Five Children and It by E. NesbitBooks of Wonder, 1999 (originally T. Fisher Unwin, 1902)

Part of what is so pleasing about E. Nesbit’s books is the way that her children navigate through the world, and the world they navigate through: in this book, a summer-holiday-world of adults and sand-fairies and magical events and not very many other children. And, of course, I’m smitten with the British-ness of this story, and also with all the early-twentieth-century domestic details, the meals the children eat, the way a household is run.