Prydain's still several years out for Steelykid! I wouldn't recommend the first of that series till at least age 7 reading aloud; and the last one is serious and violent enough for nightmare material among the under-10s.

I played a lot with dolls, but as tokens that helped me act out storylines, not as creatures themselves. I was also never the sort to destroy a doll (or any toy), but not because I cared about the dolls; it was because the things had cost money. And, like, because a working toy in the hand is worth 100 broken toy-arms scattered around the back yard bushes.