John Kendrick Bangs 1 hr 34 min read

When Tom is left alone by the fire, the andirons, poker, and bellows come to life and carry him off to the crescent moon.

John Kendrick Bangs's 1906 children's fantasy sends its young hero on a whimsical journey with the animated implements of the hearth, up trolley-clouds and off among the stars. A charming, inventive period piece of Edwardian nursery fantasy from a beloved American humorist. Read it for gently fantastical bedtime adventure, bright with turn-of-the-century imagination.

In its time

Published in 1906, during the 1900s, the scientific romance.

Reading it

1 hr 34 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).

Illustrated by

Clare Victor Dwiggins