BOOKS - Five Children and It ~ By: Edith Nesbit

Book One of a Trilogy

At last we have finished the second half of "The Bastables" - which was "The Wouldbegoods."  Alisdair and I thought it was even better than the first half which was titled "The Story of the Treasure Seekers."  It was New Years Eve and we only had two chapters left to read.  I was going to try to finish the book off, but Alisdair didn't want the stories to end, so he wanted to string it out as long as possible!  But we DID finish it yesterday.  When we were done, he kindly walked to the library to return the book, all on his own.  There is another book in the series, called "The New Treasure Seekers," but we will have to wait to receive it through inter-library loans.

Meanwhile we have begun a three book trilogy by the same author.  The first book is called "Five Children and It."  We have finished the second chapter and, although the characters are different children than in the previous two books, Alisdair and I are finding it equally delightful and perhaps a bit easier to read and understand.

The back cover gives this summary:

"While their parents are away, Robert, Anthea, Cyril and Jane start digging a hole to Australia to see if it's true that people on the other side of the world walk upside down.  They don't get far, however, before they dig up a furry brown creature with bat's ears.  It is a Psammead, an ancient Sand-fairy."


"The Sammyadd - as the children call it - grumpily tells them that it is forced to grant their wishes, because that is what Sand-fairies do.  There's just one catch:  The wishes will come undone at sunset."


"No matter how carefully the children plan, the wishes keep turning about - like Robert's wish that everyone would love the Lamb, his baby brother, which leads to the Lamb's nearly being kidnapped."


"E. Nesbit's comic fantasy is clearly a warning to be careful what you wish for - you may get it!"

We have already learned about "golden Spade Guineas" which we then looked up online.  They were a form of British coinage prior to the use of sovereigns and looked like this:

A "Spade Guinea" - 1788



The two other books in the series are:  "The Phoenix and the Carpet" and "The Story of the Amulet" so we shall have plenty of reading material for the days and weeks to come.