Toy Tales

A collection of five stories with all the toys and their adventures.

This guide features more than twenty adorable and easy-to-make toy knitting projects—from bunnies and bears to Russian dolls and robots. In Knitted ToyT ales, Laura Long introduces a menagerie of little knitted characters such as Frederick the Frog Prince, Eddie the Friendly Elephant, and The Owl and the Pussycat. Packed with personality and individual charm, these softly colored characters are a joy to knit. And their fun size makes them perfect gifts or quirky home accents. The projects pair simple knits with cute fabric applique accents that help bring your little creations to life. Combining clear instructions, fun narrative text, and sweet photography, this knitting guide is perfect for knitters of all skill levels.

Melly & Me present a fun and fabulous collection of personality-packed designs that will have readers sewing adorable toys in no time! Each of the brightly colored characters is a joy to sew for all abilities, making them the perfect gift for children or adults, or a trendy home accessory. Projects combine simple sewing techniques with funky fabrics, embellishments and color palettes to add zing and excitement to readers' sewn toy creations. Easy to follow step by step instructions and quirky photography make this book a delightful gift as well as an irresistible addition to sewing collections.

While Dad’s away, the toys will play! Freddie is a young boy whose dad is often away overseas travelling to many countries. Dad sends Freddie a new toy from each country he is visiting so he knows he’s thinking of him. One day Freddie misses his dad so much, he decides to make up a story about each animal toy as if it was alive. Fully illustrated to surprise and delight, Freddie’s stories are rhyming verses full of fun, mischievousness and a special love of nature.

Four inanimate every-day toys are wonderfully transformed by Helen Cooper's vivid illustration, a wooden duck, a beany frog, a piggy-bank pig and a favourite old teddy bear. Their four stories for the first time in one book where the reader can capture the imagination of a child playing with his beloved toys.

Toys--those celebrated childhood cohorts and lead actors in children's imaginative play--have a fantastic history of heroism in fiction. From teddy bears that guard sleeping babies to plastic soldiers and cowboys who lay siege to wooden block castles, toys are often the heroes of the stories children inspire authors to tell. In this collection of new essays, scholars from a great range of disciplines examine fictional toys as protectors of the children they love, as heroes of their own stories, and as champions for the greater good in the writings of A.A. Milne, Hans Christian Andersen, William Joyce, John Lasseter and many others.

A fresh, intriguing look at the stories behind great toy inventions, by Don Wulffson and illustrated by Laurie Keller. "Originally, Play-Doh only came in white. There's a good reason for this. You see, Play-Doh didn't start out as a toy. It started out as a product for cleaning wallpaper." Have you ever wondered who invented Lego, Mr. Potato Head, or toy trains? In Toys! are the fascinating stories behind these toy inventions and many others. Learn why the see-saw was popular with the Romans, how the Slinky was used during the Vietnam War, and the reason Raggedy Ann has a red heart on her chest that says "I love you." From dolls and checkers to pinball and the modern video game, there's a wide selection here for boys and girls alike. With humor and wit, this intriguing book serves up slices of cultural history that will inspire young readers to start thinking up their own toy inventions.