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Summary

Five Children and IT is a children’s book, no. 1 of The Psammead cycle, written by Edit Nesbit and published in 1902. It has never been out of print since.

The story begins when a group of children move from London to the countryside of Kent. The five children are Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane, and their baby brother, known as the Lamb. One day they are playing in a gravel pit when they uncover a rather grumpy, ugly, and occasionally malevolent Psammead – an ancient sand-fairy with ability to grant wishes. The Psammead persuades the children to take one wish each day to be shared among them, with the caveat that the wishes will turn to stone at sunset. This, apparently, used to be the rule in the Stone Age, when all that children wished for was food, the bones of which then became fossils. The children's first wish is to be "as beautiful as the day". The wish ends at sunset and its effects simply vanish, leading the Psammead to observe that some wishes are too fanciful to be changed to stone.

As expected, all the wishes go comically wrong. The children wish to be beautiful, but the servants do not recognise them and shut them out of the house. They wish to be rich, then find themselves with a gravel-pit full of gold spade guineas that no shop will accept as they were removed from circulation in 1816, so they can't buy anything. A wish for wings seems to be going well, but at sunset the children find themselves stuck on top of a church bell tower with no way down, getting them into trouble with the gamekeeper who must take them home - and so the wishing and the ensuing adventures continue.

The book was made into a film in 2004 featuring Freddie Highmore, Jonathan Bailey. Jessica Claridge, Poppy Rogers and Alec Muggleton, with Kenneth Branagh as Uncle Albert and Tara Fitzgerald as the mother. It has won a number of awards and been nominated for a Bafta.

10% of the profit from the sale of this book is donated to charities.
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KEYWORDS/TAGS: Five children and It, 5, action, adventure, Beautiful, Golden Guineas, Wanted, Wings, Castle, No Dinner, Siege, Bed, Bigger, Baker's Boy, Grown Up, Scalps, Last Wish, Psammead cycle, Glorious Rush, Round the Garden, Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane, little lamb, Door, Hutch, Scream, Baby, acknowledgement, Martha, Empty, Toilet-jug, pour Cold Water, falling Rain, Slow Drops, Anthea's Face. Stagger, Mr. Beale, Snatch, Coin, Pocket, Martha, Policeman, Mr Peasemarsh, Lucky Children, Gravel Pit, Poof, Grab, Double-quick Time, Twinkling Legs, Two Gypsy Women, Sand-fairy, Blow, fly over, Rochester, Farmer, Pockets, Fast Asleep, The Keeper, Deep-Chested, Keyhole, Castle, Black, Stately, Drag, Reluctant, Tear, Splash, Moat-water, Leadhole, Sammyadd, Haystack, Strange Sensation, Pony-carriage, Giant, Pale and Trembling, Time's Up, Case, Garden Spade, Tickling His Nose, Twig, Honeysuckle, Bicycle, Punctured State, Evidence, Struggle, Missionary Box, Poker, Pow-wow, Bright Knives, Brandished, Clasp, Loving Arms, Obedient, Burrow, Disappear, Scratching,

• Science Fiction & Fantasy
• Contemporary Fiction
• Fairy Tales
• Young Readers