The Phoenix and the Carpet by E. NesbitPuffin Books, 1994 (orginally T. Fisher Unwin, 1904)

This is the second book of the trilogy that begins with Five Children and It, and this one is my favorite. The children find an egg wrapped inside a cheap carpet that their mother’s bought, and the egg turns out to be a phoenix, and the carpet turns out to be a magic carpet. Adventures ensue, of course: escapes from November-gloomy London, travels to France and India and a tropical island. This book feels more funny and clever than the first one, perhaps because Nesbit lets magic infiltrate the adult world without always having negative consequences: there’s a great episode in the offices of a fire-insurance company, and also an entertaining bit with a burglar. Also wonderful: the paperback Puffin Classics edition I read uses the original illustrations by H.R. Millar, and they’re perfect.