Abstract. The article investigates the correlation of the individual toy and the world of childhood in the Russian and Soviet children's book of the 1st third of the 20th century. Close reading of the texts and reconstruction of the contexts of the then psychology and sociology (Wundt, Bekhterev, Pavlov) shows that the zero degree, its minimalistic functionality (stick - horse), which changed the child's bodily habits, was emphasized in the toy. This change in bodily habits allows us not to oppose the pre-revolutionary bourgeois children's world and the post-revolutionary world of industry, but to see their affinity in the child's direct exploration of the diversity of the world. The key children's books with the image of toys, from Boris Dicks to Agniya Barto, are considered and it is demonstrated how they gradually industrialize the bodies of toys themselves.

Key words: toy, children's book, doll, philosophy of the toy, social psychology, childhood, representation, conventionality, book illustration.