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![Five Children and It: E. Nesbit (Classics, Literature) [Annotated] by E. Nesbit](https://cdn.thestorygraph.com/97aam85yqpbfmzo3v04k0l2nim55)
3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
I read this book when I was young (eight or nine), and I reread it for my Science-Fiction and Fantasy course at school. This book is such an interesting look at what children will wish for and how wishes can backfire. The sammyead is an interesting creature. I don't necessarily think it's malevolent, but it could be.
Five Children and It follows five siblings (well, really only four) and their wishes with a sand fairy. There's adventure and mayhem. Each wish gets thwarted in some way or another.
Well worth the read, and an excellent choice for fans of Edward Eager or P.L. Travers.
Five Children and It follows five siblings (well, really only four) and their wishes with a sand fairy. There's adventure and mayhem. Each wish gets thwarted in some way or another.
Well worth the read, and an excellent choice for fans of Edward Eager or P.L. Travers.
"It" here refers to a sand fairy, or Psammead that the five children discover while in the country. The Psammead is an irritable character but has the ability to grant wishes. How the children interact with it and take daily wishes from it which never really turn out as planned forms the crux of the story.
Though the writing is obviously dated, this is still an enjoyable book. It teaches kids how wishes aren't always what they seem like. A very nice book, and easily the best in the series. This is one book that children even today will enjoy. Rating: 3.75/5
PS: There's a movie by the same name. Don't go for it. It has just the bare facts in common with the book. The story is quite different and is pretty average. The book is way better.
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Join me on the Facebook group, "Readers Forever!", for more reviews and other book-related discussions and fun.
Though the writing is obviously dated, this is still an enjoyable book. It teaches kids how wishes aren't always what they seem like. A very nice book, and easily the best in the series. This is one book that children even today will enjoy. Rating: 3.75/5
PS: There's a movie by the same name. Don't go for it. It has just the bare facts in common with the book. The story is quite different and is pretty average. The book is way better.
********************************************
Join me on the Facebook group, "Readers Forever!", for more reviews and other book-related discussions and fun.
This book was so much fun and utterly enjoyable!
I wish I had read this as a child, but I can assure you that I still thoroughly loved it as an adult. I love how indifferent and annoyed the Psammead always seemed with the children. The mischievous fun mixed with the unique personalities of each of the children made this a very quick read that I didn't want to stop once I started it.
I wish I had read this as a child, but I can assure you that I still thoroughly loved it as an adult. I love how indifferent and annoyed the Psammead always seemed with the children. The mischievous fun mixed with the unique personalities of each of the children made this a very quick read that I didn't want to stop once I started it.
I couldn't finish this book because I didn't like the writing style or the plot. You win some, you lose some.
I really wanted to be interested and like it, but I felt it was missing something.
I really wanted to be interested and like it, but I felt it was missing something.
Interchangeable with lots of other British-siblings-find-magic-by-the-seaside stories, but less engaging. None of the siblings have distinct personalities and the episodic "wish-gone-wrong" formula quickly becomes tedious. There was also some midcentury racism in passages like this:
The children proceed to paint themselves red (although they do acknowledge that the Native Americans besieging them appear "more brown") to trick the "Red Indians" an idle wish brought to life. Their enemies come to scalp the children and are fooled by these ridiculous stripes of fabric pretending to be hair. Not only are these "Indians" horrifying stereotypes, they're also really stupid!
I've enjoyed other E. Nesbit books, but this one doesn't have enough redeeming qualities to warrant a read in 2019.
It is wonderful how like an Indian you can make yourselves with blankets and feathers and coloured scarves. Of course none of the children happened to have long black hair, but there was a lot of black calico that had been got to cover school-books with. They cut strips of this into a sort of fine fringe, and fastened it round their heads with the amber-coloured ribbons off the girls' Sunday dresses. Then they stuck turkeys' feathers in the ribbons. The calico looked very like long black hair, especially when the strips began to curl up a bit.
The children proceed to paint themselves red (although they do acknowledge that the Native Americans besieging them appear "more brown") to trick the "Red Indians" an idle wish brought to life. Their enemies come to scalp the children and are fooled by these ridiculous stripes of fabric pretending to be hair. Not only are these "Indians" horrifying stereotypes, they're also really stupid!
I've enjoyed other E. Nesbit books, but this one doesn't have enough redeeming qualities to warrant a read in 2019.
This was freaking cute. Five children find a little sand-fairy in a nearby rock quarry when they're away at a summer house with their family. It can grant one wish a day, and no matter what the children seem to wish, it just doesn't turn out right. Being as beautiful as the day is long is great in theory, except no one believes that you are who you say you are, since you look so different. Having wings to fly with is nice, except you end up very hungry feeding all that movement, and stealing food to have enough energy to fly home is never a good plan. 'Be Careful What You Wish For' has been done delightfully well here, and paced perfectly at a chapter a night for children.