Adventures in Toyland

Molly comes to stay with an aunt who owns a toy shop, and she is always to be found among the toys. Once the shutters are up and the customers gone, the shelves come to life, and a lady Marionette explains that a toy may speak to a mortal only once in its whole existence, for a fortnight or three weeks at most. She spends her turn on Molly. What follows is the shop’s own history: a Rabbit and a Mouse whose partnership curdles into a murder plot, Belinda the wax doll and Jack the curly-headed sailor boy who loves her, proud Claribelle, who loses a patient suitor to her own temper. The tone is nursery comedy with real teeth in it. Edith King Hall published the book with Blackie & Son in 1897, illustrated by Alice B. Woodward.