The Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, The Story of the Amulet

The Psammead Trilogy #1-3

by Edith Nesbit

All three of E. Nesbit's delightful fantasies about the "Five Children" in one set. In each, five children (Robert, Anthea, Jane, Cyril, and "the baby") stumble on something magical. You will read about what happens when the Five Children discover an amulet in the form of a horseshoe that grows until it becomes a gateway through which the children can enter the past and future, and the unintended effect their new-found magic ring has on the maid! Here is a long-recognized classic that mixes fantasy and humour. Nesbit's world will enthrall and enchant and delight you all at once.

Genres: Fantasy, Classics, Childrens, Fiction, Adventure, Middle Grade, Historical Fiction

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1906

About the author

See E. Nesbit

Reviews

[Laura❄️📚 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has a special place in my heart, as my mum read it to me when I was 15 and off school with a kidney infection. During the week I was confined to bed and mum was taking care of me, we read all 3 stories in this book and I will always hold those memories in my heart. Enid Blyton was a much loved author from my childhood.

[MeenaG · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was funny and I loved her writing style, I have not seen it in another book I've read and I really enjoyed it.
I missed the Psammead (a lovely, grumpy old sand-fairy) in the second book but was very happy to see him return in the last book (which was my favourite).

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like I gave myself an early Christmas present by re-reading these 3 Edith Nesbit books. These 3 books – Five Children and It; The Phoenix and the Carpet; and The Story of the Amulet are among the very best of her writing. All three feature the Pemberton family: Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane and The Lamb – the baby nicknamed because his first word was Baa. Five Children and It is my favorite and it’s the first that introduces the Psammead or sand fairy. The children meet the Psammead and learn he can grant wishes - but unfortunately (or frequently fortunately) the wishes only last until sunset. The children wish for beauty, wings, riches, and for The Lamb to be grown up with hilarious results.
The Phoenix and the Carpet is the second book and the lucky Pemberton children find that the used carpet purchased for them is actually a magic carpet that can transport them wherever they wish. And when the carpet was first unrolled, an egg was found that hatched into a Phoenix. The carpet can only grant 3 trips per day, so they often find themselves stranded in unfortunate circumstances and the Phoenix provides advice and help. The children travel to Persia and India, catch a burglar, get rid of a hateful cook and have many other adventures. In their last adventure, The Story of the Amulet, they find a magical amulet in a junk shop that allows them to travel through time. They see Atlantis, meet Julius Caesar, visit ancient Egypt and also take a trip into the future.
This particular book also included all the original illustrations by H.R. Millar and was a treat to not only read but view all the lovely illustrations.

[aMandalin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was unrealistically in the fantasy category. But that’s kind of what made it fun. For some reason I was expecting something slightly more believable like Narnia or LOTR. Regardless, I liked The 5 Children and It. That’s the only story I read. The scrapes these kids get themselves in and out of are pretty unique and somewhat humorous.

[Nor'dzin Pamo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like to read a classic children's story now and then - one I missed out on as a child. I find it relaxing and refreshing. I chose this one for a coach journey. I feel that The Psammead has not stood the test of time as well as other E. Nesbit books. There were some interesting twists in how the wishes went wrong, but mostly it was rather peculiar and a little tiresome. Have this family never heard of a packed lunch? The endless moaning about missing dinner or tea was irritating. I'm not sure a present-day child would find it held their interest, and I don't think I'll be reading this one to my grandchildren.

[Sid_rw · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this series when I was a child.

[Suzanne Planque · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was led to the great E. Nesbit by Edward Eager, who wrote his own brilliant series of books about children encountering magic. In each volume, he made a point of speaking directly to the reader, usually in the voice of a character, about the great E. Nesbit.

While the books have a completely different voice from the more modern stories by Eager, there is a distinct family resemblance. E. Nesbit did something quite revolutionary in her books. She write about children who seemed real. In the Victorian era, children in books were usually angelic or villainous. The children in Five Children and It and The Phoenix and the Carpet were neither. They were kids who got into trouble and didn’t always do as they were told and argued with their siblings sometimes—kids who were funny and real and acted the way I thought I might have, had I been alive back then.

I actually really liked the Victorian language when I was a kid. It gave me a sense of time and place. I don’t know if today’s kids would feel the same way. In the time between my childhood and my own child’s, books for children have changed quite a bit. Five Children and Phoenix and the Carpet proceed at a much more leisurely pace than today’s books, which seem to start smack in the middle of the action and proceed apace from there. But my twelve year old enjoyed the adventures. He also liked the Victorian language. He likes dense, thick books in general, though.
The Psammead and the Phoenix are wonderful magical creatures. They are powerful and cranky and fussy and so very real. The kids are frequently all these things as well.
You know the tropes, the kids who find a magical creature, or a magical object, and they have to learn to use it wisely. The magic teaches them some lessons along the way.
Here. This is where those stories started.
Give them a try. Let them take you back to a slower, more mannered world.
I think you will be happy that you did.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an anthology of three books by the early 20th century children's author, E. Nesbit. I love her books. They are full of escapades the four older children, Cyril, Robert, Anthea and Jane, get into, while occasionally dragging their baby brother, the Lamb, along with them.
In the first book, the children encounter a Sand Fairy who grants them one wish a day. How glorious! Although.... there are problems. When one wishes to be, for example, as beautiful as the day, one's baby brother may not recognize them. Neither will the servants, who are in charge of the all important meals. Luckily the wishes wear off at sunset. Children, and adults for that matter, will utter the fateful words, Ï wish" and suddenly total strangers are fighting for possession of their baby brother, who they really don't want to give away at all.
The second book involves a magic carpet which takes them to wonderful and not so wonderful places. Romantic sounding ancient worlds had a lot of wars, which, after all, were frightening and dangerous. Also travel by carpet tended to wear out the carpet and leave gaping holes, through which the travelers might fall.
In the third book, the children's mother falls ill and goes to Madeira to recover, taking the Lamb with her. Their father is a war correspondent and is sent to Manchuria. The children are sent to stay with their Old Nurse, who lived near the British Museum and took in lodgers. On what was intended to be an innocent walk to St. James's park to feed the ducks, they encounter the sand fairy in a petshop, and then a strange looking Egyptian object in a curio shop. The combination of the two leads to some very interesting adventures in antiquity.
I am actually not sure if 21st century children with their regimented lives, could relate to the adventures of the four children, who go about by themselves without any supervision. But if you long for a time without a regimented childhood, this book is for you.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kids and I read The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit, then the story "Five Children and It" showed up in our readings from Writing With Ease, our homeschool writing curriculum, so I decided to read it with them. It is very British, early 20th century writing for children (around 1905). Oddly enough, while I was reading it with them, I came across a reference to the book in a modern British book. The story focuses on 5 children (really only 4 characters most of the time, because one is a baby, nicknamed the Lamb) who find a "sand-fairy" called a Psammead (a term Nesbit made up, based on ancient Greek roots for "sand" and and ending like Dryads, Orads, Naiads, etc.). The Psammead grants wishes, but the wishes do not ever turn out the way the kids hope. In the end, the children give up access to the Psammead. The children return in later stories - "The Phoenix and the Carpet," in which they meet a magical talking Phoenix and a carpet that grants wishes. The Psammead is mentioned, but only appears "off camera." Then they had a third adventure in which the Psammead features a bit more prominently - "The Story of the Amulet" - in which they obtain part of a magical amulet and travel space and time searching for the other half and having adventures. Anyway, the book was very entertaining, though occasionally very politically incorrect by modern standards (the British Empire was a going concern when this was written, and there are references to "gipsies" and "savages" and such).

[✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*Alaina✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remembered really liking 5 children and It when I was younger, so I thought I would try reading the whole trilogy.

Sadly it was really disappointing- after the first book ( 5 children and It) the writing really disintegrates, the characters get super whiny and annoying and on the whole it just falls apart.

I also didn't realize how much Nesbit's socialist idealogies would come out in a children's book.

All in all, I would recommend Five Children and It, especially to a younger audience, but the next two books are overall a waste of time :/

DNFd at 74%

[Vicky Dworkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Return to my childhood

I love this trilogy. I remember it from my childhood when my grandmother used to read it aloud to us. I recently read the much newer Five Children on the Western Front, and had to re-read this to refresh my memory for that well done spin-off novel.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a child, I would have loved this book -- so the rating reflects that.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great and fantastical children's literature with important lessons still relevant today

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five Children and It - 5 star
The Phoenix and the Carpet - 4 star
The Story of the Amulet - 3 star
Narration - 5 star

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Time is just a mode of thought, you know."

Cathy Dobson reads these three classics in a cultured British accent with just a hint of amusement--perfect for the prose's tone and the children's interactions with the various historical and magical creatures they encounter. The stories themselves are great too, though with some distinctly dated elements that make them, at best, period pieces: "Red Indians" peering through the windows in FIVE CHILDREN AND IT, "copper skinned savages" taking the children's white Cook as their goddess in PHOENIX AND THE CARPET, and along with those white skinned predynastic Egyptians in STORY OF THE AMULET, there's Jane's "I quite like being a slave." Yoicks.

[Lynn]

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[Brynna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such fun. Just the thing for a sick day (or two)!

[WSL Library]

X2

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three novels in one, but all interconnected, so it was fun. I loved the time period it was written in and the old style of the children. It was full of magic and adventure, so it was a fun read.

[LOL_BOOKS]

I CAN ACTUALLY THINK OF FAR MOAR CHILDREN'S BOOKS IL THAN ~*~TEEN BOOKS~*~, AND IT'S NOT JUST THE NOSTALGIA.

I TRIED TO READ FIVE CHILDREN AND IT, BUT NEVER FINISHED BECAUSE IT WAS SO BORING.

[lethe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Five Children and It: finished 29 October 2000, **
The Phoenix and the Carpet: finished 13 November 2000, ***
The Story of the Amulet: finished 11 December 2000, **

[Literate _Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book in the trilogy is a 5 star book. The last one is a bit of a dud.

[Sarah Lou · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I had read these as a child as I wouldn't have picked up on the sexism! But there are some really imaginative ideas in the Amulet. I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of the future

[Lynn Calvin]

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