Don Wulffson's Toys!

This was a tremendously fun title. Warning: Do not read this unless you can frequently tell the people in the room with you odd, random facts about toys. About every other page I felt compelled to say "Hey, did you know that Legos didn't come to the US until 1961?" or "Did you know that the Super Bowl was sort of named after the Super Ball?"

This is a great nonfiction title to have on hand. It is a topic with which children are familiar, and the prose is easy to read and immediately gripping ("Play-Doh began as a product for cleaning wallpaper. The seesaw was first used as a prop in the bloody spectacle in the arenas of Ancient Rome. Long ago there were kites so large that people could be flown on them. Behind every toy there is a story."(page 3) Wulffson also did the excellent Soldier X, which is completely different but also very good.

One thing that I sometimes forget is that many boys are not fiction readers. I have one student now who has finally started to read because I have a set of books on different vehicles. He's finally passed some AR tests and is reading one short book a day. You can bet that I will have Toys! on hand when he stops by to see me today.