SOLVED. Collection of Children's stories about a range of topics, including squirrels, magic trains, ogres, and circus escapes. Read around 2005-2012. [s]

[Clark or Elly]

I'm looking for a book of children's stories that I read probably between 2005 and 2012. It had a range of stories and beautiful illustrations:

1. A story about an ogre who stole a princess, but also this somehow related to Old Man Winter. I remember a very cool illustration of Old Man Winter personified as a gale of wind with puffed cheeks. Someone ended up having to rescue the princess.

2. A tale about a foolish squirrel who forgot to gather enough nuts for winter, but was boasting about having it all figured out to his friends. Then all his friend go hibernate, and he can't remember where he buried the nuts that he did have. I think then someone takes pity on him and they hunker down and spend the winter together. And then when winter's over, the squirrel has to help his friend find something. Specifically remember an illustration of the squirrel looking very sad and cold in the snow in this one, as well as him in a tree when winter was over, looking for the thing his friend was looking for.

3. A child whose parents buy him a train set as a gift. It turns out to be magic and runs on its own at night. If the child looks closely, he can see little people in the train. Then he gets sucked into this dream world where he rides the train and does all sorts of fun things.

4. A story that had something to do with someone escaping a circus. Possibly a bear?

[Mai]

Maybe Bedtime Stories for Boys by Derek Hall?

There is a "snippet view" (https://www.google.com/books/edition/...) on Google books and many keywords come up:
- The Bear and the Ice Kingdom mentions the ogre and princess
- Mr. Squirrel Won't Sleep the nuts
- One story is called the Runaway Train
- The word circus comes up too

[Clark or Elly]

Mai wrote: "Maybe Bedtime Stories for Boys by Derek Hall?

There is a "snippet view" (https://www.google.com/books/edition/...) on G..."

Oh, yeah this is almost it! Turns out the one that I had was called "Jimbo Comes Home", and it was a collection of stories, some of which were Derek Hall's! I was actually able to find it based off of your suggestion of "Bedtime Stories for Boys", so thank you so much!

[Kris]

Glad you found your book, Elly. Here's the link - Jimbo Comes Home by Derek Hall (author suggested by Mai).

[Mai]

Looks cute! Glad you found your book :-)