Janod

Janod is a French toy brand from the Jura region of eastern France, part of the Juratoys group. It has built its reputation on solid wood toys with a distinctive illustrated style, designed in France and made to be handed down rather than thrown out.

The range is organised into collections, and knowing them makes shopping much easier:

• Sweet Cocoon is the baby range. Soft pastels, rounded edges, and first toys like stackers, shape sorters, pull-alongs and push walkers.
• Pure is natural untreated wood in muted neutrals, for parents who want the grain to show.
• Magnetibook is the travel range. Magnetic dress-up, alphabet and dinosaur books in a hard case, so nothing rolls under a car seat or a plane tray.
• Bricokids is for little builders. Wooden workbenches, tool boxes, drills and DIY trucks.
• Essentials teaches counting, telling the time, weights, volumes and fractions through hands-on wooden play.
• Dino and Tropik bring bolder colour, with puzzles, ride-ons, balancing games and activity tables.

Beyond the collections, Janod is best known in Australia for three things: wooden play kitchens that survive years of pretend cooking, multi-activity tables that grow with a child, and wooden ride-ons and rocking horses that end up in family photos for a decade.

Most Janod toys are made from beech or plywood with water-based paints, and each carries an age recommendation on the box. If you are buying a gift and are not sure where to start, the Sweet Cocoon range suits babies to around two years, and Magnetibook or Bricokids works well from three up.