend fed and changed, and to suck on a pacifier if they have one."

That was a lot to think about, so Pippa did just that. "So lying around makes baby dolls happy?" she asked.

Mandy realized that she hadn't really thought about it like that. "I guess they are like real babies in that way," Mandy decided. "Real babies like to be held, fed and changed."


"So do real babies spend their lives being held, fed and changed?" Pippa asked.

Mandy laughed. "Only when they are still babies. Real human  babies grow up. They get bigger and become children. The children grow up to be grown-up human people."

"Charlotte told me I wouldn't grow any bigger," Pippa said.

"That's right," Mandy agreed. "Real babies and children grow, but dolls don't. You won't get any bigger than you are, and I will always be this size."

"That means," Pippa mused, "that you and Veronika don't have to worry that I'll grow out of the clothes you made for me." That thought made Pippa happy. "I wouldn't mind being as big as you are, but I'm glad I can always wear my new clothes."

"Making clothes for you was a challenge at first," Mandy said, "because all of the patterns we had were for dolls our size, but you're shaped the same as the rest of us, just smaller all over. We figured out how much smaller you are, and Veronika reduced her sewing patterns on the computer so they would fit you. She made them smaller by setting the printer to print smaller. Then she checked to make sure they would be the right size."

"Is that what you did with the knitting patterns?" Pippa wanted to know.

"Knitting is a little different," Mandy said. "Changing the size isn't that hard, but you have to do some math. (Math is like arithmetic, only more complicated.) I had to rewrite the patterns so they had fewer stitches and fewer rows of stitches in each section. That's what I did with the dress you're wearing."

"What are you making now?" Pippa asked, leaning over to look at Mandy's work."

"This is a sweater for you," Mandy said, holding it up. "It won't fit me. It won't fit any of your other sisters and brothers. It will only fit you."

"I like it!" Pippa cried. "It's beautiful! Thank you!" Pippa took Mandy's knitting from her and hugged it.

"You're welcome, Pippa," Mandy replied. "Be careful of the needles, though! I'm glad you like it, but it isn't ready to wear yet."

"I promise never, ever to grow out of it." Pippa said.


Pippa is right. She will never grow out of her new sweater!


Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
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 LittleBesties and Distraction.

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

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green GreatcoatThe 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 DayKeeping PetsBack to School, Victor the VultureThe 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 StrangerThe RescueUnmaskedFuzzy 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 BoysChangesShhhhh!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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Copyright © 2021, 2026 by Peggy Stuart

Mandy's Birthday Gift

"I know you dolls are talking about my birthday!" It was Mandy's voice from the hall. The dolls all looked at each other. How ...