Alice’s Adventures on the Bookshelf

We swore it would never happen again. Never EVER would we put together another miniature library kit. Gentle people of the jury, I present exhibits A, B, and C as evidence. But then Katie found the most adorable Alice in Wonderland miniature puzzle kit at our local toy store, and she went right back down that rabbit hole. Was it an adventure in wonderland for Katie? Read on to find out!


Here we go again! Leave it to our friends at Princeton’s fabulous toy store, Jazams, to convince us to break the promise we made ourselves to NOT build another miniature library kit. To be fair, this Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland inspired diorama bookend is so cool, it was basically a forgone conclusion we would change our minds.

The Tonecheer Alice’s Adventure 3D Puzzle (HTQ128) is quite similar to the Sunshine Town book nook I tackled in 2023, though there are some differences that make this kit both faster and easier to build. It is available for purchase on Amazon for $42.99, the difficulty rating is 4.5 out of 5 stars and, like our other three kits, the age suggestion is 14+.

Upon opening the box, I found multiple precut wood plates with various sized pieces and parts that needed to be carefully popped out. There was an 11 x17 inch folded instruction sheet, the electronic lighting kit, and construction items to assist with the build (batteries not included).

The most important tool was the “Three-in-one Tool” wood piece, which was critical in saving my fingertips and, in some instances, my sanity as I was trying to push smaller pieces out of the plates as well as connecting bits and parts together.

One extremely nice touch to this kit is all of the pieces are ready to go right out of the box. Zero paint required. There are parts that need to be glued together, but even those are few and far between. Assisted by the handy “Three-in-one Tool,” I quickly put together the two levels of Alice’s adventure. The instructions were clear and very easy to understand. All told, it took about three hours to finish.

During the build, I had one struggle and made one mistake. The struggle was building the stump that surrounds the infamous rabbit hole where Alice falls. It took nearly ten attempts to connect the smallish pieces in a circle and then push the tabs of the round stump into the wood base. My once nimble fingers are clearly not as nimble.

My mistake was forgetting to tuck the light power cord behind two bars that connect the ceiling of Wonderland to the grassy ground. I completely missed the arrows and typed message alerting me to route the wires in a certain direction. Thankfully it was relatively easy to work backward, take sections apart and correct the error, but it was still a “duh!” moment.

There’s a lot to look at in the 3D Puzzle book nook! Alice herself is floating inside, along with the White Rabbit and Cheshire Cat. The mirrors at the back of the nook offer a deeper look to see all of the charming details.

As I mentioned, this kit is wired for lights, and it has a motion sensor to wow your friends as they walk by. The motion light illuminates for one minute before turning off, but the sensor is sensitive enough to quickly turn the light back on with gentle movement.

Has Alice surpassed the other builds as my favorite miniature library? No, I’m still enamored with the Sunshine Town cats! I will say Alice’s Adventure 3D Puzzle was the least tedious mini library build. It would also be much better for our younger crafters, though they may need an adult to help with installing the electronics. Another 4.5 out of 5 stars rating from me!

The Alphabet Gang

the alphabet gang 3

We’re always on the lookout for items for Bookscape Babies, our community program for kids 0-2 and their caregivers. Previously, we’ve shared this Teddy Bear Picnic and an adorably cuddly alphabet. Today’s post also involves a cute alphabet – and one that doubles as a matching activity!

The “Animal Play and Learn” set by Jetbotell retails for around $15 on Amazon, and is intended for ages 18 months and up. The 52 piece plastic set features 10 kinds of animals printed with uppercase and lowercase letters. Each animal is about 3″ long, and easily pulls into two halves:

Bright, chunky, and easy to wipe clean, this set checked all the boxes for us! Special bonus: the set’s pieces are interchangeable, resulting into some very interesting animal combinations, not to mention two letter words and initials.

If you are looking for an terrific letter identification set that is an inexpensive addition to round out your baby story times, early literacy classrooms, and toddler play areas, we definitely recommend this fun little set!

Gone Was Any Trace of You

Need to keep things like a secret? Well tortured poets, we have the perfect pen for you! Katie tested the Elemental Ink Pen by The Shop of Many Things. That’s right. You’ll have your own blank space, baby. And you’ll write your name. Take it away, Katie!


I am constantly searching for clever ways to develop clues for future Cotsen escape rooms. The Shop of Many Things Elemental Ink pens (a 3 pack is $20) definitely sounded like they would be perfect for a riddle mastermind.

According to the packaging, the elemental ink disappears when exposed to heat (104°F or 40°C) and reappears when cold (14°F or -10°C). I used my gas burner stove and a lighter as the heat source, and ice packs and my freezer for the cold. Other heat ideas include a light bulb, steam from boiling water, or an iron. Dry ice is recommended for cold. And if you are fortunate enough to have access to a laboratory with liquid nitrogen, that would be ideal!

Right out of the bag, all three pens didn’t work. I wasn’t sure if it was user error or lack of ink, but I was rightfully disappointed. It took a few minutes of scribbling lines and circles on a piece of scrap paper before the pens miraculously came back to writing life. Armed with a clever notepad (courtesy of Pop Cult Paper), I created a list of tasks:

The ink couldn’t take the heat over the stove burner and it disappeared immediately. In fact, the first time it happened, I gasped out loud. It was pure magic!


I also used a lighter both in front of and behind the paper with the same result. The lighter did leave burn marks on the back of the paper, so please be careful. We don’t want your paper to go down in flames!

It took longer for the ink to return in the cold. Simply placing the paper on an ice pack didn’t work. At all. I tried putting it between two ice packs. No go. The ink really wasn’t legible until I put the paper in the freezer where the air was cold and left it inside for around five minutes.

The Shop of Many Things claims the ink will disappear and reappear multiple times without fading, so I put that claim to the test. I went through the heat and cold process five times with the note on the left and just once with the paper on the right. Dear reader, you be the judge.

I also tested regular ink and the elemental ink to compare any differences. The elemental ink disappeared and reappeared, as expected. Absolutely nothing happened to the regular ink, also as expected.So you could write a message in regular and elemental ink, heat it up, and watch part of your message disappear! So go on, draw those hearts in the byline.

Overall, the Elemental Ink pens are a fun new addition to my escape room tool box. The ink instantly fading away using a heat source is highly entertaining, but I feel it is too arduous and takes too long for the ink to return in the cold. The bigger question is… will the Elemental Ink pens be used in an upcoming escape room? That hot topic inquiry stays cool with me.