Presented here are three of the most popular children’s books of all time: L. Frank Baum’s ‘The Wizard of Oz, ‘ Kenneth Grahame’s ‘The Reluctant Dragon’ and Edith Nesbit’s ‘Five Children and It.’
First, one of the great classics of children’s literature, ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, ‘ which tells the story of young Dorothy, who is caught up in a cyclone and transported to the magical kingdom of Oz. In order to return home, Dorothy is instructed to travel to the City of Emeralds and ask the Wizard who rules there for his help in getting back to Kansas. Along the way, Dorothy befriends a strange group of traveling companions – a Scarecrow, a Tin Woodsman and a cowardly Lion – who are all in need of the Wizard’s assistance. Thus begins this magical and wonderful journey into a world of unmatched imagination and creativity; a work that inspired no less than thirteen sequels and innumerable film, stage and television adaptations.
Then, the magical tale of an unlikely friendship between a boy and a dragon, Kenneth Grahame’s beautiful and hilarious ‘The Reluctant Dragon.’ The main character, known only as ‘The Boy, ‘ discovers a friendly dragon living outside his small village. When the townspeople recruit St. George himself to slay the monster, the Boy to attempts to intervene and try to save his friend. It is a sweet, uplifting fable of love and friendship for children of all ages.
And finally, Edith Nesbit’s classic ‘Five Children and It, ‘ which revolves around five young children – Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane, and their baby brother the Lamb – who discover a lumpy, grumpy sand-fairy (also known as a Psammead) who agrees to grant the children one wish every day, but warns them that the wishes will ‘turn to stone’ at sunset. The rest of the story concerns the various wishes each of the children requests…and how terribly they go wrong.
Each of these stories is presented here in its original and unabridged format..Enjoy ALL THREE of these classic children’s novels in ONE VOLUME! This is the third of a limited series.
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Edith Nesbit (1858-1924) was an English writer and poet who write over 60 children’s books under the name ‘E. Nesbit’ including ‘The Railway Children, ‘ ‘Five Children and It’ (the first book in the Psammead Series), ‘The Story of the Treasure Seekers, ‘ (part of the Bastable Series) as well as two books comprising the House of Arden series.Nesbit’s father John died when she was very young and the poor health of her sister Mary caused the family to travel a great deal to treat Mary’s illnesses. The family settled in Halstead Hall in northwest Kent (a location that inspired The Railway Children) after Mary’s death from tuberculosis in 1871.Nesbit met the bank clerk Hubert Bland in 1877 and by 1880 she had become pregnant by him and the couple were wed in April of that year. Bland’s infidelities (and subsequent out-of-wedlock children with other women) made their marriage a rocky one, but they managed to have four children and remained together until Bland’s death in 1914. Nesbit then married Thomas ‘the Skipper’ Tucker, captain of the Woolwich Ferry, in 1917 and remained with him for the rest of her life. Nesbit succumbed to lung cancer in 1924.Nesbit, who also helped found the left-wing Fabian Society and pushed for democratic socialist causes, was a popular and influential writer for her entire career and inspired many of the greatest children’s authors of all time, including C.S. Lewis, P.L. Travers and J.K. Rowling. Her writing was not limited to children’s books, however. Nesbit also wrote eleven adult novels, a number of short stories and no less than four collections of horror stories.Edith Nesbit is buried in the churchyard of St. Mary in the Marsh in Kent.