Five Children and It

Continuously in print since its original publication in 1892, Five Children and It is the story of five children who find a cantankerous sand fairy in a gravel pit. Every day It grants each child a wish that lasts until sunset, often with disastrous consequences. Kemp examines Nesbit's life and her reading, showing how she was poised between the Victorian world and a new era in which children and literature were no longer mere projections of the adult viewpoint.