The Toymaker - Jeremy de Quidt

Looking back, it always seems like the books and TV shows available for younger people are so much better than what was available to me. Maybe some of them just seem that way to me and it's not actually the case. But I do know that I never had anything quite like Jeremy de Quidt's "The Toymaker" available to me back then because, believe me, I would have remembered. There is a toymaker who, frustrated with toys that run down, is attempting to put a real heart into a doll, so that it would keep going constantly. Far away, there is a conjuror called Gustav, who hides in a travelling circus ... more

Mathias only ever knew his grandfather, Gustav, and the circus they rode with. Gustav kept himself to himself but, the conjuror would frequently tell Mathias that he knew a secret, one that should never be told. When Gustav sees a face in the crowd that he recognises, he knows it is time, and throws himself off the stage. The man, claiming to be a doctor, searches the body, but he misses a scrap of paper that Mathias finds within the lining of the conjurors coat. What Mathias doesn't know is that some things are best left hidden, and that little scrap of paper is going to get him in more ... more