Floor Games

This spirited, affectionate book celebrates floor play as a serious art of childhood imagination, happiness, and future-minded thinking. Speaking as a father and observer, the narrator argues that the best indoor games depend on a proper play space and a carefully chosen stock of toys—especially soldiers, bricks, boards, railway pieces, and figures that can be endlessly rearranged into islands, hills, bridges, stations, and cities. At the heart of the book is a witty, practical defense of substantial play materials, from oversized wooden bricks to repurposed household objects, set against a sharp critique of cheap toys that stifle invention. From "The Game of the Wonderful Islands" to twin rival cities and a guide-like tour of a model town, the child's floor becomes a vivid world of temples, huts, railways, museums, ports, civic ceremony, and conflict. Along the way, the narrative mixes delight with satire, parodying empire, commerce, and civic pomp while praising the ingenuity that turns temporary kingdoms into lasting mental riches. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.