Walking around toy fairs, say the toy designers and children’s book authors Zoe Miller and David Goodman, they felt “sickened by the amount of plastic being used.” In response, they created the sort of wooden blocks that every child would love to play with and every adult wishes they’d had while growing up (frankly, we’re thinking of getting some ourselves!).

Walking around toy fairs, say the toy designers and children’s book authors Zoe Miller and David Goodman, they felt “sickened by the amount of plastic being used.” In response, they created the sort of wooden blocks that every child would love to play with and every adult wishes they’d had while growing up (frankly, we’re thinking of getting some ourselves!).

ShapeMaker is a set of 25 colorfully painted wooden blocks that can be used to create literally thousands of different designs. The blocks won the gold award at the 2009 Practical Pre-School awards, where judges noted that they “promoted good team work and sharing skills… an all around great product.”

What captured our hearts about these toys is how they foster the imagination. As the designers say, “Kids are being taught less and less art in school. Imagination is not valued as much as knowledge. If we could help a fraction of children be more creative maybe they would grow up to find creative solutions to the problems of the world.”

We also offer PlayShapes Wooden Block Toys from MillerGoodman.