Edith Nesbit | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews

SFF Author: Edith Nesbit

book review E. Nesbit (1858-1924)
Edith Nesbit wrote children’s fantasy during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nesbit’s first great success was The Story of the Treasure-Seekers (1899). Her most celebrated book remains The Railway Children, published in 1906. Her great gift was the ability to create child characters who are real young human beings behaving naturally. Her unhappy marriage gave her much experience with children; as well as bringing up her own four by her philandering husband, she consented to bring Bland’s illegitimate offspring into her household. We have presented those books of Edith Nesbit’s that are easiest to find.

The Book of Dragons: Wonderful dragon stories for kids

The Book of Dragons by Edith Nesbit

Edith Nesbit writes the most clever and charming children’s stories. I love them. The Book of Dragons is a collection of eight delightful tales about dragons:

“The Book of Beasts” — Lionel, a young boy, is summoned to be the king after his great-great-great-something-grandfather dies. In the library of his new castle, he discovers the Book of Beasts and opens it. Out flies a red dragon who eats a soccer team and an orphanage. King Lionel must outwit the dragon with some help from a hippogriff and a manticore.

Five Children and It: Charming children’s fantasy in the public domain

Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit

Five Children and It combines eleven stories that Edith Nesbit wrote about five siblings who discovered a wish-granting fairy called The Psammead in the sandlot of the house they recently moved into. The stories were originally serialized in shorter form in Strand Magazine in 1900. The first story (the first chapter of the novel) tells how the children moved from London to Kent, explored their new house and yard, and found the Psammead. He grumpily agrees to grant the children a daily wish that will end at sundown.

The Phoenix and the Carpet: Nesbit was an innovative children’s writer

The Phoenix and the Carpet by Edith Nesbit

The Phoenix and the Carpet is Edith Nesbit’s sequel to Five Children and It, a collection of charming children’s stories published in 1902 which told how five siblings discovered a sand fairy which granted them a wish each day and how the children kept bungling what they wished for.

In The Phoenix and the Carpet, the children accidentally set fire to their nursery (while playing with fireworks!) and a new carpet must be brought in.

The Story of the Amulet: A charming classic

The Story of the Amulet by Edith Nesbit

The Story of the Amulet is a sequel to Edith Nesbit’s famous story collection, Five Children and It, in which five siblings discover a wish-granting sand fairy named The Psammead. Each story in Five Children and It tells of a single day when the children ask the Psammead for something they think they want. Their wishes always backfire and give Nesbit the opportunity to humorously illustrate the adage “be careful what you wish for.” At the end of Five Children and It,

The Enchanted Castle: Nesbit is a master of children’s literature

The Enchanted Castle by Edith Nesbit

Like most children’s fantasy adventures, The Enchanted Castle begins with several displaced children, removed from their usual situation due to unfortunate events, and finding their independence in new surroundings. In this case, Gerald, Jimmy and Kathleen find themselves staying at Kathleen’s school over the summer holidays in the care of her French teacher. But adventure is on the way, as soon they find a secret path into a beautiful garden where a young princess lies asleep in the centre of a hedge maze.

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SFF Author: Edith Nesbit

The Book of Dragons: Wonderful dragon stories for kids

Five Children and It: Charming children’s fantasy in the public domain

The Phoenix and the Carpet: Nesbit was an innovative children’s writer

The Story of the Amulet: A charming classic

The Enchanted Castle: Nesbit is a master of children’s literature

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