Expensive electronic toys come and go, but the toys children really like the best are often the simplest. The plain handmade wooden train, doll cradle, or circus animal can provide the key that unlocks a young imagination.
This book makes it easy to create toys that will win a permanent place in any child's heart. After years of working with young children, veteran woodcrafter and educator James. T. Stasio has distilled his expert knowledge into a handy, inexpensive guide to making 12 wooden toys of enduring appeal: helicopter, oil truck, biplane, destroyer, freight train, cargo ship, rocking horse and squirrel, circus animals and acrobats, doll cradle, work truck, truck bank, and fighter plane.
You don't have to be a master craftsman or purchase expensive materials. If you can use a saw and a screwdriver, you can make any of these charming toys. For each project, a list of materials indicates how much wood and the kind of hardware you'll need. Exact-size templates for every part make cutting out the wood simplicity itself. And a large, easy-to-grasp exploded diagram shows precisely how to fit the parts together. The introduction also provides handy tips on selection of wood, finishing, and more. Best of all, these sturdy toys will stand up to almost any amount of rough handling. And there are no batteries to replace!