This is simply too weird and wonderful not to share.

Somewhere around 1998 I discovered what seemed to me to be the true cosmic reason for the internet: namely, online used book stores that would allow me to summon home all the long-lost treasures of childhood. It is the closest I’ve ever come in my life to a runaway spending spree.

Memory, however, is slow, and so are used book sellers. It was some years till I remembered a beloved pop-up book of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”—but when I’d look online for it, either it wasn’t there at all, or there were multiple options and none with a photo of the cover to help me disambiguate. And then I’d forget again for a few years, before I’d look and run into the same conundrum.

But last month, as I was selecting my book purchases to bring home from a trip to see my parents in the U.S., this one came to mind again, and, sing praise to the heavens, there was a cover photo—which I recognized immediately. Yes, this was my long-lost book, and the seller assured that the pop-ups were intact (which is no minor consideration). So I ordered it and had a very happy reunion when I arrived Stateside…