I have been reading a lot of children’s books recently, either to the boys at bedtime or to vet them for future bedtimes. Our kids tend towards fantasy and tales of knights and wizards, and I try to find books that are suitable for 5- and 8-year-olds that I’ll enjoy reading too. I’ve been keeping […]

How delightful a little figure is Nurmi the Ramp Walker! She has a simple yet pleasing design, and her movement down the ramp is sure to charm (and intrigue) any viewer. She is one of those toys that you can’t resist playing with again and again, and she always brings a smile to your face.
I […]

On this day in 1923, King Tut’s tomb was opened (it had been discovered in 1922). Howard Carter’s find led to a craze for all things Egypt, and throughout the ’20s, fashion and decoration reflected this mania.
My eldest son has had his own “Egypt” phase, thanks in great part to the book Egyptology, one of […]

The 2006 recipients of the Newbery and Caldecott medals were announced today at the American Library Association’s Midwinter meeting.
Lynne Rae Perkins was awarded the John Newbery medal for Criss Cross, and Chris Raschka the Caldecott for his illustrations for The Hello, Goodbye Window, written by Norman Juster.
The Newbery award is awarded to the author of […]

It is the first real November night. The moon is just past full, and it was coming up as we went to the train station to pick up Mami. We were listening (and singing along) to “The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night”, a most appropriate song for this time of year. It was […]

We’ve been reading the The Chronicles of Narnia at bedtime, which inspired me to take this picture as a play suggestion with Ostheimer figures. It turns out that I’m not the only one with this idea: a customer told me the other day that her kids always refer to the Ostheimer lion as “Aslan”. It […]

We recently came across a papercutting I had made some time ago, of an exotic figure with great hoop earrings, pointy shoes and wide pantaloons—a genie perhaps (I was reading The Arabian Nights when I made it). It was one of the first cuttings I had made, aside from the hearts, snowflakes and paper dolls […]

I am pleased to see that Amazon is now selling Earth, Water, Fire, and Air by Walter Kraul, which features many fun and educational toys that children can make to explore the four elements. Herr Kraul is, of course, the mind behind several of the kits we feature in our Science and Discovery category, and […]

We were in Vermont last weekend, spending Saturday at the Tunbridge World’s Fair. This has been an annual event for our family as long as I can remember: I have missed only a handful, and my boys now look forward to the Fair as I did when I was young. The commercial elements that seemed […]

We spent one morning this week making pop-ups, after my eldest son found Paul Jackson’s The Pop-Up Book in my office. He was drawn to the more elaborate projects in the book, featuring illustrations that pop out from the background; his younger brother liked the simple, abstract cuttings that just allow the paper to fold […]