Five Children and It, Edith Nesbit
Five Children and It, Edith Nesbit
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Five Children and It

Author: Edith Nesbit

Narrator: Erin Bateman

Unabridged: 5 hr 32 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/13/2020


Synopsis

I daresay you have often thought what you would do if you had three wishes given you…and felt certain that if you had the chance you could think of three really useful wishes without a moment's hesitation. These children had often talked this matter over, but, now the chance had suddenly come to them, they could not make up their minds.
When 5 children discover the Psammead—a malevolent sand-fairy—who says he can grant wishes, the children cannot believe their luck! All their wildest secret dreams will come true: beauty beyond compare, riches greater than kings, the ability to fly. But wishes are not always what they seem, and every wish the fairy grants goes wrong for the children.
With each wish, the children attract more danger and consequence. They eventually must learn that their struggles cannot be wished away, and that every wish they are granted spreads ripples of misfortune for themselves and those around them. But the power to have one's heart's desires fulfilled is incredible valuable, and the temptation to continue wishing may be too much for the children to resist, even once they know those wishes will come at a price.
From Edith Nesbit, one of the earliest authors of children’s literature, comes Five Children and It, a fantastical and timeless tale of the risks and consequences of careless wishes.

About Edith Nesbit

Edith Nesbit, the daughter of John Collis Nesbit, a schoolmaster, was born on August 19, 1858. Her father died when Edith was only six years old. Despite money problems, Edith's mother managed to educate her daughter in France.

At the age of nineteen, Edith met Hubert Bland, a young writer with radical political opinions. In 1879, Edith discovered she was pregnant; she married Hubert on April 22, 1880, and the baby was born two months later.

Edith and Hubert were both socialists, and on October 24, 1883, they decided to form a debating group with their Quaker friend Edward Pease, Havelock Ellis, and Frank Podmore. They decided to call themselves the Fabian Society and were later joined by other socialists. Edith and Hubert became joint editors of the society's journal, Today.

Edith was a regular lecturer and writer on socialism throughout the 1880s. However, she gave less time to these activities after she become a successful children's writer. Her most famous novels include The Story of the Treasure Seekers, The Wouldbegoods, Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, The Railway Children, and The Enchanted Castle. A collection of her political poetry, Ballads and Lyrics of Socialism, was published in 1908.

After the death of her husband in 1914, Edith married Thomas Tucker, an engineer. Edith continued to write children's books and had published forty-four novels before her death on May 4, 1924.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Manny

Somehow I missed reading Five Children and It when I was a child myself, so when I saw a copy at a yard sale I had to buy it. It only cost 10p, and the little girl who sold it to me looked rather like an E. Nesbit heroine, very serious, with huge dark eyes. The plot is a variant on "be careful what......more

Nesbit is the great-grandma of pretty nearly all the children's fantasy books we love, the first author to write really wittily for kids and without condescending to them, and the originator of the basic structure that carries on through C.S. Lewis and Edward Eager and even in a way Jo Rowling: four......more

Five Children and It was a fantasy children's story published by Edith Nesbit in 1902. Clearly, a classic with moral and educational themes for children about wishes and avarice. The five children are left alone with a house full of servants while their parents must take care of one of the grandpare......more