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  • Toys in Space by Mini Grey
  • Deborah Stevenson
Grey, Mini . Toys in Space; written and illus. by Mini Grey. Knopf, 2013. 32p. ISBN 978-0-307-97812-7 $16.99 R 5-8 yrs.

After a day of play, a group of seven toys are left forgotten on the lawn, and they're exposed to the dark of night for the very first time. Trying to stave off their nervousness, the WonderDoll embarks on a story that, in classic bedtime-story fashion, features her listeners as the heroes and develops according to their questions and comments. In her story, an alien spaceship lands amid the toys; its occupant, the Hoctopize, has been collecting lost toys in hope of finding its own beloved and missing Cuddles. The toys convince the Hoctopize to send the lost back home and then cheer it up with a party before returning home themselves, and by then it's dawn and the WonderDoll's listeners will soon be found again. The interplay between the toy audience and ongoing story is what really gives the tale its zing, as the patient WonderDoll keeps adjusting the story to address the listeners' speech-ballooned concerns ("And what about the Cowboy?" asks the Cowboy. "What did the Cowboy do?" "The Cowboy organized all the games," the WonderDoll smoothly continues). Additionally, there's a little twist at the end in images that show the Hoctopize finding its Cuddles tucked under a bush near the fallen toys. Grey's art is busy but successfully balanced, counterpointing the action within the WonderDoll's story against bordered sidebars and subsections displaying the attentively listening toys. The Hoctopize is basically a glorified and endearing glove puppet, and kids who figure that out will be quick to create their own Hoctopize equivalents. Kids familiar with classic bedtime stories about their own alter egos will grasp the concept immediately and be quick to draft their own toys into similar dramas.

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