Peter Poodle, Toy Maker to the King

What if the toys came alive when you weren't looking? That's the question that opens this early 20th-century gem. Tommy has left his hill-country home to find the Fairy King, but what he finds instead is Peter Poodle, the royal toymaker whose workshop sits at the edge of the magical city of Toyville. Together, they embark on a journey through streets where wooden soldiers march to their own drumming, where teddy bears hold whispered councils, and where every toy has a secret. The tale sparkles with early children's literature's purest joy: the belief that wonder hides in ordinary things, and that kindness to a wooden clown or a cloth rabbit might open doors invisible to grown-ups. It's a story about finding your way home by first getting wonderfully, gloriously lost. This is the book for anyone who still, somewhere, believes their toys might be having adventures without them.