Here is an unusual, charming book of toys, games, and children's literature, written by the author of The Dictionary of Imaginary Places. More than 500 rare and beautiful toys from the renowned collection of Paris' Musée des Arts Décoratifs are photographed by Michel Pintado in tableaux of children's playrooms from 1870 to the present. These unearthly photographs --amusing, moving, intriguing, and at times, terrifying--alternate with text by Alberto Manguel that mingles the real and the imaginary, truth and fiction, retelling both well-known and obscure children's stories.