The Enchanted Castle

by E. Nesbit, Betty Fraser (Illustrator)

Jerry, Jimmy, and Cathy stumble upon a mysterious castle with a beautiful princess asleep in the garden. The princess is really Mabel, the housekeeper's niece, who is only pretending to be royalty. But when she shows them a secret room filled with treasure where they discover a magical ring, enchantment becomes a reality.

Genres: Fantasy, Classics, Childrens, Fiction, Middle Grade, Young Adult, Audiobook

275 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1907

About the author

Edith Nesbit (married name Edith Bland; 15 August 1858 – 4 May 1924) was an English author and poet; she published her books for children under the name of E. Nesbit.
She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television. She was also a political activist and co-founded the Fabian Society, a socialist organisation later connected to the Labour Party.

Edith Nesbit was born in Kennington, Surrey, the daughter of agricultural chemist and schoolmaster John Collis Nesbit. The death of her father when she was four and the continuing ill health of her sister meant that Nesbit had a transitory childhood, her family moving across Europe in search of healthy climates only to return to England for financial reasons. Nesbit therefore spent her childhood attaining an education from whatever sources were available—local grammars, the occasional boarding school but mainly through reading.

At 17 her family finally settled in London and aged 19, Nesbit met Hubert Bland, a political activist and writer. They became lovers and when Nesbit found she was pregnant they became engaged, marrying in April 1880. After this scandalous (for Victorian society) beginning, the marriage would be an unconventional one. Initially, the couple lived separately—Nesbit with her family and Bland with his mother and her live-in companion Maggie Doran.

Initially, Edith Nesbit books were novels meant for adults, including The Prophet's Mantle (1885) and The Marden Mystery (1896) about the early days of the socialist movement. Written under the pen name of her third child 'Fabian Bland', these books were not successful. Nesbit generated an income for the family by lecturing around the country on socialism and through her journalism (she was editor of the Fabian Society's journal, Today).

In 1899 she had published The Adventures of the Treasure Seekers to great acclaim.

Reviews

[Manny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a novel I like a lot, which I've experienced in different ways at different points in my life. I first read it when I was six or seven, and thought it was a great story. There are these kids, and they find a castle, and a magic ring. At first they think it's an invisibility ring. Then, to their surprise, they find it can make inanimate objects come to life, or make you rich. After a while, they come to a truly startling conclusion: the ring can do anything at all! When its latest power wears off, the owner can just tell it what new power it is to acquire. They come up with some creative ideas, which are a lot of fun; one of the best ones is where they find that the statues in the castle's grounds come to life at night, and they can themselves become living statues. One of the statues is a life-size brontosaurus. Like many seven year olds, I loved dinosaurs. This ring was amazing!

The rest of this review is available elsewhere (the location cannot be given for Goodreads policy reasons)

[Jan-Maat]

I started this book in the naive hope that it would be a palate cleanser after the book on Pierpont Morgan. While it was mildly more sophisticated than Five children and It it seemed less adroit than The Railway Children, and again as always with E.Nesbit, founder member of the Fabian Society, part of me is reading wondering 'where's the Socialism' afterall what's the point of writing children's books if you can't slip in some good old fashioned Agitprop??

Then all the statues in a park, dinosaurs and the gods of the Greeks and Romans, come to life in the moonlight and all is well.

The basic premise is the same as Five Children and It - be careful what you wish for. But Nesbit has developed beyond using this as a strictly episodic formula, and there is a hint of a framing narrative in the separated lovers brought together inadvertently through the actions of the children. There's a splash of equality in how the daughter of a housekeeper interacts with the three upper middle class children, but the fear of being stolen by gypsies persists, while shades of Empire are present in one of the boys blackening his face to pretend that he is a fakir at a fair - much the same technique is used in the earlier Five Children and It to provide the children with enough capital to sustain the remainder of the novel. Evidently Nesbit assumed that fair ground goers were unlikely to have read her earlier book - let this stand as warning to us all - if you don't read you're at risk of being conned by literary children.

And as an added bonus we get to read about Ancient Britons enjoying their traditional drinks - such as Raspberry Vinegar with Soda Water...

[Hilary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is wonderful. I have memories of this reading this as a child and of watching a BBC serial of the book when I was 6 yrs old. Reliving the part of the story that stuck with me, the part where the children put on a play and short of audience members they make some out of hats, coats and hockey sticks and paint paper masks for faces, which then under the magic of the ring come alive and are described in the most sinister way and have to be entombed in an underground vault until the magic wears off and they become a pile of clothes again reminded me just how much I had enjoyed the magic in this book but also probably explained why I was scared of the dark, being alone, having to sleep with my back to the wall etc.

The story follows some children who come across an enchanted castle. The descriptions of magic and outdoor and imaginative play are wonderful. We loved the fact the magic ring wasn't just a wishing ring but was a ring that was whatever you said it was. The children's banter with each other is so real and entertaining, E. Nesbit is very skilled in her observation of childhood relationships. When I read this as a child the book was very old and now it is ancient so it is interesting to hear of the odd mention of a 'motor' meaning car, and it was interesting to hear the children using the word 'rum' meaning odd and 'rummun' meaning someone up to no good which is commonly used today where we live to mean exactly the same thing. The author has a lovely sense of humour in the characters speech and little details.

The culmination of the book was very good, I really want to reread this part, very magical and philosophical and all very cleverly tied up. We so felt for the children when they weren't believed! We felt that P.L Travers must have read this book and taken some of her inspiration and ideas for magical parts of Mary Poppins from this book. Highly recommended for those who love children's classics and magical adventures.

[Louie the Mustache Matos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want everyone that follows my reviews to understand that in certain matters my objectivity succumbs to my subjectivity, as in this book. I try: God knows, I try. This is a first time read for me, despite the book’s status as “Classic.” It really reminded me of my own childhood with my brother, Marc, and my sister, Dee. We were as close and precocious as Jerry, Jimmy, and Cathy, getting into all sorts of troublesome adventures. This is a very magical sort of read, as the title suggests, filled to the seams with whimsical fancies, and imagination run amok. You have to enjoy fantasy, clearly, and be capable of wearing nostalgia goggles that hearken to a happy childhood where imagination tinted the world in vivid preternatural colors that were amplified by truly wonderful siblings. Loved this book. Published in 1907, over 100 years ago, it qualifies as a classic under my 3 criteria: longevity, exceptional, and a new paradigm.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

E. Nesbit is one of the greatest authors of all time. You might not think so, but if you could only see the chain of minds that lead directly from children like me who read her books and grew up to be grown ups that believe in the power of both magic, and common sense, it would be a golden chain of the greatest stories of magic for the last 100 years.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are two types of enchantment in this book. One is the everyday sort, evidenced by how enthralled the reader might be as they proceed through the book, and especially by the young charmer Gerald who sweet-talks his way through pretty much every situation. This is enchantment that lives up to the term's origins, where chanting, speaking, singing and silent perusal of words creates the magic that keeps us literally in its spell.

Then there is the sort of enchantment that manifests itself most strikingly in this book, the kind described eloquently by Nesbit herself in Chapter Nine: "There is a curtain, thin as gossamer, clear as glass, strong as iron, that hangs forever between the world of magic and the world that seems to us to be real. And when once people have found one of the little weak spots in that curtain which are marked by magic rings, and amulets and the like, almost anything may happen." And in The Enchanted Castle it inevitably does.

The theme of the book can be described as "Be careful what you wish for." Siblings Gerald, Kathleen and James find themselves absolutely free to enjoy their affluent middle-class summer holiday in a West of England private school, near the fictional village of Liddlesby. A youthful expedition takes them into the grounds of Yalding Castle where they meet with housekeeper's daughter Mabel and find that magic of the everyday sort gets rapidly superceded by enchantment that makes their holidays unforgettable.

Nesbit wrote for a middle-class audience of more than a century ago and sensibilities in manners and language have shifted over that time, but not so much that we can't have sympathy for the children that Nesbit has conjured up for this tale. Witty resourceful Gerald steals the show but Mabel impresses too, and Mademoiselle's literal translations into English of French vocabulary and idioms are well and humorously observed (no doubt informed by Edith's own childhood education in France). The joyous culmination of the enchantments has much in common with 'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn' chapter of the nearly contemporary Wind in the Willows; both works perhaps were a kind of final golden vision of Edwardian England before the horrors of the Great War were visited on all and sundry.

[ari 🪷]

i was wrong i’ve never been more wrong 😭 this book was so boring, it’s the worst children’s book i’ve ever read and would not recommend at all; idk about kids though

this book had too many details for me to care.

do anushka and i seriously have to have such books every month? like give us amazing 5 star reads instead of such ☹️

sorry anushka for making you start this book. i am, from the bottom of my feet feeling bad for ever even considering reading this book and making you suffer too

no rating cause it’s my fault i picked it up 🫢
i think kids would enjoy this?

——————————————————————

pre-read
another kids' book but its about a castle with magic

[Ariel · Rating 5 out of 5]

An old favorite that I just re-read and it's still so wonderful. I think my favorite part is when the respectable Ugly Wugly goes into the secret passage and finds "a really good hotel," because as E. Nesbit so truly points out, that really is some people's idea of a dream come true. Excitingly, my daughter is reading it now and discovering the magic of E. Nesbit. My life and point of view has been so shaped by the English children's books I read as a child that it is very exciting to see her be attracted to that literary world or set of worlds and enter them.

[anushka ♡]

Gosh noooo, skimmed through it.
Prapti was narrating this book to me (goooood job✨️) and i can't concentrate on audiobooks for the love of god😭 and this boring book was making it so much worse. I even tried reading the ebook along w the audio to be interested but just nah.
I guess its prapti and my fault to agree on reading this.
But you see, it sounded interesting, yk enchanted castle, magic stuff. But we were wrooonnnnggg

[Trin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why don't more people know about E. Nesbit? (Kids these days! cries the 23-year-old.) Her fantasies are rich and original, with an undercurrent of creepy that keeps me coming back even as a (semi-)adult(ish-type-person). The sequence with the statues in this book is especially shiver-worthy if you've read Nesbit's short horror story, "Man-Size in Marble," which I highly recommend. (It's in the Edward Gorey-edited-and-illustrated Haunted Looking Glass, recently re-issued.)

New note: Anyone who recently saw and enjoyed the Doctor Who episode "Blink" REALLY needs to read both of the above!

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining children's story liberally sprinkled with moments of profundity. Here's an example of her describing an experience the children have with a strange light in the midst of living statues:

"Everything changes or, rather, everything is revealed. There are no more secrets. The plan of the world seems plain, like an easy sum that one writes in big figures on a child's slate. One wonders how one can ever have wondered about anything. Space is not; every place that one has seen or dreamed of is here. Time is not; into this instant is crowded all that one has ever done or dreamed of doing. It is a moment and it is eternity. It is the centre of the universe and it is the universe itself. The eternal light rests on and illuminates the eternal heart of things."

I can see why C.S. Lewis was a fan and can see how reading her children's stories could have played a part in convincing him to write the Chronicles of Narnia. And now I'm obligated to read more myself.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heard a conference paper on this story in Summer 2023. The book has some interesting passages about science vs. magic. In a few places, the verb tense changed to present, which seemed intended to highlight something, but I wasn't always sure what.

The end (pp. 237–38) captivated me; I don't think I've had a feeling like that since Lewis's The Last Battle. For much of the book, I thought I might give it 3 stars, but the ending pushed it to 4.

Here's a fun passage from p. 76:
"The incident of the invisible princess had surprised, the incident of the conjuring had excited, and the sudden decision to be a detective had brought its own anxieties; but all these happenings, though wonderful and unusual, had seemed to be, after all, inside the circle of possible things - wonderful as the chemical experiments are where two liquids poured together make fire, surprising as legerdemain, thrilling as a juggler's display, but nothing more. Only now a new feeling came to him as he walked through those gardens; by day those gardens were like dreams, at night they were like visions. He could not see his feet as he walked, but he saw the movement of the dewy grass-blades that his feet displaced. And he had that extraordinary feeling so difficult to describe, and yet so real and so unforgettable - the feeling that he was in another world, that had covered up and hidden the old world as a carpet covers a floor. The floor was there all right, underneath, but what he walked on was the carpet that covered it - and that carpet was drenched in magic, as the turf was drenched in dew."

[Kailey (Luminous Libro) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three siblings are spending their school holidays stuck at school, so they go exploring around the countryside, hoping to find some adventure. They stumble into a beautiful garden estate where they go through a maze, finding what appears to be a young princess in an enchanted sleep. When they awaken her, it proves to be only Mabel, the housekeeper's daughter. But Mabel assures them that magic enchantment is real, and the children explore the gardens with a magic ring that transforms their holidays into a wild adventure.

I love Edith Nesbit's books! Her stories are always so imaginative. The writing sweeps you away into a fairyland, but the characters still have to deal with ordinary things like getting scolded if they ruin their best clothes while playing outside.

All Nesbit's stories have grand wishes and mysterious magic side by side with bacon and eggs for breakfast. It's a perfect blend of fairy tale and ordinariness. It makes you look around at the world feeling as though a genie or a magic ring could be around any corner.

[Sarah Hale · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book very close to my heart, and in my top ten of my all-time favourite classic children's books. I first read this when I was 8 or 9, and have re-read it many times since. In fact my copy is looking decidedly battered and worse for wear (you always know you're on to a good book when the cover threatens to fall off). In many ways this is an underrated novel of E. Nesbit, and I will readily admit it is not one of her best. Nonetheless, I still love it more than 'The Railway Children', 'The Treasure Seekers', etc, with perhaps the exception of 'The Story of the Amulet' (the sequel to 'Five Children and It'), which comes a very close second.

The story concerns three children, two brothers (Gerald and Jimmy), and their sister, Cathy. They are on holiday, away from their parents (don't all the best adventures happen on these types of occasions?), and staying in Cathy's boarding school under the supervision of the French schoolmistress, who sits around looking wistful. To break the monotony of the boarding house, they decide to explore the local countryside, and get hopelessly lost. They come across a hole in a hedge which leads to an underground passage, which itself leads them into a beautiful garden with an ornate castle at its centre. The garden is seemingly deserted, and the feeling of magic grows as they come to the entrance of a maze. Following a scarlet thread, which brings them to the maze's epicentre, they discover a sleeping princess, who Jimmy wakens with a smacker on her cheek (Gerald ought to have done this as he was the eldest, but he chickened out). After providing a feast for them in the castle (bread and cheese) the princess turns out not to be a princess after all, but a girl named Mabel. Nonetheless she does possess a magic ring...

'The Enchanted Castle' is a very episodic, with the children having different adventures in each chapter. What joins the chapters together to a unified whole is the enchanted ring. Through its powers they can become invisible and make wishes. They help the local policeman catch a burglar, make the statues in the garden come alive, and help the French schoolteacher find her long lost love. The wishes they make also quite naturally get them into all sorts of scrapes, including getting the ring stuck on their finger, growing too tall in 'Alice in Wonderland' style, and making inanimate objects come alive into 'Uglie-Wuglies', more terrifying than it sounds. Throughout all this, Nesbit writes in her typically relaxed, natural style, and her characters, while not well-rounded, talk and act like real children (albeit from 1907). It is this inherent realism that makes the magical elements seem so real. Special mention should also go to H. R. Millar, who illustrated the original book with evocative line drawings, effectively capturing the main elements of the story. In short, I can't praise this book highly enough. As the tattered state of my personal copy can testify, I love it to bits.

[Melissa McShane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I re-read this recently while I was experimenting with my new e-reader and downloading free books sourced from Project Gutenberg. I have a theory that the format in which you read a book affects your reading experience, that an e-book is actually different from a print book, and the different editions of a print book offer a changed experience. (It occurs to me that you might create this effect simply by altering the font and size in your e-book, too.) But in this case, my enjoyment was marred by a weird effect in which none of the em-dashes were rendered, and this is a big deal because Nesbit used them a lot. I think I would have liked it better had I read my own old print copy, so very familiar, that would bring back memories of having read that book, that particular book, many times before. Still, I'm keeping my original rating on the grounds that I'm not going to ding the book simply because of a formatting error.

I've always loved this book because the magic is so clever a ring that is what you say it is and because the unintended consequences of the magic are so natural. It's also got some supremely creepy moments like when all the paper people come to life, but they have no roofs to their mouths, so they can't speak clearly and a sweet love story I don't think I appreciated when I was young. I'm a little annoyed with how Gerald, the oldest brother, seems to be the only sensible one; everyone else has a lot of silly moments, particularly the girls. But aside from that, I still really love this book.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enchanting! I think I would've been obsessed with this book as a child. It definitely inspires the imagination. I like how it just jumped right in to magical happenings with no real explanation--it just assumed the reader will accept that things can be magical if you are willing to believe. The epilogue with the newspaper article cracked me up.

[CLM · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Gerald, Kathleen and Jimmy find the enchanted castle they don't immediately take it seriously. Yet bit by bit they realize the magic is more powerful than expected, and they need every ounce of imagination and courage to come out on top.

[Kavya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book as a quick read to complete my Pre-Tolkien requirement for a reading bingo. So the irony that the Pre Tolkien book I picked turned out to be a different type of cautionary tale about the danger of magic rings is rather delightful.

[Aleksandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adventure is always a few steps ahead! This thought continues echoing throughout the tale. Whether it's hiding under our blankets, imagining there's a vast cave next door or looking for pearls, emeralds and marbles.

Indeed, I haven't read a more heart-warming and jovial story than the story of Jerry, Jimmy and Cathy.

The siblings whose friendship and mutual loyalty strengthens as they're mastering the art of dealing with various supernatural beings. Three personalities - three different, yet thouroughly enjoyable ways of getting their messages across.

Reflective, profound and ornamented with blissful metaphors and examples of mythology. As an ardent reader, I admire the way Nesbit makes us think upon magic and its many ways of interpretation.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say about this book? It was magical. From the magic ring which becomes whatever you want it to be to the statues that come alive in the moonlight. It is full of magical adventures and oh so much fun.

[Carol Bakker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Be careful what you wish for!

Edith Nesbit understands kids, and she especially understands boys. (She and Beverly Clearly are top-notch boy understanders.)

[Paula · Rating 2 out of 5]

Los niños protagonistas, los cuatro, insoportables.

[Motahare Ghaderi · Rating 5 out of 5]

جرالد گفت:"حلقه چه قدر بی گناه و معصوم به نظر می آید!اصلا کسی فکر نمی کند جادویی باشد!درست مثل یک حلقه ی قدیمی معمولی ست"
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بله!این کتاب خواستگاه ایده ی بزرگ نویسنده ی عزیز و تکرار نشدنی-تالکین بزرگ-بوده.ایده ی حلقه ی قدرتی که از قضا نامرئی می کنه
و من این کتاب رو وقتی شروع به خوندنش کردم با چنان احترامی در دست گرفتم که نگو.به هر حال هرچی باشه الهام بخش تالکین بوده
و بخوام بی پرده بگم از همون اولش خیال می کردم وارد دنیایی می شم که توش جادوگرای بدجنس وجود داره و شاهزاده خانم های واقعی و افسون شده و جن و پری
داستانی که در دنیایی غیر از دنیای واقعی که ما رو احاطه کرده اتفاق می افته و به کل متفاوته
ولی اینطور نبود.و من فرصت اینو داشتم که بخوره تو ذوقم.
ولی کتاب که آمیخته از رفتارهای واقع گرایانه و جادوباورانه بود شیرینی ظریفی داشت که آدمو به دنبال خودش می کشید.
ماجراهای چهارتا بچه در دنیایی که از قضا خیلی واقعیه و اصلا توش شاهزاده خانم افسون شده ای وجود نداره و وسط این همه خیال پردازی هایی که این چهار تا بچه انجام میدن و همشون خیالِ صرف باقی می مونن یکیشون واقعی میشه.و اون چیزی نیست جز : حلقه ی آرزو ها
حلقه ای که می تونه نامرئیت کنه
میتونه کاری کنه مجسمه شی
یا سه متر و نیم شی
ثروتمند شی
یا معشوقه تو پیدا کنی
حلقه ای که چشم تو رو به افسونی که پنهان از چشم انسان ها در جهان جریان داره باز می کنه و کمکت می کنه شجاع باشی
حلقه ای که "قلب تمام جادوهاست

از ابتدای پیدا کردن حلقه و به انگشت کردنش، بچه ها با دردسر هازیادی که حلقه به وجود میاره رو به رو میشن و هر بار هم خود حلقه به خاطر افسون زمانی که در جادوهاش وجود داره به برطرف شدن مشکل ها کمک می کنه و همین باعث میشه که خیلی دردسر ها عمیق نباشن و تو خیالت تخت باشه که تا 7 یا 14 یا 21 ساعت دیگه دردسره خود به خود برطرف میشه

و داستان سلسله ای از این دردسر ها و اتفاقات به هم پیوسته ست که دست به دست هم میدن تا خیلی نرم و ظریف و آهسته از راز حلقه پرده بردارن و تو هی ذوق میکنی که :آخجون عجب چیز مرموزیه این حلقه یعنی چه قصه ای پشت سرشه؟

همه ی این چیزها داستانو دوست داشتنی می کنه.و وسعت تصاویر و اتفاقاتی که تو داستان وجود دارن و توصیفات و مکان هایی که نویسنده خلق می کنه

فقط بدیش اینه که تهش همچین یهویی و الکی یه داستانی برا حلقه تحویلت میده که پوکر فیس میشی ولی خب در طول داستان (به عنوان یه داستان نوجوان)اونقدری ماجرا به خوردت میده که از این آخریه چشم پوشی کنی.
مطمئنم اگه این قصه رو تو بچگیم خونده بودم مسحور جادوی جاری در اون می شدم.فلذا این داستان رو تو بچگی بچه هاتون بهشون هدیه بدین:دی

یه نکته ی خیلی دوست داشتنی دیگه راجع به داستان وجود داره و اون اینه که ،آفرینش مکان های پر ماجرا و دل انگیز که مو رو به تنت سیخ می کنن و دلت میخواد جای جری و جیمی و کتی و می بل تو بودی که پاتو تو اون مکان می ذاشتی؛توصیفات و خلق مکان های داستان برای منِ رویا و ماجرا پسند به شدت دل انگیز بود به حدی که یکی از مکان های خلق شده در داستان یعنی راهروی تاریک زیر زمینی توی جزیره که به یه معبد سرشار از نور و تصاویر زنده ختم می شد تا آخر عمرم در ذهنم (در صورت عدم ابتلا به آلزایمر) زنده و روشن و هیجان انگیز باقی خواهد موند

[Luisa Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a hilarious twist at the beginning!!

I don't want to give anything away but I was quite surprised and pleased with how the story began. Very extraordinary and entirely clever - I had to chuckle!

The story is about two brothers and a sister that find themselves on an adventure during their school holiday. All kinds of fascinating things happen to them when they go through a little tunnel and come upon a castle ... an enchanted castle, it would seem!

A touch slow at times but worth the read as there's mystery, comical moments, enchanting scenes and a little romance too.

Ages: 9+

Cleanliness: The story takes place in present day England and children stumble upon a ring with magical capabilities. Typical fairy-tale spells, statues coming to life, granted wishes, etc. The word "*ss" and "n*gger" are used.

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[Elena Delos · Rating 5 out of 5]

¡Uno jamás termina de aprender! Hace poco fui a mi librería de viejo favorita (que vende libros en excelentes condiciones, lucen como nuevos y son originales, además de tener ofertas increíbles!) y encontré un librito llamado "el castillo encantado" y se me enredó en los dedos, por ende lo traje a casa ¡y que bueno! pues no conocía la obra de Nesbit y me impresioné mucho, ahora entiendo de donde es que se inspiraron grandes como C S Lewis...

La historia de tres hermanitos que conocen un castillo que realmente estaba encantado, me sedujo al primer párrafo, una novela fantástica hermosa y tierna, llena de aventuras. Se posiciona en lo alto de mis lecturas favoritas.

[Kate Willis · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a super fun coincidence how J and I both got each other E. Nesbit books for our challenge.

What is less fun is that this feels very much like a more magical version of Five Children and It except less iconic and with more casual racism.

I did enjoy the addition of a love story and how the wishes tied together instead of being separate mini-adventures. And Gerald's narration habit was rather fun.

I would probably have enjoyed this more if it wasn't so similar in concept.

CW: a character does blackface. Use of the n-word, g*psey, and a word that is also a slur but likely had a different meaning when this book was written.

[Milica DIY · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The literature I grew up with did not have prose that remarkable, and although the media I consumed was not that bad, I know that children are often condescended to and given ridiculous plots and horrendous prose, which has been a problem even before Tolkien and Lewis started writing their famous series."

You can read the rest of the review here:

https://thebookbreather.blogspot.com/...

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The banter and humor was fantastic and subtle. I need to go on another adventure with Nesbit and see what other characters she comes up with. Her writing is magic. The Railway Children is next!

[Becca Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think I enjoyed this quite as much as I enjoyed The Five Children and It, but it was pretty great. I have huge respect for the way E Nesbit wrote and captured the hearts and imaginations of children and adults. She certainly inspired writers who told stories that I enjoy even more than her own novels. I'm going to look for a biography of her because I'd love to know more about her life.

[Haleigh DeRocher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant.