Five Children and It (Puffin Classics)

I have a particular love for books written during this time period, so it is small wonder that I enjoyed this cute story. My only caution would be for parents to read the story first, before they have their children read it. Certain words, expressions and sensibilities that were innocent at the time this book was written, have sadly been given different meanings in our current culture and due to the time period that this book was written some things may be offensive to some readers.

This book is such a surprise. I think I’m enjoying it more than my grandson is. He loves things about olden times and strange locales. In this case it is written in 1905 and takes place in Britain. The writing is witty, quirky, informative and very funny. The characters are drawn with depth and you are left with a feeling that you have gone with them on every adventure they have. No use summarizing the plot as you can get a plot synopsis here if you scroll. It will remain in my grandson’s library as a keepsake book, and one of those items that, if the grid ever goes down, you will be glad to have it in hand.

It was always a little strange to me as a boy that children in books always went to boarding school and always had nannies, cooks, and maids, but we just accepted that that was how people were in books. We realised that books were written before decimalisation, and just enjoyed the stories. I am delighted that the same is still true. I read this to my son over several nights, and while he did ask about the servants and "were they like slaves", this was more an additional facet, something he could enjoy and learn from, rather than something which inhibited his enjoyment. This story is of children who behave in much the same way as modern children would, leaving parental and adult supervision at the earliest opportunity, particularly if this involves getting into adventures and meeting magical creatures. The Psammead is an ancient Sand Fairy, and the children in the story are initially frightened of him, then grow to like him and respect his wisdom (even if he's a little cantankerous). The story follows the classic "what would you wish for if you had three wishes" formula, but is done with such style that each mini adventure that follows on is enjoyable, and a learning experience for the characters, rather than just being a list of examples of a smart-alec genie's deliberately obtuse interpretation of instructions.I would say this book is suitable for children of seven to fourteen, and doesn't really require any explanation of old-fashioned terms, but there can be much gained from discussing them.

I love these old stories. I read them to my children. We had to look up all the money terms and when I tried to translate the values into US Dollars we had a great conversation about how things that were once inexpensive can become more expensive and vice versa. Also interesting is how the children refer to books and ideas that I assume people in Victorian England who where in their social stratum would understand but we had to look up and often failed to figure out. There were plenty of jokes in there about how the kids mispronounced or misheard a particular word. Very English.You should buy it and read it to your kids.

"Five Children and It" is an AWESOME book!!!! The five children Cyril (nicknamed Squirrel), Anthea (nicknamed Panther), Robert (nicknamed Bobs), and Jane (nicknamed Pussy) are at a new house, right between a chalk quarry and a gravel pit that used to be a beach. When their parents are away, the five children go digging in the gravel pit with their spades. When the children are trying to dig a hole to Australia, Anthea finds a creature in the hole known as a Psammead or Sand-fairy that goes by the name of It. It has promised the five children to grant them one wish a day. The children wish all sorts of things from being beautiful as the day, to having wings, but sometimes their wishes can spin out of control. This is an excellent book by E. Nesbit, with a cover illustration by Quentin Blake (illustrator of the Rald Dahl books), illustrations within the book by H. R. Millar and book extras at the back of the book. I would recommend this fabulous book to anyone.

My five year old and I really enjoyed reading E. Nesbit's Book of Dragons, so picked this up next. It's a lovely read, but it showed it's age in the second to last chapter, when the kids wish to fight "red Indians" after one of them reads Last of the Mohicans. There is quite a bit of talk of the Indians wanting to scalp them. It is a product of it's time, which I don't hold against it, but modern parents will want to censor that chapter with their kids to avoid teaching them offensive stereotypes about Native Americans, not to mention awkward conversations about what "scalping" is.

A lovely tale for children, as are all of E. Nesbit’s books. A good exploration into wish-fulfillment, and a nice contrast to the Harry Potter books.

Started reading this to my son who is 8 and my daughter who is 4 and we couldn't put it down. They begged for it. Acting it out, pretended to be the characters. The characters were humorous and relevant. This has been one of our favorite read alouds of the year. I honestly thought it would be difficult to get through with my children and their ages and the British dialect of the writer. It was not an issue at all, we really enjoyed this book and learning more about the author. Highly recommended.

Good, whimsical narrative, but far too dated for a sophisticated kid today.

I'm sure that book is perfectly fine. The only problem is that you can not see letters. The font is so mall and without any space. I'm sure that there is not one person in this world who would be capable to read this. Shame, it was supposed to be great classic.

We loved the movie (those costumes!) - and i bought this as a read aloud for my children. Beautifully written, and a fun adventure. It's a delight!

An extremely well written book for children with charming illustrations. One which parents can truly enjoy reading with or to their children.

Unfortunately very dated in terms of racial and gender views. Love the Psammead!