Five Children and It (Puffin Classics)

When the five children in this story ask what 'It' is, and It tells them it is a Psammead, the immediate comment is the stock phrase "It's all Greek to me." And of course that is the point: Psammead would be Greek for 'sand fairy', which is what It is.

This is perhaps a clear indication that Nesbit

Show More

was writing not just for children but also for adults, herself included, the kind of educated middleclass adults alive at the tail-end of Victorian Britain. Which is a point that many modern-day readers often miss, especially those that criticise the chapter on American Indians for not being politically correct (it was published in 1902, when such stereotypes were perpetuated, and which Nesbit was satirising), or who chastise the author for speaking down to children (they clearly haven't read many of the contemporary morally-improving tomes for children, compared with which Nesbit's voice comes across as thoroughly modern and sensitive in its understanding of, and sympathy for, sheltered bourgeois mentality and experience).

Having risen to the defence of Nesbit, I have to say that I didn't find Five Children and It as captivating as I might have hoped, though it was rather better paced than her preceding titles centred on the Bastable children, The Treasure Seekers (1899) and The Wouldbegoods (1901). Originally appearing in installments (ideal for bedtime reading), the story follows the by now familiar pattern of a group of children who, despite often good intentions, find the outcomes not going the way they hoped. Unlike the Bastable children, this family (Cyril, Anthea, Robert and Jane, plus the baby Hilary they call 'Lamb') has its adventures spiced up by magic, provided by their wishes being granted by the creature they find in an old sand quarry.

To describe the adventures would be to lose any magic gained by reading the story, but of course the precise wishes, formulated through the distorting prisms of juvenile brains, are all granted in rather diverting ways. What I did find captivating, however, was the Psammead itself, not unsurprisingly a rather grumpy personnage considering not only its extreme age but also its constant disturbance by a bunch of kids. As a grumpy personnage muself (though not of a similar age) I thoroughly sympathised with its tic of having to grant whimsical wishes to all and sundry.

Whilst only slightly bemused by its command of contemporary English, I was rather more irritated by its equally whimsical portrayal by more recent book cover designers and film makers, in defiance of Nesbit's very clear description: it had eyes ... on long horns like a snail’s eyes, and it could move them in and out like telescopes, and ears like a bat’s ears, and its tubby body was shaped like a spider’s and covered with thick soft fur; its legs and arms were furry too, and it had hands and feet like a monkey’s, not to mention rat-like whiskers. My edition has a cover illustration depicting the Psammead with bat's ears, a furry body (green, to be sure) and primate hands and feet as expected, but, horror of horrors, eyes in a face rather than on those telescopic stalks emerging from the top of its head. And the creature in the recent film of the same name is a travesty of Nesbit's careful portrait.

Show Less

This was mysteriously missing from my shelves, so it got added to my Christmas wishlist and reread accordingly. Still wonderful even after 100 years; few people have ever written children as convincingly as Edith Nesbit (notably, btw, her children are seldom orphans, although the parents tend to be

Show More

conveniently absent for whatever reason), who also throws in a little social of her own social conscience for the adults: "If grown-ups got hold of me," says the Psammead, "… they'd ask for a graduated income-tax, and old-age pensions, and manhood suffrage, and free secondary education and dull things like that, and get them and keep them, and the whole world would be turned topsy-turvy."

Show Less

This classic child's fantasy, much in the style of C.S. Lewis, has all the elements of a truly delightful children's book. It is imaginiative, entralling, and easy to relate to. The children get into just the right amount of mischief to make them likable and believable. When five children find a

Show More

sand fairy that grants wishes in an old gravel pit, their dull life gets turned upside-down. None of their wishes seem to be coming out quite as they intended, and all of the wishes get them into bundles of mischief. In the end, however, each wish is a wild adventure and an important lesson learned.

Show Less

I loved Five Children and It as an 11 year old. I reread it recently and it did hold up. The children were almost as appealing as the Bastables.

Five children find a fairy at the beach who grants wishes, though with surprising consequences.

I read this book because it was a classic, but i found it too fluffy, whimsical, not enough of a thought provoking storyline for me. It is very much the Alice in Wonderland type fantasy - pure etc. Being able to see the movie and then revisit the book made it more enjoyable the second time around.

Show More

I prefer Roald Dahl's fantasy narrative style.

Show Less

One day, when the children dug a hole in the gravel-pit, they found a sand-fairy. His name is Pasammead. He can use magic, and he grants the children's wishes. But their wishes make a lot of funny problems.
Children’s idea is very interesting and imaginable. So I enjoy reading this book. I think

Show More

this story is pure and warm.

Show Less

This is the 5 Stories About An Animal That Fulfills Our Wish.
Five Children meet it And They Ask It To Fulfill Their Wish.
I Thought This Book Is for children.
However,That`s Good Point Of This Book.
While I Read　This Book、I Could Enjoy As If I Was An Child(But I'm Not)

Edith Nesbit was one of my favorite authors as a child. I loved this book but need to read it again - and get some of the magic back again.

Five children were very imaginative.
Their idea made me interested.
They would learn a lot from experience with Psammead

A family moved to London.
The family contains five children-Robert,Anthea,Jane,Cyril,and baby.
When the children dug a hole in the gravel-pit,they were very surprised at
what they found. That is "IT". A sand-fairy,thousands of years old.
"IT"is fat and furry, and with eyes on long stalks.
IT said the

Show More

children to grant their wishes when every time they found IT.
They were glad. They said,"I wish we were very beautiful." "Gold,pldase."
"Wings please."....
IT granted all things they wished easily,but they caused trouble many times.
The book is a story with a happy ending, and easy to understand.
But I was a little bored.

Show Less

This was a curious little tale - silly children who don't seem to know how to make wise wishes. It was funny to see the scrapes they got themselves into, and instructive as well. The wisest wish for what they need and not much more. The foolish never seem to think through the consequences of all

Show More

that they may think they want.

Show Less

What I like about E. Nesbit, and Five Children and It in particular, is the sense of reality that pervades the books in contrast to the plot. Despite having found a wish-granting entity, the kids are always hungry and tired, and they get mad at each other, and they forget lessons they should have

Show More

learned in the last chapter, and they're afraid of getting in trouble.

Show Less

When the children dug a hole in the gravel-pit, they were very surprised at a Psammead.
This story is pure and warm.
I like this story.

One of my favorites. Lots of British language - hard read-aloud, but worth the time!

I adore E. Nesbit's fantasies. They are very Edwardian, very British and invoke a world that doesn't exist any more (if it ever really did).

I loved this book as a child and really recommend it especially to parents who are trying to get their young children to read more. Its a sweet little fantasy story that has held up over time.

Five Children and It is a thoroughly delightful book chronicling the adventures of four young English children and their little brother "Lamb." Told splendidly by Nesbit this book deserves to be read again and again and again.

I'm waiting to rate this until I've re-read it, but this was one of my favorite books when I was a kid. I think I liked the sequel, The Phoenix & the Carpet, even better.

A surprising story of a fantastic creature and the things that can go wrong with wishes. The kids really enjoyed this book and were pleased to learn there are more in this series. We read this as a family and even Daddy laughed out loud. This is our first Nesbit book but we excited to read more by

Show More

this lovely author.

Show Less

"Fairy of sand" has come out when five children dig up his large pit in the stone quarry. The fairy is said Psammead. Psammead is said the living for several thousand years, and says that it will realize any wish of one a day. However, validity term is limited the first.
Children become glad, and

Show More

do various wishes. The person in the town is neither surprised, it is not trusted, and it goes anyway well though Psammead realizes the wish in every case as it is a promise.
Finally, the major disruption is caused over expensive jewels stolen from a rich house. Though children who panicked go again in Psammead but….
When it is every child, I think that the theme that is the ideal is a story, and the fantasy story that can be happily read.

Show Less

A charming story. I wonder why I never read it before? Sometimes it is a bit precious, but not so much that it turns to treacle. Having been written in 1902, in England, there are some culturally interesting features: attitudes of the children to servants, the fact that a middle class family has

Show More

servants, the adult's willingness to let the children roam for the day, not inquiring into their activities unless they make a mess.

Any moralizing is moderate to invisible, and yet, lessons are learned. Lovely.

Show Less

I found the book, on an obvious reread, still quite funny and entertaining. I wonder if the Disney Factory has done a rewrite for modern tastes. Or was that "E.T.?

The Psammead is a grumpy sand fairy who grants wishes to five children. Unfortunately, the children find out that having wishes granted can come with unintended consequences. They wish for gold coins, but can't spend them without being accused of being thieves. They wish for a castle but find

Show More

themselves in the middle of a siege. It goes on like this. In the end they wish for no more wishes!

Show Less