The Countess's Calamity
The Countess's Calamity is a children's book written and illustrated by Sally Gardner, published in 2003. It won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize Bronze Award. It is the first of the Tales from the Box series about sentient toys. Plot summary. After a box of toys is abandoned at a park, the intervention of some friendly mice helps the toys go on with their lives. One of the dolls, the Countess, has trouble adapting.