Attention Gipetto

My son turned 1 recently, so I can testify to the difficulty of finding toys that aren't made in China. Regardless of the brand name or the price tag, the toys on the store shelves all seem to have come from a country that has figured largely in the news lately (along with the word 'recall'). Overprotective or not, there is going to be a huge demand this Christmas for toys with a safer provenance. If you are a woodworker, this is the year for you. And we have just the book for you: Traditional Wooden Toys: their history and how to make them, by Cyril Hobbins. This is not a book for the beginning band saw user. The phrase "how to make them" is used in the loosest possible way. There are no patterns, no dimensions, no step-by-step instructions. This is a book for people who are comfortable creating on the fly.
This book is fabulous, however, when it comes to giving ideas and inspirations. He presents drawings of almost 100 toys, along with a little bit of history and a brief explanation of how to put them together (again, no dimensions). He covers animated, climbing, balancing and spinning toys. He discusses flying toys, wheeled toys, and ones powered by rubber bands. There are dolls, tanks, shuttlecocks, whistles, rattles, skittles, marble bridges and optical toys. There are toys from the 1800's and World War II. There is a toy for every age group in here, and (speaking as a parent) none of them require batteries, have flashing lights or - with the exception of the whistles and rattles - make noise! The toys in this book are wonderful. They will delight parents, intrigue children, and will stay in the toybox long after some cheap plastic toy has been broken and discarded. These are heirloom toys.