Peggy Stuart's Blog

 "Wow!" exclaimed Veronika. She was holding a letter and reading it.

The boys climbed up next to Veronika to see what was so surprising. 

The other dolls looked to see if she would say what it was about. They waited.

"We're getting another new family member," Veronika explained. "This letter is from the warehouse, letting us know. The new doll will be here next week, if all goes well."

"Is it another boy?" Emil asked.

"The letter doesn't say," Veronika replied, looking at the letter. "It just says this new doll will be like us, but different."

"We're all alike in some ways," Jolena pointed out.

"We all have the same kind of knee joints and elbow joints," Billy said.

"That's true," Mariah agreed, "and we all have eyes that don't close, so we have to use sleep masks to sleep."

"Besides those things," Charlotte put in, "We all have the same two fingers stuck together on our right hands. That's why I couldn't play the piano."

"We're all different, though," Mandy said. "I wouldn't confuse Billy with Emil, even though they are both boys, and each girl is different, too."

"We have different color hair and eyes," Veronika agreed, "and our faces are different. Jolena and I look a lot alike, because our faces are shaped the same, but no one ever gets us mixed up."

"We're different inside, too," Charlotte added. "We have different personalities, and we're good at different things."

The dolls all agreed that they were all alike in some ways, but that they were all different from each other.

"What else does the letter say?" Billy asked, looking over Veronika's shoulder.

"It just says," Veronika replied, "that the new doll is someone we didn't know we needed." The dolls all looked at each other and thought about what that might mean.

"It will be a surprise," Mariah said.

"How will we get ready?" Jolena wondered. "Usually we make sure the new doll has pajamas and a sleep mask and a warm sweater, but we don't know whether to get girl's clothes or boy's clothes."

"At first," Charlotte suggested, "the new doll will have to borrow from us."

"Well," Veronika said, "we will work it out. We always do, and it will be fun to have a new addition."

The dolls all thought back to their last new addition. That was Emil. It had been more than a year.

"We will need another group photo," said Billy suddenly. Then he smiled. He loves to get out his tripod and sit all the dolls down on the steps and tell them not to blink. (That's an inside joke.)

Life in a house with dolls is never boring! What will the new addition be like? What will make him or her different from the others?
(To be continued.)
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
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 Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Being Little, Besties and Distraction.
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 Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The 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 Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The 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 Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.
Available now from BookBaby and for presale from other booksellers:  Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook . The Stories in Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Talking About Boys, Changes, Shhhhh!, 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. 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/198325... my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Copyright © 2020, 2025 by Peggy Stuart

"I can't decide whether it's a Mandy question or a Veronika question," Billy told Emil as the boys were walking home from school.

"I thought it was a question for Veronika," Emil said, "because Justin is being teased because he's different."

"That's true," Billy agreed, as the boys reached the front steps, "but I was thinking that why he's being picked on might be more of a Mandy question."

"I know," said Emil, "that dolls who are different sometimes get teased, because that happened to me. Teasing isn't so bad, but some of the dolls even laughed at me, which is worse."

The boys took turns helping each other up the stairs to the house, not because either of them needed help, but they liked to practice helping others. Some dolls need help from time to time.

"Picking on other dolls isn't nice," Billy said. "I wanted to hit them, but I remembered that Veronika told me that hitting was wrong. That was when some of the other dolls were picking on Mariah for being different."

"You got in a fight, didn't you?" Emil asked as the boys reached the door to the house. (It was before he came, but he remembered hearing about it.)

"Yes," Billy agreed, "but now I know there are better ways to handle bullies. Veronika helped me understand that bullies often have problems we don't know about."

"Veronika," Billy continued, "explained that bullying is just a way to get attention and to feel better about something they feel bad about. If you ignore them it stops being fun, and they stop."

The boys found both Veronika and Mandy in the living room, reading, so they didn't have to decide which one to look for. Mariah was there, too, helping Pippa with her homework. The girls all looked up when the boys came in.

"We have a question," Billy said to the girls. "Maybe you can help us with something."

"What's up?" Veronika asked. She closed her book.

"Well," Emil began, "our friend Justin is getting picked on because of the way he talks."

"I know we aren't supposed to hit the other dolls," Billy said, "but I was really tempted to."

"I know we're supposed to just be friendly with Justin and pay no attention to the bullies," he added, "so they get bored and go do something else."

"That's right," Veronika agreed, nodding. Mandy was nodding, too.

"It's because of the way he talks," Emil explained, as the boys climbed up onto the couch. "He has trouble getting words out."

"Some of the other boys said Justin was faking," Billy said. "They said he was pretending to talk that way to get attention."

"Why did they think he was pretending?" Mariah asked.

"It's because he doesn't do it when he sings," Emil pointed out, leaning back so he could look at Mariah.

Emil climbed all the way up onto the couch, so he could see Mariah easily when she had something to say.

"Yes," Billy agreed, "and he can recite poetry, too, with no problem, but I don't think he's faking."

"Justin stutters," said Mandy, who knew all the dolls at the school. "That means he sometimes repeats one sound over and over until he can get the word out out. Sometimes even the wrong word comes out."

"Yes!" Billy exclaimed. "That's exactly what he does! He can sing songs, though, without having a problem."

"It's because singing uses a different part of the brain," Mandy explained. "It's a problem that human children sometimes have. It's genetic (juh-NEH-tik). That means it runs in families," Mandy explained. "Some dolls stutter, too, because dolls have to be like real children."

"It starts when a child is young," Mandy explained, "and sometimes they need to have speech therapy. That's special training to be able to talk so other human people can understand them. Many still have a problem speaking when they are adults." Mandy thought for a moment. "Dolls are supposed to be like real children, so maybe Justin was made that way so he can go live a with a child who stutters."

"I think," Mariah said, "that you should tell Justin that the person who wrote Alice in Wonderland stuttered. I think that's why he was such a good writer. He could say what he wanted in writing and not stutter." "I didn't know that about Lewis Carroll," Pippa said. "Alice in Wonderland is my very favorite book!"

"Lots of people who stuttered or still do," Veronika pointed out, "are famous, but not for their stuttering. Some are famous athletes, singers, actors and writers."

"Yes!" Mandy agreed. "Some people write or recite words they've memorized because they can, and go on to be very good at it. Practice will do that sometimes. Or they put their energy into something where you don't have to talk much."

"And some," Veronika explained, "have gone on in spite of their problem with speaking and done something great in some other field where they have to talk a lot, even though they have to work extra hard to talk." 

Then she paused and looked as if there might be something more she wanted to say, so the boys waited. Actually, everyone waited.

"I wonder if Justin knows this," Veronika suggested. "Maybe he feels bad because he doesn't talk the way everyone else does. Sometimes dolls who are picked on start to think that they are broken."

"Yes," Emil agreed. "I can see that. It's what I thought about myself before I came here and found out how much I could do. I don't have trouble talking, but without my special glasses, I can't see or hear. I need help from others when my glasses are charging."

"Let's tell him tomorrow," Billy suggested, "about all the famous people who stutter. We can look up 'famous people who stutter' on the computer and make a list for him." Then he looked at Veronika, to see what she thought.

Veronika nodded. "That's a great idea!" she agreed, turning to Emil. "You two can tell him all the athletes, singers and actors you know of who had to overcome stuttering as they grew up!"

"What's the matter, Mariah?" Pippa asked suddenly.

Mariah was staring off into space. "Well," she said, "I was just remembering that Lewis Carroll had planned to be a clergyman. That meant he would have to get up and talk in church. That's why he wrote instead."

"Can you imagine a life without Alice?" Pippa asked. "What if he hadn't stuttered. He might not have written my favorite book."

Pippa's eyes would have become big and round, except that they don't move, so she just stared at the other dolls. And they stared back.

"I'm sorry Lewis Carroll had to go through all that," Pippa said finally, "but I'm sort of glad, too."

Life without "Alice." It didn't bear thinking about.

Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz EmiliaPippa: Götz Little Kidz Lotta

You can learn more about stuttering from the Stuttering Foundation.
You can see a boy who stutters who spoke to millions of people on television here:


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 Little, Besties and Distraction.
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 Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The 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 Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The 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 Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.
Available now from BookBaby and for presale from other booksellers:  Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook . The Stories in Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Talking About Boys, Changes, Shhhhh!, 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, only 8%, 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/198325... my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Copyright © 2020, 2025 by Peggy Stuart

 "Let's sit in the living room, Jolena," Mariah suggested. "That way you can be comfortable."

"I've never been interviewed before," Jolena told her friend. "What do I do?"

"Just answer my questions," Mariah replied. "It's easy. You'll be fine."

The girls settled themselves on the couch.

Mariah had her notebook and pencil. She had already written down some questions she wanted to ask. "Let's get started," she said. "First, when did you realize you wanted to do aerials and slopestyle skiing?" she asked.

Jolena thought for a moment. "Well," she replied, "when I was in my box on the shelf in the warehouse, I noticed I was wearing ski clothes." She thought for a moment, as Mariah wrote. "I mean, I just noticed at first that I was very warmly dressed," she said. "I had on long underwear, waterproof pants, a warm jacket, heavy plastic boots, and mittens. My jacket had a hood. Then I saw that I had skis, ski poles, a ski mask and a helmet to protect my head, and I realized I was meant to be a skier."

Mariah carefully wrote as much as she could of what Jolena said. "So then you thought about doing tricks on your skis?" she asked.

"No," Jolena replied. "I just thought I was going to ski just for fun."

Mariah wrote all that down. "So what made you think of doing tricks on your skis?" she asked then.

Jolena thought back.

"Well," she said, after a moment, "I was on my way to this country, although, at the time, I didn't know exactly where I was going. I just could feel my box moving." Jolena paused and thought some more. "I remember it got very warm, and I was wishing for cooler clothes. I found out later that my box had been sent through through Florida on my way to Utah by mistake. It was May, and it was already warm there in Florida, but at the time I didn't know where I was. All I knew was that I was uncomfortable, so I tried to take my mind off of it by thinking about what I could do on skis. I didn't really know, but it was good to think about all that nice, cold snow. I tried to imagine flying down the hill, and then in my mind, I was flying through the air!"

"What happened next?" Mariah urged.

"When The Writer opened my box," Jolena said. "I found out I was in Utah and that I had three sisters. That was before you came to live with us, Mariah."

"That's right," Mariah said. "I arrived right after the family moved to Oregon."

"Well," Jolena went on, "I found out that we lived close to the Utah Olympic Park, where they have ski jumps and bobsled runs, and that the Doll Ski Team had training in the summer. The Writer told me about it and asked me if I thought I would like to take part in the training. I got signed up right away!"

"Were you excited?" Mariah asked.

"Yes," Jolena said, "very excited, but it was hard work, too. I wanted to make the most of it, because I knew we were moving at the end of the summer, so this was my only chance. I was very tired when I came back from training each day."

"How did you train without snow?" Mariah asked. She knew that Utah didn't have snow in the summer except in the very highest mountains.

"That's very interesting," Jolena said. "You see, at the Utah Olympic Park, the big ski jumps are carpeted with special grass. Not real grass, but some kind of plastic. It lets the skis glide across the grass, so it feels just like skiing on snow."

Mariah's eyes would have widened, but they don't move, so she just looked intent.

"When you get to the bottom of the ski jump, you go flying through the air," Jolena explained. "Then you land in the pool. That's why I had to wear a bathing suit."

"The pool?" Mariah asked. "There's a pool?"

"Yes," Jolena replied, "a pool at the bottom of the ski jumps. So you can do your tricks and land in the pool when you're practicing. That way you don't get hurt."

Mariah continued to write as Jolena answered. "So the pool had water in it, then, right?" Mariah asked then.

"Yes!" Jolena exclaimed. "It wouldn't have been very good empty."

"But didn't you get water in your eyes?" Mariah asked. 

"That could happen," Jolena agreed, "only the dolls on the Doll Ski team who train in water have special ski masks that keep the water out. We could fill up with water and sink, so the special masks help with that, and the coaches who teach us get us out of the water quickly."

"Was that all you did?" Mariah asked. "I mean, did you just go off and train on your skis every day?"

"No," Jolena said. "I got to know the other dolls in the family. We did stuff. Read books. We sat around and talked."

"One day," Jolena went on, "I decided I should start learning to dance. One of the trainers said that dance and gymnastics were good training for aerials and slopestyle skiers, so I started learning ballet. It was good for stretching, for one thing, and it was good for balance, too," Jolena went on.

"Now," Mariah said, "you have gone to South America two summers in a row, so you can ski and practice in real snow. What's that like?"

"Oh, it's wonderful!" Jolena exclaimed. "I get to spend a couple of weeks practicing all kinds of new tricks on real snow with other members of the US Doll's Ski Team and trainers. Last year we went to Argentina (ar-jen-TEE-nah). This year we went to Chile (CHIH-leh). Both of those countries have mountains with great ski resorts, and now I'm learning to speak Spanish. We have plans to go to Australia (os-TRAYL-ya) and New Zealand (new-ZEE-land) next summer and the summer after."

"Do you always see the same dolls?" Mariah asked.

"A lot of the same dolls come each year," Jolena replied, "and we see each other at competitions, too."

"Have you won many medals?" Mariah asked then.

"Not yet," Jolena replied. "I've only been at it for a couple of years, and it takes a lot of training and practice, but I keep getting better, so I'm pleased."

"Yes," Mariah said. "That's how I am with my writing. Now tell me please what you think is the most important thing you have learned since you started skiing."

"I really like dancing," Jolena said, "but I'm happiest when I'm in the snow."

"I think," Jolena said finally  "whoever put those skis in my box with me knew what they were doing. I think that the people who work in the doll factory must be very smart."

"Well, I'm sure glad they did," Mariah said. "Skiing and doing tricks on your skis sure seems to make you happy. Now," she went on, "I have one more question: The first story in The Doll's Storybook was about you, so you sort of helped get this story blog started. Tell me how that happened."

Jolena thought back. It had been a long time, but it was very important to her, so she remembered it well. She just wanted to be sure she explained it correctly. "Mandy knitted me a blue dress," she said.

"I was wearing it," Jolena continued, "and sitting in the rocking chair on the front deck, pretending to eat some cottage cheese."

"The Writer's husband had found a spider––a toy one," Jolena continued, "and put it on The Writer's laptop, for fun. It made her laugh. She put it on one of the posts for me to look at so I could pretend it was a real spider." 

"Then the story hit her," Jolena said. "I think that was how she put it, but I don't think it hurt. It doesn't hurt when a story hits you."

"So," Mariah exclaimed, "the stories started because of a spider!"

"This spider didn't spin a web; it spun a story!" Mariah added.Jolena did go to visit Australia and New Zealand. If you would like to read about her travels, here are some stories about her trips:
A Ski Trip for Jolena?Back from Down UnderSkiing With Kiwis

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
Knitting patterns used in the costumes for the dolls in this story:Mariah's lavender cardigan: Janet from Dan-El Designs from Pixie Faire.Jolena's white cardigan and Mandy's pink cardigan: Charlotte's Twinset, free pattern on Ravelry.Veronika's gold cardigan: Steampunk Halloween Freebie Pullover by cataddict on Ravelry.Charlotte's black cardigan with collar: Wonderland Turtle, free pattern on Ravelry.Jolena's blue dress: The Viipuri Dress, free pattern on Ravelry.
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 Little, Besties and Distraction.
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 Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The 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 Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The 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 Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.
Available now from BookBaby and for presale from other booksellers:  Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook . The Stories in Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Talking About Boys, Changes, Shhhhh!, 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. 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/198325... my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Copyright © 2020, 2025 by Peggy Stuart

"Wake up!" Billy cried, shaking Emil, although he knew Emil couldn't hear him.

Emil couldn't hear him, even in his head, because he was sound asleep. He did feel Billy's hand on his shoulder, though, roughly shaking him, so he woke up. How could he not? He immediately thought about how Billy had told him that if the smoke alarm went off he would wake him. 

There must be a fire! Emil was awake and out of bed in an instant! He grabbed his special glasses from the charger and put them on. He could see that Billy was holding Freckles.The boys went to the door of the bedroom. Billy felt the door to see if it was hot, just as he had been taught to do. 

It was cool, so he opened it. If it had been hot, that would have meant there was fire on the other side, and they would have had to climb out the window!The boys went down the stairs as quickly as they could. They knew they were supposed to stay close to the floor if there was smoke, because the smoke goes up, but they are already close to the floor because they are very small.

They went out the front door and found the girls in front of the big tree, their planned meeting place in case of fire. The girls had Pierre and Marmalade with them, and Veronika was sitting and holding Cleo in her bowl. Emil knew Brownie was in her stall in the backyard, because the nights were still warm. She was far from the house, so she would be safe.

The dolls all looked at the house. "I don't see any smoke," said Billy.

"I don't smell any smoke," said Charlotte.

"No," said Veronika, "and I don't see any fire, either."

"I don't hear any sirens," said Mandy. "Our human people should have called the fire department." The dolls all looked toward the street and listened.

Charlotte was getting concerned. "Did our people hear the alarm?" She asked. "They are old people, and they take out their hearing aids when they sleep. Maybe they didn't hear it."The dolls love the old couple they live with, and they didn't want them hurt or injured. They also knew that life without them would be difficult. They needed the human people in their lives. They began to worry.

The dolls all stared at the house. They knew one of the rules about the smoke alarm was that you didn't go back into the house if you had to leave because of the smoke alarm. What should they do?
Just then, the front door opened and The Writer came out onto the front porch. "It's OK," she said. "It was a false alarm. It's turned off now. You can all come back in, but you did just what you were supposed to do. That was good practice." She went back into the house.
The dolls just stared at the house for a moment.

Then they all went back up the front steps to the house with their pets. Mariah helped Veronika with Cleo, because it's hard to climb the stairs holding a goldfish in a bowl.

"We just had a fire drill," Veronika said when they were all inside and seated on the stairs.
"How can a smoke alarm go off if there's no smoke," Billy wanted to know. Everyone looked at Mandy.

"What!" she exclaimed. "Why does everyone think I know the answer to every question?"

No one said a word. They just waited. Mandy gave a sigh. "Well, I do know a little about smoke alarms," she admitted.The dolls were wide awake now and ready to listen."Smoke alarms," Mandy began, "have sensors that detect tiny particles in the air. I don't know which kind of smoke alarm we have, but one kind works with light and the other kind is sort of like a chemical reaction using part of atoms called electrons. If they go off with no smoke, the cause could be the same: Something gets inside that isn't smoke, like dust or an insect. It makes the smoke alarm think there's smoke in the air."

The dolls all looked up at the smoke alarm, which was quiet now. 

It was on the wall at the top of the stairs. It was very high, near the ceiling.

"Ew!" said Jolena. "She didn't like the idea of insects or dust in the house. That meant there could be dust and insects in the kitchen, where she did her cooking."

Mandy laughed. "Both of those things are just part of nature," she pointed out. We just have to try to clean them away as much as we can.

Veronika put Cleo down on the step next to her, so she could use her hands. "Since we've just had a fire drill," she said, "it's a good time to go over how to treat fire in general, and," she added as she looked over at the clock on the wall, "it's Friday morning. That means it's Emil's birthday, so we will be lighting candles tonight."

"Well, Billy said, "I know we are not supposed to play with fire. I know you're supposed to light candles with a match, or with another candle, the way Charlotte and Emil light the candles on her Menorah. I know you have to be very careful."

"I know not to touch it," Mariah said, "because you can melt your vinyl."

"You have to keep your clothes and hair away from it," Charlotte added.

"All of that is true," Veronika agreed, "and we have to be especially careful with fire outdoors, so we don't start a forest fire. We know we can only have a campfire where it is allowed and where the fire can't escape, but do you know what to do if your clothes catch on fire?

The dolls all looked at each other to see if anyone knew. 

Then they looked back at Veronika."Don't run. Running just makes the fire worse," Veronika told them. "Stop right where you are and get down on the ground or floor. Then roll around on the flames and it will put them out, or if you have a rug nearby, you can throw the rug over yourself."

"Why is that?" Emil asked.

Veronika wasn't sure. She looked at Mandy. All the dolls looked at Mandy. Mandy would have rolled her eyes, but her eyes don't move, so she just looked back.

"Fire needs oxygen (OX-ih-jen) from the air to burn," she explained patiently. "If you run, it just feeds it. It's like blowing on glowing embers will get a fire started again, but if you put a candle in a jar and put the lid on, the fire will go out when the candle has used up all the oxygen in the jar."

"But when Emil blows out his candles," Billy pointed out, "the fire will go out, not get bigger. Why is that?"

Mandy explained that blowing out candles blows the fire right off of the candles. "The simple answer is that fire needs oxygen to keep burning, but it also needs something to burn, like the candle wick. The wick is its fuel. That's like food for it. It can't last without fuel to burn. If you blow on the candle hard enough, you blow the fire away from its fuel, and it goes out."

The other dolls all all thought about that.

Then Mariah remembered the smoke alarm and why the dolls were all awake. "I'm glad the house isn't on fire," she said.

The dolls all agreed that was a very good thing."Well," Jolena put in, "I'm wide awake now. Let's go into the kitchen and I'll make us all some cocoa. Then we can sit and pretend to drink it."

They all thought that was a good idea. Dolls don't really need sleep the way children do, and pretending to drink a cup of cocoa sounded nice after all the excitement, so they all went into the kitchen.Emil stopped as the dolls entered the kitchen. He had been worried. All the pets who lived in the house were safe, but he was worried about their horse. "I'll be right back," he told them. "I just want to check on Brownie."

Emil went out through the dog door into the dark backyard and made his way to the shed where Brownie slept. Brownie was fine, but she had been aware of all the fear and excitement taking place and was very happy to see Emil. If Emil was OK, that meant that all the dolls were OK.

The dolls finished pretending to drink their cocoa, and then they all went back to bed, because it would be hours before time to get up. They dreamt of adventures, but not about fire, because they knew they were safe. They knew what they would do if there were a fire, and it made them feel better.

Do you know how to stay safe from fire? Can you remember what the dolls learned about what to do if there is a fire?
Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Charlotte and Pierre: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy and Freckles: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia
Marmalade: Purrrfect Cats from KTLBrownie: Götz Pony Brown Beauty


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 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/198325... my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Copyright © 2020, 2025 by Peggy Stuart

  Vroni sat, serenely sewing, while outside the wind was blowing,

Stitching calmly at her place in the window by the street,

Making all her stitches neatly, ending all her seams completely,

Knowing seams must all be tidy, sturdy and, of course, complete!

On the windowsill beside her was a meal for her to eat,

With a cookie for a treat.

On the shelf there sat a vulture, wise observer of our culture,

Preening feathers of one wing, and making sure that they were neat.

From outside there came a clatter, giggles and a bit of chatter,

Clearly something was occurring out there, on the open street!

So the doll looked out the window, dropping sewing on her seat.

(Clearly, it could not compete!)

In the cold of late October, on an eve sedate and sober,

Vroni pulled aside the curtain, looking up and down the street.

What she saw she found amazing! From the window she was gazing,

Figures masked and costumed scurried, and a scary floating sheet!

Clearly human children playing at some craziness, complete 

With the sound of running feet. 

Suddenly there came a tapping, at the door an urgent rapping,

While our heroine considered if she shouldn't just retreat!

By the door a bowl of candy had been placed where it was handy.

Vroni saw the pile of yummies, neatly wrapped and gooey sweet.

Then she turned and looked at Victor. (Now the comb lay at his feet.)

Said the vulture, "Trick or Treat!"

Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Victor: HimselfPhoto of "sheet" by Šimom Caban on Unsplash, cropped
This poem first appeared on October 29, 2021. It is one of the poems included in the book Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook and is available to buy here.The Writer would like to thank Edgar Allan Poe for the inspiration provided by his poem "The Raven."
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 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/198325... my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Copyright © 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025, by Peggy Stuart

Mandy was sitting in the workroom, looking at a website called Ravelry for some knitting patterns she might use for her new yarn, when she saw Emil come rushing in. 

Pippa and Pauly were there, too, playing cards on the daybed.

“Hey, Mandy!” Emil said, climbing up on the big office chair. “I have a question for you.” 

Mandy closed the laptop, and pushed it and her yarn aside. Emil’s questions usually took some time to answer, and she knew she could get back to her project later. “What’s up?” she asked him.

“I got a letter from Holly,” he replied, after he had settled himself next to her at the table. “She says something I didn’t understand, and I thought you might be able to explain it.”

Mandy and the other dolls were always happy to hear about Emil’s friend Holly, who exchanged letters with Emil often. Emil had met Holly when both of them were in the doll hospital. Emil was there because he couldn’t see or hear, and Holly because she couldn’t walk. Emil felt lucky that the hospital was able to fix his problem with special glasses and that they were able to help Holly by giving her a wheelchair. She got to do a lot of different fun things along with Sam, the human girl she lives with, who also uses a wheelchair to get around, so Holly’s letters were always interesting.

“What does she say in the letter?” Mandy asked.

Emil pointed to the letter. “She says her family was camping at a campground near the ocean,” he explained. “They were having a good time, when they heard a siren go off.

Holly says Sam’s dad went to the campground host,” Emil continued. “He asked what the siren was for and found out it meant that something called a tsunami (tsu-NAH-mee) might be coming in just a few hours. It wasn’t safe to stay at the campground, so everyone was taking down their tents or connecting their trailers to their cars and trucks so they could leave.”

“Holly’s family drove up into the hills away from the ocean,” Emil said, “where they would be safe.”

“It’s good to have a warning,” Mandy commented. “A tsunami is nothing to mess around with.”

“That comes to my question,” Emil said then. “What’s a tsunami? Holly doesn’t say in her letter.” (He was thinking about some kind of sea monster, like a shark with legs, so it could come out of the ocean.)

“A tsunami is a really big wave,” Mandy replied. “It can be caused by earthquakes under or near the ocean, or by volcanic erruptions or by landslides close to the water. It moves through the ocean. If it comes to land where there are people or buildings, it can wash them away.”

“I’ll draw you a picture of a regular wave, so you understand what I’m talking about,” Mandy said. By then, Pippa and Pauly were interested, and had joined the other two dolls at the table. 

Mandy got a piece of paper from the paper supply by the printer and a pencil from the desk, and brought them to the table. Then she got out her glasses and put them on. She drew sort of a wavy line on it and wrote a couple of words on her drawing.

“This is what waves look like from the side,” she told them.

“This part up here is called the crest (KREST).” She pointed to the highest part of the wavy line.

“It’s like the crest on some birds, like blue jays or cardinals,” she explained. “It’s where feathers stick up on the top of their heads.” Mandy concentrated on what she knew a blue jay looked like, because she knew the other dolls had seen them. She would have closed her eyes, if her eyes were the type that close, but she couldn’t, so she did her best. When she did that, the others saw the picture in their minds.

“The feathers on the top of its head does look like the picture you drew of the wave,” Pippa agreed.

“This part,” Mandy explained, pointing to the lowest part of the wavy line, “is the trough (TROF).

“It’s called that because a trough is sort of a feeding bowl where several animals can eat at once,” Mandy told them. “The trough of a wave looks sort of like one of those, only my picture is looking at it from the end.”

The dolls looked at the picture Mandy had drawn. Then they imagined sheep lined up along a long feeding trough.

Mandy drew a line through each wave. “Now,” she said, “the distance from one crest to the next one is called the wave length.” She added an arrow from one line to the other to show what she meant. 

That’s important, because it changes. If it gets shorter, so the waves are closer together, the crest gets higher and the trough gets lower. As a wave approaches the shore the wave length shortens because the shore or the beach resists the water, so it sort of backs up.”

“We have buoys (BOO-eez) in different places out in the ocean,” Mandy went on. “These buoys can sense when the crest of a wave, remember, that’s the top of the wave, is much higher than usual and the trough of the wave, or the valley between crests, is much lower than usual. If a possible tsunami is detected, people near the ocean where the wave is headed will get a warning, like the siren Sam’s family heard.”

“We have boys out in the ocean?” Pauly asked, concerned.

“Not boys,” Mandy replied. “Buoys (BOO-eez). They’re big floats that are fastened to the bottom of the ocean, so they stay in one place. Some buoys are used to guide ships into a harbor, so they know where it’s deep enough for them, but these are special buoys that have sensors and a way to send the information by way of satellites to people on land who make decisions about our safety.”

“Out at sea,” Mandy went on, “where the ocean floor is very deep, the wave length will be long, and there won't be much difference between the crest and the trough, but when it gets close to the shore, where the ocean bottom is shallow, the wave length gets shorter, making the crest of the waves much taller and the troughs much lower. The wave pulls up the water from the trough and grows bigger and bigger. When it gets big enough, the top topples over.”

“We saw that when we went to the beach,” Pippa reminded Pauly. “The water turned white when it toppled over.”

“It turns white because air mixes in with the water and makes bubbles,” Mandy told them.

Mandy turned the piece of paper over and drew another wave. This time the crest was very, very high, and the trough was very low. The top of the crest was curled over and falling into the trough.

“A tsunami is more like this,” she said. “Waves are very strong things. They can wear away the shore, even rock, over time, but a tsunami is a giant wave, so it can remove everything on the shore all at once.”

“The first thing that happens, though,” Mandy went on, “is the tsunami sucks all the water from the shore, like when the tide is low, but much more. People might think they can walk out on the ocean bottom, but that’s dangerous, because when the tsunami wave comes in, it can sweep them away.”

“So that’s why Holly’s family and the other campers had to leave,” Emil concluded.

Mandy nodded. The other dolls all thought about that.

“Holly wrote the letter after they moved to a safe place,” Emil pointed out, “so we know they’re safe.”

“It’s good that they heard the siren,” Pippa said, “and that they found out what it was about.”

“It’s a good thing they could hear the siren when it went off,” Emil said, thinking to himself that he should not be to near the ocean overnight by himself, because he would not be able to hear the siren when his special glasses were charging. 

“A very good thing,” he repeated.

Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz EmiliaPippa: Götz Little Kidz LottaPauly: Götz Little Kidz Paul
For more information about waves ask your parents to check here.Photo creditsReally big wave: Photo by Matt Paul Catalano on UnsplashBlue Jay: Bird HelpfulBuoy: DART system from NOAA

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 Little, Besties, and Distraction.
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 Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.
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 More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Welcoming a Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.
The stories in Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Talking About Boys, Changes, Shhhhh!, 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. 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/198325... my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Copyright © 2025 by Peggy Stuart

Mandy and Emil dumped the contents of the compost container into the compost bin.


In went the coffee grounds and the coffee filters and the onion peels.


In went the banana peels with no stickers and no plastic tape.


In went the radish leaves.


In went the rest of the pieces of vegetables and stuff that was not good to eat or was getting smoochy. When the container was empty, the dolls climbed up to look inside. 
"It isn't doing anything," Emil said.


"No," Mandy said. "It happens too slowly for us to see. It can take months. That's why we have two bins for compost. In a few months we will have soil we can use in the garden. It will feed the plants and help them grow strong and healthy."


"I've been wondering," Emil said, "how it happens. What causes it to change from garbage into soil?"


"Well," Mandy said, "Some kinds of tiny fungus (FUN-gus)––that's what a mushroom is––and some creatures called microorganisms (MY-kro-OR-gan-iz-umz)––sort of like bacteria (bak-TEER-ee-uh)––do most of the work. They are too tiny to see, but there are lots of them. Sometimes worms or little bugs, like pill bugs, come and work on it, too, if they can reach it. Those are the bugs that sometimes roll up into a ball when you scare them."
"I've seen those!" Emil exclaimed.


"Yes," Mandy said. "We have them. If they can get into the bins, they will eat the garbage, and what they leave behind will be good soil for plants."
"So," Emil said, "compost is pill bug poo."
Mandy laughed, as they closed the bin and climbed down. "I guess you could say that. Bug and worm poo, and other things left behind when the microorganisms do their work."
Emil looked at the bin. "These bins look like wheels," he said.


"Yes," Mandy agreed. "It's clever of you to notice that. They're shaped like wheels, so The Writer's husband can take them off the stands and roll them around to mix up what's inside," she added. "That mixes the air with it, so the microorganisms can have enough air to work well."


"Does composting happen in nature?" Billy asked. "I mean, I know leaves in the woods fall to the ground. The trees must have been there for a long time, but there aren't that many leaves left on the ground that we can see."
"That's exactly what happens," Mandy agreed. "Everything that stops living gets composted, but it takes a long time. We can make it happen faster, if we do it right. That's why the bins are made so we can roll them around on the ground."
Mandy took the dirty bag out of the compost container pail. "This is dirty," she pointed out. "We'll wash it, so we can use it again."


They left the pail and the bag by the steps. 
"Come to the garden, Emil," Mandy said, "and I'll show you what the compost turns into."
The two dolls walked over to the garden. Mandy used a tool to dig in the soil, so Emil could see what it looked like. It was very dark and crumbly.
"This compost had grass clippings in it," Mandy said. "You can still see little bits of grass. Every time the lawn is mowed, the grass clippings are put into the compost with the garbage," she added, "but we don't put weeds in the compost bin, because weed seeds could sprout in the garden. The weeds go to the city, because they can compost in a way that kills the seeds."


Emil nodded. He had helped pull and dig up weeds. "I can see little bits of eggshell, too," he said, "but it's mostly nice black soil. Next year's garden will be even better! Maybe the squash we grow will be even bigger!" He was remembering the one they didn't notice until it weighed more than he does.

Mandy thought so, too. The more compost you make and add to the soil, the better it gets.
The dolls took the compost container pail and the dirty bag back into the house. They rinsed the dirty bag in the sink.



Mandy hung up the wet bag and got out another bag for the pail. "This is the bag we used last time," she said. "We have two, so we can rinse one and use the other one while it's drying."
"I see," said Emil. "That way you always have a clean bag!"
"Yes," Mandy agreed, "and we don't have to throw the bag away until it wears out. Then we wash it one more time and put it into the special plastic-bag recycling."
The two dolls put the clean, dry bag into the pail, and Mandy poked it down inside.


Then Emil helped her put the pail back inside the compost container, and together they moved it to its place under the sink. It was easier to put back than it had been to take out.
"Now you can help me with the eggshells," Mandy said. "It will be fun."
She brought out the little tub with the eggshells, and the two dolls climbed up onto the countertop. They moved the blender out and smooshed the eggshells over the blender container as they dropped them in.


They used the eggshell tub to get some water from the sink and pour it into the blender container.
"OK," Mandy said, as she put the lid onto the blender, "you can turn it on now."
Emil pushed the button.


The blades went around and around. The eggshells turned into liquid.


They put the liquid into another, larger, tub and then took apart and rinsed the blender container. When when it was clean, Mandy put the bottom of the blender container back on.


She rinsed the little tub that the eggshells had been in, so it would be clean, too.


Then she wiped it dry, put the lid back on and put it back under the sink, so it would be ready to collect more eggshells.


While Mandy was rinsing the eggshell tub, Emil got out the cleaning spray and cleaned the countertop everywhere the dolls had walked, so it would be clean for cooking food again.

It was almost time for Jolena to come back into the kitchen to cook supper. Emil saw the window in the dining room as he was walking through. He knew it looked out on the backyard. He climbed up on the windowsill. "Hey, I can see the compost bins from here," he said.


He sat down on the windowsill and gazed out the window. He thought about all the microorganisms and bugs busy turning the garbage into soil.

"Eat away, little microorganisms," he said. "Get busy and make that great soil for the garden!" Then he saw the playground equipment. "I wonder if I have time to swing on the swing before supper," he thought. How great it was to have room to play and room for a garden and room for composting bins!
Note to children: Dolls are very small, so to work in the kitchen they sometimes have to get up on the counter. They are very careful to wash the countertops after they are done sitting there or walking around on it. Real children should not be up on the counter, though. It is a surface for using your hands to prepare food.

Cast--
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
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, 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/198325... my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Copyright © 2020, 2025 by Peggy Stuart

"What is this?" Emil asked Jolena.


Emil took off his hat and put a napkin around his waist. He had offered to help Jolena in the kitchen, but he had a lot of questions, because there was a lot he didn't know.
Jolena looked to see what he was looking at. 


"Used coffee grounds," she said, and continued stirring the sauce she was making. "That's what's left over after The Writer makes her coffee.

"Does it go into the trash or the recycling?" he asked.


Jolena laughed. "Some people put their coffee grounds in the trash, but we don't. We try to recycle as much as possible, but something like this can't go into the recycling bin." Then she thought for a moment. "I don't know much about it," she added, "but I know it needs special treatment." 


"Anyway," she continued, "Mandy has a special trash can for it. It's under the sink."
Emil looked at the coffee grounds. "It looks like...dirt," he said.


"Yes," agreed Jolena, "and it will be dirt, or soil, which is a better word than dirt for what it will be. It will be used to make compost (KOM-post), which is like soil when it's done. Compost helps plants grow better."


"Did I hear someone say 'compost?'" asked a voice from the doorway. It was Mandy.


"Yes," said Jolena. "I was just telling Emil what to do with the coffee grounds."


"Good!" Mandy exclaimed. "Emil, you can be my helper, if Jolena can spare you. I was going to empty the compost container today. I need to take it out and put everything into the composter out in the yard. It takes two dolls to lift the can."


"What's compost?" Emil wanted to know. "Jolena said it's some kind of dirt...or soil."
Mandy climbed up to sit next to Emil. "It will be," she agreed, "but compost starts out as plant material that we can't use, like garbage and grass clippings."


"And like coffee grounds," Emil said.
"Yes," Mandy said, nodding, "but even the coffee filter can go into the composter. She pulled out the box of coffee filters, so Emil could see. "That's why we use the brown ones. This is the natural color of the paper. White filters have been made white with something called bleach. Bleach isn't good for making compost."


Mandy put the box of filters aside and got out the box of tea bags. She pulled one of the tea bags out of the little envelope it was in. "We can recycle tea bags, too," she said, "but we take off the little tag, if it has one, and put that into the paper recycling bin."


"What else do you put into the compost?" Emil asked.
"Any vegetable matter we don't need," Mandy said. "Potato peels, vegetables that have spoiled or lettuce that isn't pretty, the stems and leaves that we don't pretend to eat. Here, you can help me with these banana peels," she went on. "We can put in the whole peel, but we need to take off the stickers and the plastic thing on the end." She handed Emil some of the banana peels, and he sat at the sink and removed the stickers.


Then Emil removed the plastic tape from the end of one of the peels. 


He put the sticker and plastic tape into the trash.


Mandy had Emil help her pull out the compost container from under the sink. It's where the dolls put things that need to go into the compost bin outdoors. It was very heavy, because it was full.


Then Mandy put the coffee filter and the coffee grounds into the compost container while Emil watched. Emil put the banana peels into the compost container all by himself. He had to step on a little pedal to make the lid go up, the way he had seen Mandy do. That way he could use both hands for the banana peels.


"One more thing," Mandy said. "When I'm ready to take the compost container out to the backyard to dump everything into the compost bin, I get out the eggshells from under the sink, so I don't forget to get them ready for the compost after we dump the container." Mandy reached in under the sink and pulled out a small tub. She took off the lid, so Emil could see inside. 


Emil looked at the eggshells. They were sort of smooshed. "Why don't you just put the eggshells into the compost container?" he asked.


"Well," Mandy said, as she put the eggshells up on the counter next to the blender, "eggshells don't break down quickly. We like to run the eggshells through the blender with some water to grind them up first, and add that separately."
Emil climbed up on top of the compost container to try to get the lid to close all the way. "Is there anything else doesn't break down quickly?" he asked.


"Things like orange peels," Mandy said, "and watermelon rind. We chop those things up when we're ready to put them into the compost. We don't put meat or bones into the compost," Mandy explained, "nor do we put nut shells into it. Meat and bones can attract rats and mice."


"It takes too long for things like bones and nut shells to turn into compost, so we just throw them away in the bin for yard waste. We can use grass and leaves, but the big branches don't work in the compost, either. We put those into the yard waste bin, too. The city picks that stuff up for us. They chop it up and use it in their compost."
"So what's the compost for?" Emil asked. "Jolena said it was like soil and it makes the plants grow better."



"Yes!" Mandy exclaimed. "It can be used on the ground in the garden. It gives nutrients (NOO-tree-ents) to the plants.
Emil likes to work in the garden. The Writer had given him a big serving spoon to use to dig with, but he only dug where The Writer's husband said to dig.


He likes to help The Writer's husband dig and pull weeds. He is proud of their garden.


Emil loves the little tomatoes that just fit in his hands.


He loves pulling up the radishes when they are ready to eat.


Emil had been wondering where the radish leaves went, because they never showed up in the salad, and they weren't in the trash. Now he knew! He had seen them in the compost container when they added the coffee grounds.


Now he was looking forward to putting the finished compost down on the garden...compost he had helped make!


"I wonder how the compost gets made," he said to himself. "How does that work?"

To be continued....

Note to children: Dolls are very small, so to work in the kitchen they sometimes have to get up on the counter. They are very careful to wash the countertops after they are done sitting there or walking around on it. Real children should not be up on the counter, though. It is a surface for using your hands to prepare food.

Cast--
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
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, 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/198325... my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Copyright © 2020, 2025 by Peggy Stuart

Jolena was looking at the photos from last week's story. She wondered why each boy was wearing one pink boot and one plaid boot, so she went looking for them to find out.

Jolena found the boys playing cards with Mariah in the workroom. They looked up when she came in.



"I was just looking at this photo from last week's story," Jolena said, "and I was wondering why each of you boys is wearing one pink boot and one plaid boot. Were you in such a hurry that you didn't notice?"

The boys looked at each other. Then Billy began, "Well, we wanted to wear the boots so we didn't have to worry if we got our feet in the water."


Emil nodded. "It's a good thing, too, because Billy slipped on the edge of the toilet, and his foot went into the water."


"I can understand that," Jolena said, "but why didn't one of you wear one pair of boots and the other boy the other pair?"

"It's because of the color," Billy explained. "We had three pairs of boots to choose from."


"Yes," Emil agreed. "We had the light pink, the plaid ones and  the dark pink pair"


"When we picked, we both wanted the plaid boots," Billy said.


"Pink is a girls' color," Emil explained. "We didn't want to argue about it, so we decided that each of us would wear one plaid boot and one pink boot."


"That's a great compromise (KOM-pro-myz)," Mariah said.


"I don't know what a compromise is," Billy said. "Could you explain it to me?"


"A compromise," Mariah said, "is when you don't get exactly what you want but something you can accept."


"It's like when two dolls each want something that they can't both have, so they each give up a little to make the other doll happy but get to still keep a little of what they want," she explained.

"Yes," agreed Jolena. "Like meeting in the middle. It's a way to keep from having a fight over something."


"Do you mean like when we take turns picking which shows we get to watch?" Emil asked.


"Or when we take turns using the boy's bike and wearing the blue bike helmet!" Billy suggested.

"Yes," Mariah agreed, "or when two of us want to ride the bicycles, and there's only one left because two other dolls are already out riding. We did that the other day, Emil, remember? You offered to take the skateboard instead.""The skateboard is just as much fun," Emil said. "It goes just as fast. So that was a compromise?"


"Yes," Jolena agreed. "Another kind of compromise would be if I wanted blueberry pancakes and you wanted banana pancakes, so I made us blueberry-banana pancakes. That's a compromise." 

"So instead of getting something you're thrilled with you get something that's OK, and we aren't fighting," Billy decided.


The girls agreed.
"Or maybe," Billy continued, "you get something just as good, only it isn't what you had in mind, like the skateboard." He thought for a moment. "That's a good thing to know how to do," he added. 

"Can you use it every time you and another doll disagree about something?"


"Not always," Mariah said. "If you disagree about whether to do something that's dangerous or wrong, you shouldn't compromise. You should just do what's safe and right."


"Thanks for explaining what a compromise is," Billy said. "I think it will be useful to know how to use it.""You know," Jolena said, "it was good you figured out a compromise about the boots, but you didn't really need to."


"Why not?" Emil asked.


"Boys can wear pink," Jolena said. "I know you don't have any pink clothes, and we don't think of pink as a boys' color, but there's no rule that says you can't wear pink if you like, or if there's only one pair of boots that aren't pink.""Right," Mariah agreed. "If girls can build houses and walk around in space, boys can certainly wear pink."

"Your feet will stay just as dry," Jolena added, "no matter what color the boots are." 

Cast--
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
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, 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/198325... my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Copyright © 2020, 2025 by Peggy Stuart

Little Billy sits on the wall.

Little Billy is only a doll.


His only brother... 


...and sisters are, too.


(Your family members are mostly like you.)


Little Billy is not very tall.


Little Billy is, in fact, very small.


He can't reach the doorknobs.


He fits two to a chair.


It takes him a very long time to climb stairs.


Emil and Billy like to take walks.


Emil and Billy like to have talks.


One boy gets to listen...


...then he gets to speak,


As if his friend has been gone for a week.


Billy and Emil enjoy riding bikes.


Each boy enjoys what the other one likes.


Billy eats ice cream...


...Emil wants some too.


Both of them like to eat Jolena's stew.


Billy and Emil sit on the wall.


Billy is happy they both are so small.


They can go places their people don't know,


Find things to do,


Things to seek...


Things to show.


Billy was once the only boy,


Now there's a brother for him to enjoy.


Sisters are great, they are swell, they are fine,


But only a brother can read a boy's mind.



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

With apologies to Mother Goose's "Humpty Dumpty."

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 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/198325... my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Copyright © 2020, 2025 by Peggy Stuart