Recommendations from our site
“E. Nesbit is brilliant at bringing magic alive and rooting it in something that you feel is real…The Psammead is not a conventional fairy. It is a sand fairy with eyes on long horns like snail’s eyes and can move them in and out like telescopes. It’s got ears like a bat and it is a grumpy hypochondriac. Like Mary Poppins, it’s susceptible to flattery. It’s such imaginative and highly individual characterization. She is absolutely marvellous on that! Similarly, with the phoenix, who made me laugh so much. He keeps on referring to himself as ‘My Golden Presence’, in the third person. He’s very vain. One of the reasons I chose The Five Children and It is for the brilliant characterisation. It still feels fresh and original today.” Read more...
Cressida Cowell, Children's Author
Our most recommended books
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Finding Home: Amazing Places Animals Live
Mike Unwin, Jenni Desmond (illustrator) -
Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale
by John Steptoe -
The Pinchers and the Diamond Heist
by Anders Sparring, Per Gustavsson (illustrator) & translated by Julia Marshall -
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Brontë -
Gut Garden: A journey into the wonderful world of your microbiome
by Katie Brosnan -
When the Stammer Came to Stay
Maggie O'Farrell, Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini (illustrator)
