KYDZ INTERNATIONAL: October 2010

The selection of toy materials should never be haphazard nor casual. A good toy leaves room for the free exercise of a child's imagination. It can be used in different ways. It is handsome in shape and color and is good to touch, beautiful in line, and interesting in texture. It is sturdy and will take heavy use. ... We especially like the way Joseph Lee put it in his book [1919] Play in Education: 'Toys, not fiz-jigs; it is the child's own achievement, not that of the clever man who made the toy, that counts. A toy with very small children is chiefly a peg to hang imagination on. It is the child's alter ego, to whom he assigns the parts that he cannot conveniently assume himself. And literal resemblance to their originals is the last thing he requires in his subordinates. An oblong block will be successively a cow, a sofa, a railway train, and will discharge each part with perfect satisfaction to its impresario. Too much realism is indeed a disadvantage.'

Frank and Theresa Caplan, The Power of Play (1973), p43