Five Children and It

Five Children and It, Edith Nesbit's classic of Edwardian fantasy, follows five siblings who dig up a strange, wish-granting creature in a gravel pit.

Cyril, Anthea, Robert, and Jane have just moved with their baby brother to an old house in the country, with woods and a chalk pit to explore. Digging in the sand one day, they uncover the Psammead, a cranky, ancient creature with eyes on stalks and a temper to match. It can grant one wish a day, though it hasn't much patience for children or their requests.

The catch is that every wish wears off at sunset, and in the meantime it tends to cause exactly the trouble you'd expect. Wishing to be beautiful, or rich, or grown-up, or to have wings, sounds wonderful for about an hour, and then the children spend the rest of the day trying to undo what they've done before nightfall. Each chapter brings a fresh wish and a fresh mess to clean up, with the Psammead grumbling through all of it.

This is old-fashioned magical adventure with a light comic touch, the kind of book where the fantasy stays close to home and the humor comes from ordinary children handling extraordinary trouble. It's perfect for fans of gentle, old-world fantasy and stories where a moral about being careful what you wish for slips in without ever feeling heavy-handed.

Andrew Bond reads with plenty of breathing room between the children's squabbles and the Psammead's sighs. It's a familiar, easy sort of story to fade out on before the day's wish has even worn off.