Five Children and It (book)

You may have seen Five Children and It in a used bookshop or at the library or any other place of this sort. Also if you are like me you would have picked it up (maybe read the back) and then probably set it down thinking it was another childish fairy-tale. This however is not. This book was written by Edith Nesbit. Edith Nesbit was one of first people (with George McDonald) to write Fantasy stories.

The style of the writing in the book is a little different that that of modern day writing, but I have grown to like it a lot.

The story is about five children- Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane, and the Lamb. (Which is their baby brother's nickname, and yes, I do agree that is very odd nickname but if you read the full book you'll notice that they all have animal nicknames.- The story starts with them moving into a house with a sand pit next it. One day they are digging in the sand and find a mysterious figure. It was a Psammead (a Sand Fairy) (pronounced Sammy-add). This Psammead can grant one wish per day to these children. The story is about them asking for wishes that would seem wonderful at the time but turns out badly in the end.

Now because I am writing a Christian Review on this book I will tell the how appropriate it would be. One of the things I really appreciated about this book is that there was not much wrong with it. Although the things I did find were this:

• The four oldest children treated the youngest badly by disregarding him  a lot.
• They were greedy in the first part (but I might be if I found a fairy).

 Other that this it was a spectacular book. I highly recommend it to all who have not heard of it. Have you read this book? If so write us a comment telling us how you liked it.