What a book! Never in all my reading years have I been so enthralled by a story - I think, somewhere over the last couple of days I returned to my very best memories of childhood. Robert Dinsdale is not just an author, a writer ... he is also something of a magician!

Everyone has an imagination; it's what give authors the desire to write and urges the readers on to read and what makes both feel a bit lost without a book on the go. But this author's imagination gets under your skin and conjures up scenes of such magnificence that you begin to live, breathe and dream this novel. There is a solid storyline too - one which keeps your mind concentrated on the characters and what's about to happen next, but never in my wildest dreams could I have predicted the ending. I somehow feel richer and more mature for having read The Toymakers - I feel this is a once in a lifetime read and I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to immerse myself so completely in such a masterpiece.

I expect most would classify this one as fantasy - and yet, I neither read nor enjoy fantasy and I certainly don't ever award it five stars! However, there is a reality about this book which makes the magic all the more understandable and I hope this feeling never leaves me.

My sincere thanks to Ebury Publishing, part of Penguin Random House UK for approving my copy via NetGalley. This is my honest, original and unbiased review.

I struggled with this. It took me about two months to read and I never felt compelled to pick it up. This is not a bad book by any means and I am still struggling to pinpoint what did not work for me. So stick with me as I am trying to figure out my thoughts.

I adored the first chapter and was absolutely convinced I would love the book to pieces. It brilliantly introduces Cathy, knocked-up and desperate, who flees her parents' home to find work in Papa Jack's Emporium. Her sense of desperation is wonderfully juxtaposed with the wonder of her new work place and here the immersive and inventive descriptions worked really well. When the Empirium closes for spring and summer, she decides to stay and hide as she has nowhere else to go. This is a trope I struggle with in books: lying and hiding makes me anxious.

What developes next is a love triangle between Cathy and Papa Jack's two sons: Kasper and Emil. I have no patience for love triangles; especially not for those between brothers. While it makes sense in the way the two have always been in direct competition (mostly for their father's approval), it's just not something I enjoy in books.

In general, I thought the characters were the definite weak point of this book. While Cathy is nicely developed and I couldn't not root for her and her courage, I found the brothers caricature-like and Papa Jack a non-entity. Perhaps this book would have worked better for me had it been written in a first person perspective. This way I would have been able to spend more time with Cathy and less time with the waring brothers. I found Emil and Nina to be very abrasive characters whose motivations did not always quite work for me.

I also figured something out just now: the book was overly descriptive. It feels like the majority of words were used to describe the Emporium in incredible detail; there must be hundreds of inventions described. And while I enjoyed this at the beginning, when the reader followed Cathy's awe, it did not quite work for me later in the book when darker themes started to emerged. Then I felt the whimsy of the description detracted from the story.

Sadly, this book was simply not for me. I liked the beginning, so much and was immediately drawn into Cathy's story and her arrival at the emporium, but then the story just took a turn, that did not chime with me. It got very dark, very strange and in many ways, it felt like a book of different parts.

In a word - spellbinding!

I sat down at breakfast to read for half an hour - but couldn't stop reading until I finished the book!

This author is a master storyteller. The prose is beautifully descriptive, the emotions finely writtten, the story wonderfully crafted.

The book made me smile and cry, and stirred up long-forgotten memories of childhood magic. It's bittersweet - not all sweetness and light - but the story needs that to balance the magic.

I loved this book. I will read it again - which for me is a rare thing.

My thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an ARC in return for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, I spent most of the time wondering if there was real magic involved or just fantastic mechanics. I did feel a mixture of both. The time period lent so much to the realism of the book and stopped it becoming whimsical. It's a book that I will re-read in a few years.

"Do you remember when you believed in magic?"

If this tagline makes your heart warm, then read this book, it really won't disappoint you.

You know when a book makes you warm and happy, and it goes straight into your heart and you know it's never going to leave you, and every time you remember it it just makes you want to pick it all up and read it again. You want to be in the book, live it? Well, that very rarely happens to me, but this book does. I didn't want it to end. I didn't want to go back to real life.

The story is set in 1917, with Cathy, a teenager who finds herself pregnant and being forced to go along with her parents plans to deal with her 'shame'. She decides to take matters into her own hands though when she spots a job article in a paper looking for staff and asking "are you lost, are you afraid, are you a child at heart?" -  well Cathy really is, and runs away to Papa Jack's Emporium.

We then enter an absolutely magical, beautiful world - one of toy soldiers, paper trees, runnerless rocking horses, and oh the dog - who could every forget about the dog? The emporium opens every year on the day of the first frost and closes again when the first snowdrop is found. In the time between Papa Jack and his sons Kasper and Emil create the magical toys.....

I wanted this story just to stay happy and wonderful and heartwarming but it doesn't. There is after all a war on, and not just between Kasper and Emil's toy soldiers, this tale gets very dark, and we are torn apart with love and loyalty for each character.

I'm not going any further into the story, but it's beautiful - it's heartbreaking, it's magical and just amazing. Robert Dinsdale writes so beautifully - I just can't put into words how wonderful this book is - it will live with me forever, and if this is the last book I ever read then I can't think of a better book to end on.

First off, I was entranced by the cover, I mean LOOK AT IT!
Who would not want to pick this up?
I imagine walking along a typical dickensian christmas time, with all the snow falling and the carols floating in the breeze, then you come along a shop like this and peer into the window and dream....

However I like to see that picture in my head, this story actually takes place in 1917 nearing the end of the first World War and where a runaway Cathy takes refuge in the shop/ emporium.
The shop is owned by Papa Jack and his two sons, Emil and Kasper and these are no ordinary toymakers......

Do you remember when you believed in magic?

The Emporium opens with the first frost of winter. It is the same every year. Across the city, when children wake to see ferns of white stretched across their windows, or walk to school to hear ice crackling underfoot, the whispers begin: the Emporium is open!

It is 1917, and London has spent years in the shadow of the First World War. In the heart of Mayfair, though, there is a place of hope. A place where children’s dreams can come true, where the impossible becomes possible – that place is Papa Jack’s Toy Emporium.

For years Papa Jack has created and sold his famous magical toys: hobby horses, patchwork dogs and bears that seem alive, toy boxes bigger on the inside than out, ‘instant trees’ that sprout from boxes, tin soldiers that can fight battles on their own. Now his sons, Kaspar and Emil, are just old enough to join the family trade. Into this family comes a young Cathy Wray – homeless and vulnerable. The Emporium takes her in, makes her one of its own. But Cathy is about to discover that while all toy shops are places of wonder, this one is truly magical...

This book is full of beautiful writing, well rounded charecters, love and heartache and I really recommend that you read this, it is a different type of story and one I am glad to have been party too.

I have definatly put this on my wish list and wil look forward to seeing it on my shelves, not just my digital one!

Thank you to the Publishers and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity in being able to read this.

As always, thank you for dropping by and have a booktastic day!

Not all magical realism is the same, and this is a great example of the genre.
Welcome to The Emporium where you walk into a toy shop, but are transported to a world of wonder where toys seem to have lives of their own and magic is around every corner.
Papa Jack runs The Emporium with his two sons and in 1917 we follow Cathy Wray as she discovers and starts to work at The Emporium. It opens every year at the first frost and closes when the first snowdrop blooms. During the warmer months, Papa Jack and his sons Emil and Kaspar make new toys and new magic for the next season while everyone waits for the doors to open again in winter.

This story spans from 1917 right through to the 1950s, and, I'll admit it, at times towards the end I was pretty angry at the author for what he did to these lovely characters. But as I got to the end I understood and accepted and was left with a huge mixture of emotions.
And isn't that the best kind of book?
One that transports you into a new place and time and has you CARING about the characters like old friends.

I'm now going to seek out previous books by Dinsdale because I think he is a very talented author with a unique voice.

Recommended to anyone who loves some magical realism in their historical fiction and is ready for a rollercoaster ride along with the characters.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Although the book starts with a 'later' scene, we quickly go back and take a continuous narrative, to follow the fortunes of Cathy and the people who come into her life. In reality, she came into theirs, since we spend little time in the dismal reaches of pre-war Leigh-on-Sea (a town on the Thames estuary to the east of London).  She runs away to London, having seen an advertisement for staff for Papa Jack's Emporium.  That, she thinks, is a safe place for a girl who needs a safe place to run to.  Her reminder to herself, about *running away from the voice inside your head, the one telling you to stay where you are*, is a brilliant insight into why people leave home with nothing.

I think everyone will be astounded at the sheer opulence of the description of this magical emporium. The author's imagination knows no bounds.  How he thinks up all the toys that Papa Jack and his two sons create, I have no idea. Jo Rowling would be jealous. The range and depth of detail surrounding these magical artefacts are almost enough in themselves. I kept thinking, someone will love turning this into a film.

Papa Jack tells how he came to be a toy maker, and his sons try their best to emulate him.  Both have talent, but one has the gift, or maybe its the belief.  Occasionally the reader gains an insight into exactly what it takes to make the most innovative magical toys, only for the secret to slip away again as the reality of the brothers' competitive zeal, and eventually jealousy, divides them.  World War 1 does not help, but it divides them physically, and emotionally - it makes little difference to the reality of their relationship.  And it the relationships that I found made this book so magical, whether between family members, lovers, dedicated staff, or the toys whose relationship was so much more like companion animals than mere playthings.

The developments from there on are beautifully logical, allowing the 'magical realism' tag to earn its place. Self-awareness and group psychology all have their role to play in the social science fiction element of this book.  The toy makers' story becomes secondary to that of the toys, but only for a while, since Cathy's story continues throughout.

There was some imbalance of the pacing of the book.  There is a long flat patch before reaching the denouement, which perhaps could have been edited.  But this is a first class book with a touch of brilliance about the ideas.  Yet it is also another potential award-winner that pays no attention to the 'rules' on how to write best-sellers.  Description rules this book, as it did most of my best of 2017, and some of it does so for the sheer joy of it.

Summary

Awe-inspiring tale of two brothers and a woman who sees their rivalry. With toys, magic and mystery of a different kind. Epic in its conception, beautifully delivered. Add to your 2018 reading pile.

Without doubt one of the best books I’ve read in a long long time, Magical, moving, endearing, elating. A book I just didnt want to end. 5 out of 5, no question.

*I received a free review copy of this novel via NetGalley. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*

This book is an intense read, rather than a quick or easy one.

The reader is plunged deep into a world of magical realism in the form of the wondrous Emporium and its amazing toy displays, but as we follow Cathy into the Godman family’s domain we find that the cloud castles and flying reindeer are covering a darker path of war and betrayal; both historical and personal.

It feels like there are multiple books contained under one cover, from the fairytale opening night at first frost, through the realities of the trenches and shell-shock, to a slow creeping deterioration, which could be seen to reflect a personal journey from the wonders of childhood, through harsh adult reality, to the slow, sad, nostalgic slide into old age.

The layers of symbolism, laced together with the magical realism, are reminiscent of both The Night Circus and The Miniaturist, both of which this book has been compared to, and the books do all share the same eerily dreamlike style and atmosphere.

I found that my engagement with the characters was at an intellectual level, rather than an emotional one, so whilst I empathised with their struggles and hopes, I was not personally invested in the outcomes, and was happy to simply ride the story through to the end as an interested observer. I believe that this is a function of the detached, almost formal, voice of the author, even when inside his characters’ point of view.

Definitely recommended to fans of Erin Morgenstern and Jessie Burton, who like their stories to be exquisitely crafted, historically based, fantastical fancies with a deeper moral-philosophical underpinning.


These simple toy soldiers, these lifelike recreations on which the Emporium has built its Empire, these playthings that have sat upon the shelves for as long as the store has existed, who have provided generations of boys with untold delights, have, for the very first time, lain down their arms.
‘They have surrendered,’ she whispers….

– Robert Dinsdale, The Toymakers

(Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog)

This is a magical book.. After finishing it I had to check whether it was just adult fiction alongside a sci-fi and fantasy genre as it could well - with some adaptions- make a wonderful children's book.
It is 1917 at the annual opening of Papa Jack's Emporium- a toy shop like no other - in a hidden alleyway of London. As the first frost hits the city the Emporium opens its doors to a building like the Tardis, which is so much bigger and so so much more enchanting than it appears from outside. We see the magic of the customers, children and grown ups alike alongside the shop assistants and the main toymaker Papa Jack and his two sons Kaspar and Emil.
Then we are taken back to 1907 and the life of Cathy Wray - young and pregnant- and being threatened by her family to have her child taken away after its birth because of the shame of her relationship with the some one who would never marry her. Cathy's sister Lizzie brings a newspaper in which an advertisement looking for staff for The Emporium attracts Cathy and she runs away to London.
Soon, her life and that of her unborn child are tied together to the two brothers and the yearly patterns of preparing the toys for sale each Christmas.
But the world is encircling them with war and prejudice that threatens Cathy's newly adopted family and the magic of the toys that are made within the Emporium's workshops.
There are definite hints towards Erin Mortengstern's 'The Night Circus' in this novel but that is no bad thing. The characters are truly believable even if the circumstances in which their lives are revealed are pure fantasy. As the film 'Toy Story' proved and as many children believe when the adults are asleep what truly happens to the toys that have been made with love and are played with by excited young imaginations!
The backdrop of the wars and the challenges of the past lives of the the Godman family, that live hidden in the Emporium, but that brought them originally to London are as poignant as any other tales from immigrants who escaped the threat of death and persecution, not only then in 1914 and 1939 but even today.
It is a tale of hope and when you as a reader suspend today's realities and prepare your imagination to grasp the magic can certainly bring more than a flavour of childhood dreams to the most cynical of minds.
I see this isn't the first novel by this author and I'd be tempted to try some others.

Welcome to my first favorite book of the year. I know it’s kinda early still to say something like that because by the end I always have way too many, but this, I’m sure, it will be one of them. You guys have no idea how much I loved this book! I hadn’t even heard of it, but it was recommended to me and I decided to try it out. This was AMAZING!

The Toymakers is quite a complex and interesting story set in London. It goes from 1907 until 1953. So the whole story happens during both of the World Wars. They have a big impact in this book and I really like that the timeline was so long, since we were able to follow our main character since she was a teenager until she was a grandmother. It just made it all even more special, you know what I mean? I feel that often the only way we know so much about a character is that it’s a series and as just a standalone, this book did something I never even thought I wanted… It made me connect with the character on a whole other level and somehow I really felt part of the story.

Cathy Wray is our main character and she is just 16 years old when we meet her. She was desperate when she reached Papa Jack’s Toy Emporium, and she got a job there. I’m trying not to give much away since this is quite a complex story, and a lot of things happen but, the thing about the Emporium is that it only opens from first frost, until the first snowdrop blooms. And everyone that came to work there, then go away, the exception being, of course, Papa Jack and his two sons, Kaspar and Emil. But Cathy stays and we see her live evolving and all the magic behind the Emporium’s doors.

Papa Jack’s Toy Emporium is a fascinating place, full of magic, happiness, and possibilities. It will make you nostalgic; it will make you reach for your inner child and throw yourself into all the fascinating things happening; best of all, it will make you believe. Believe in the extraordinary and in everything you miss from your childhood. It’s a place you will wish to have visited. For I sure do.

I can’t make it justice to how unbelievably beautiful this book is, but I really urge you to read it. It’s full of magic both ordinary and extraordinary, it’s full of hope, love, and emotions and by the end, you will not believe in what you’ve read. Everything in here is unexpected and a lot less fluffy than I first thought it was going to be. It’s a sweet book but it also has a realistic and hard part to it – especially the war parts – and those are really hard-hitting to read because you get used to living in that amazing wonderland.

I loved the characters, how different they were, but how well they complemented each other. How they let their inner child live so fully, how they saw the world in a totally different light and how much they meant to me. You just really got engrossed in the story and it was impossible not to care for all the characters, even the dog is special for me!

The writing was truly beautiful, it sucks you in… It just grips you… I couldn’t stop reading, if I hadn’t had stuff to do I believe I would have read this in one sitting. It really touched me and made me feel tons of emotions. It even made me cry… Although yeah, I do cry easily but still, it was tense and unexpected and just… Ahh… Read it!!

Also, I feel that I should say that among other things, this book talks about PTS (post-traumatic stress) and how war changes people, teenage-pregnancy, family issues, in case someone is sensitive to any of those topics. I feel that they were talked about with great care and in a slightly realistic way, because I mean, we are talking about a magical toy store… But even the magic was believable and beautiful! This was the best magical realism I’ve read.

This was an amazingly beautiful book. If you like magical realism and historical fiction conjoined, this is the book for you. But I believe that anyone would enjoy this book. It will transport you to when you were a child and it will just make everything possible! Highly recommend it!

Reviewers have said this book was perfect for lovers of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern or Caraval by Stephanie Garber. They're not kidding. Magical realism in its droves; toys, mysterious job adverts, frost, Christmas, and a Dickensian London. You had me at hello.

A book of time travel, back to historical London, back to your childhood, back to Christmas, The Toymakers is a story about brotherly ties, childhood, the gift of magic, shelter in times of need, trust and of course, love.

Time and space are different inside Papa Jack's Emporium.

Cathy Wray is 15 years old and pregnant. Faced with the prospect of giving up her baby, she runs away to the Emporium to work for Christmas. Instead of finding shelter and work for the Christmas season, she finds a home and a family.

Emil and Kasper are brothers competing for their Papa's respect. With Kasper finding it easier to reproduce the magic that his father creates, Emil feels as though he is constantly playing catch up. Despite this, together they make Cathy a home, and slowly show her and then bring her into the Emporium magic.

The Emporium opens at the first frost of the season and closes with the first snowdrop.

The author winds magic through the spaces between the lines, in the small spaces we see in the corner of our eyes, where our childhood sits and with it, our belief that anything can happen. The reader is quickly drawn into this world effortlessly, and taken on a pathway through the aisles of the Emporium.

Themes: magic, toys, childhood, love, trust, brotherly competition

Thanks to Penguin Random House UK, Ebury Publishing and Netgalley for my free ARC.

It doesn’t matter how young or old we are – isn’t there always something magical about a toyshop? Well, there’s never been a toyshop as magical as Papa Jack’s Emporium, a wonderfully enchanted establishment that sits in a quiet mews in the heart of London’s Mayfair and is open only from the night of the first frost to the flowering of the first snowdrop.

Papa Jack runs the Emporium with his two young sons, Kaspar and Emil. Together they create marvellous toys that defy imagination – patchwork animals that seem to be alive, cloud castles and instant trees, model soldiers that actually fight their own battles… although it seems small on the outside, the Emporium is a cavernous place with many shelves and many floors and the latest person to enter here, a young runaway called Cathy Wray, is going to change it forever. When Cathy takes a job at the Emporium she becomes the object of affection for both Papa Jack’s sons, but when the First World War rages and Kaspar is called to the battlefield, not even the old man’s magic can hold off the horrors of the outside or protect the Emporium’s stock of childhood innocence.

Like all the best magical-realism, The Toymakers walks that fine line between touching the readers heart with some glorious Hans Christian Andersen-like fantasy and then breaking the readers heart whenever reality encroaches and the fantasy is threatened. It’s a story that seems tailor-made for Christmas but avoids mawkish sentimentality, and although it begins like a celebration of everything that’s good about the festive season it does take some decidedly Dickensian turns into the darkness as we follow the fates of Cathy and Papa Jack etc. from pre-WW1 and into the decades that follow. In fact, the novel’s old fashioned-ness is a major part of its charm. Robert Dinsdale’s storytelling is terrific and his narrative frequently takes turns we would never have expected, even if the midpoint shift in tone is a little jarring and the conclusion is a bit heavy on the metaphor. Still, that’s a small criticism for an unashamedly feel-good Christmas story that will put a smile (and maybe even a tear in the eye) on even the most jaded reader’s face.

The book surprised me. I didn't read too much of the synopsis so was just going into it as a magical book shop. Has a lot more levels than that, each of them as interesting and charming as the others. The only thing I will say is I definitely want to get myself a toy soldier army.

I loved this book! It felt so magical - the characters were wonderful and the story kept me hooked all the way through. It covered everything from love, hope, friendship and I could not put this down!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and Robert Dinsdale for the ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book had all the elements that I expected to love - a toy shop at the start of the 20th century in London with plenty of magic and interesting characters. I was looking forward to curling up in front of the fire on dark January day and get lost in the fantasy of this magical book but it just work out for me.

The year is 1906 and Cathy, aged 16 and pregnant, sees an ad for Papa John's Toy Emporium in London which offers employment as well as board and lodgings. If she stays in her family she knows her baby will be taken away from her and her parents are already shunning her so she runs away to aply for the job.

She is quickly employed by Papa John and settles into the magical world of the toyshop where Instant Trees create forests in the vast interior of the shop and Patchwork Animals come to life. Papa John and his sons, Kaspar and Emil, create all kinds of amazing toys each summer when the shop is closed. It only opens at the first frost and closes as soon as the first snowdrop appears. What a wonderful concept!

The tale started off well but for me it got bogged down in tales of war and soldiers. Brothers Kaspar and Emil are in constant competition with one another which dominates every minute of their lives. They compete over Cathy, over making the best toy ever, over their father's love. They constantly play the Long War with toy soldiers battling just as they do. As the younger sibling Emil always feels inferior to Kaspar and is constantly trying to prove himself. Emil creates a special toy soldier, the first of which he names the Imperial Kapitan.

In 1914 the Great War, now known as the First World War, intervenes in life outside the Toy Emporium and the battle between the brothers becomes even more complex and dark. The Imperial Kapitan and myriads of toy soldiers dominate the latter half of the book. I was hoping for a fantasy novel – ‘Willy Wonka meets Hugo’ type of setting - so I found the recurrent war theme too dark. I do think this book would translate into a great movie though.

With thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House UK, Ebury Publishing for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Really enjoyable, well written book. Happy and sad all the way through and subtle twists. Harry Potter meets The Wizard of Oz and much more. What’s not to like as light fiction.

The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale is a magical book and one that I would highly recommend.

“The Emporium opens with the first frost of winter. It is the same every year. Across the city, when children wake to see fans of white stretched across their windows, or walk to school to hear ice cracking underfoot, the whispers begin: the Emporium is open! Christmas is coming”

Papa Jack’s emporium is a place of wonder for children and adults alike. The opening night is an eagerly anticipated and much talked about event and people young and old have fond memories of the shop.

When we first meet Cathy she has no knowledge of the Emporium and the magic it can bring into people’s lives but all that is about to change.

Cathy is taken by her mother to a place in Dovercourt to sell her unborn child. It is November of 1906 and Cathy is just 15 years old.

Cathy had sex for the first time with a boy she had been friends with since childhood and immediately after they decided it was something they didn’t want to do again. She didn’t even know she was pregnant until her mother noticed that she was late and came to talk to her.

The proprietor of the home in which she is expected to relinquish her child is an unfriendly woman to say the least and clearly looks down on Cathy and girls in her condition.

“Catherine, understand that, what we do here, we do for the very best. Your baby will rise from the shame of it’s beginnings and find a new, better life.”

After the meeting Cathy’s mother will barely look at her and sends her straight to her room telling her that she will no longer be going to school and she will only be allowed to go into the garden with her mother’s permission.

Her sister Lizzy sneaks into her room later that day and hugs her while she cries. She sneaks in a copy of the local paper and hidden inside is one of their favourite books: Gulliver’s Travels.

When her sister leaves she realises that the paper has fallen open on the advertisements and that one of them is circled.

“Help wanted.

Are you lost? Are you afraid? Are you a child at heart?

So are we.

The Emporium opens with the first frost of winter.

Sales and stocking, no experience required.

Bed and bored included.

Apply in person at London’s premier merchant of toys and childhood paraphernalia.

Papa Jack’s Emporium

Iron Duke Mews, London W1K”

After a very sleepless night Cathy ends up deciding to run away to London and try to get a position at the Emporium.

Cathy’s first view of the Emporium shows the reader just how magical it is.

“The aisles were alive, she took a step, stumbled when her foot caught the locomotive of some steam train chugging past. She was turning to miss it when wooden horses cantered past in their jagged rhythms, their Cossack riders reaching out as if to threaten the train gliding by. The aisle that she chose was lined with castles at siege. Some of the dioramas were frozen, with siege towers rolled into place, but others clicked into gear at Cathy’s footfall.”

Cathy is interviewed for the position by Jekabs Godman otherwise known as Papa Jack. Her tells her he has a talent for knowing if people are truly suited for work at the Emporium and he knows she is. She gets shown to the room she will be staying in.

Whilst at the Emporium she learns more about the magical craftmanship involved in making the toys and she gets to make a whole bunch of friends. Among the people she meets are Papa Jack’s sons Emil and Kaspar.

Emil and Kaspar are both talented toymakers and are in constant competition with each other to make the best toys for opening night.

Kaspar is charismatic and has a flair for the dramatic and Emil Is more steady and quiet. Emil is constantly battling with his need to outdo his older brother by creating better toys than him – a task he constantly fails at.

Kaspar and Emil are both intrigued by Cathy not least because she keeps herself to herself and they both sense she is hiding a secret.

Not all is sweetness and light in this book and there were times where it brought me to tears but essentially it is a book full of wonder and the magic of childhood.

This is definitely one of the best books I have read so far this year and one that will make it onto my bookshelf and not just my kindle.