Five Children and It by E. Nesbitt

Friday, January 25, 2008

Challenges
19th Century Women Authors
Numbers
This is the third book I've read by Ms. Nesbitt, and I have to say I was disappointed. I know it's children's literature, but it seemed particularly childish to me. Still I did laugh in a couple of spots, so there were good points.
This is the story of four children whose parents leave them alone at the summer home with just the servants and their baby brother. While exploring, they decide to dig a hole to China in a gravel pit and instead discover a strange creature. The creature grants them a wish every day; and the wishes never turn out good. So the children get into all kinds of trouble even though their wish always ends at sunset. Some of the wishes include being beautiful (no one knows who they are); having wings (they fall asleep on the roof of the church and wake up after sunset); and wishing anyone would want the baby so they wouldn't have to watch him (they spend the rest of the day rescuing the baby from people who decide they should have the baby). It sounds really cute, doesn't it? I just must not have been in the right mood.
Rating: 3
Posted by Framed at 6:05 PM

5 comments:
pussreboots said...
Your assessment of Five Children and It is spot on. I think I enjoyed it more than you but I agree that it was rather childish. It's not one of Nesbitt's strongest novels.
1/25/2008 10:39 PM
Nymeth said...
I've been meaning to try E. Nesbit's novels, because I do enjoy her short stories. Looks like this wouldn't be a good one to start with.
1/26/2008 12:48 PM
Petunia said...
This is a fun one to read aloud to children. I thought it was more entertaining than The Railway Children.
1/26/2008 2:26 PM
Jeane said...
I did like this book as a kid, but I think it's one I couldn't re-read as an adult.
1/26/2008 7:21 PM
Darla D said...
I recently reread this one to my kids, and we all enjoyed it. Nymeth, you might try starting with The Story of the Treasure Seekers, which I think is my favorite (or at least the one that made me laugh out loud the most).