“The inspiration for this book came to me one afternoon as I watched my son, Hudson, playing with his toy bus. I was trying to keep pace with his three-year-old mind as he got deeper and deeper into a fantasy involving nothing more than a yellow plastic box and armless figurines. At least that’s what I saw. He saw frantic commuters rushing to catch the 77 local bus to Australia. He jumped in place, mouth open and slapping his knees, joyously reacting to a world I couldn’t see, but one powerfully present for him...”. – Jordan Matter

Photo: “Dancers Among Us”: Macys, NYC – Annmaria Mazzini. (Photo by Jordan Matter)

Dancers Daisy Kerry (R) and Alice Rathbone pose as characters from The Nutcracker, for the annual Christmas event at Chatsworth House near Bakewell in Britain November 4, 2016. (Photo by Darren Staples/Reuters)

The sign above the door of restaurant and hotel “Am Paulusbogen” is partially submerged in the flooded centre of the Bavarian town of Passau, about 200 km (124 miles) north-east of Munich June 3, 2013. (Photo by Michaela Rehle/Reuters)

A child is seen with persimmons in Denizli, Turkiye on October 24, 2022. (Photo by Ummu Nisan Kandilcioglu/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

People have their photographs taken as they throw fallen leaves in autumn colours in Tokyo on November 13, 2022. (Photo by Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP Photo)

Washermen put their clothes out to dry on the banks of the River Yamuna as seen from a railway bridge near Agra, India, Saturday, December 17, 2022. (Photo by Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP Photo)

Children wearing cardboard lion dance masks walk along a street in Beijing on January 13, 2023. China has announced its first overall population decline in recent years amid an aging society and plunging birthrate. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)

Junior Lambrechts has his face painted in preparation for the Cape Minstrel Carnival in Cape Town, South Africa on January 2, 2023. (Photo by Shelley Christians/Reuters)