Number One Joy Street

Number One Joy Street is a whimsical treasury of prose and verse for children, brought together by a remarkable gathering of writers and illustrators. From the opening pages, it casts a spell of fairy-tale mischief, where the ordinary world is forever tipping into wonder: fishermen, gardens, cliffs, and village lanes all seem ready to reveal hidden magic. Eleanor Farjeon's Tom Cobble lies at the heart of this enchanted world, a stubbornly imaginative boy whose refusal to accept dull explanations leads him straight into fairyland for seven years. There he becomes a kitchen-boy in an Enchanter's cave, meets the magical Ooney, and returns home with a mysterious brown book that can alter everything it touches. Back in Shortways, Tom's uncanny gifts ripple outward through the village, from the Duke's Park to the riverbank, where animals, people, and even the landscape fall under strange enchantments. Other tales and verses deepen the book's folkloric charm: a midnight market where magic is traded, a boy guided by Sussex lore toward fairy secrets, and a wind-haunted child beside the sea who discovers that legend may walk ashore in human form. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.