Five Children and It

Summary

Cyril, Anthea, Robert, and Jane, with their baby brother the Lamb, have come from two years in Camden Town to a white house in the Kent countryside near Rochester, between a chalk-quarry and a gravel-pit. Their father is called away on business and their mother goes to nurse their sick grandmother, leaving them in the care of the nursemaid Martha and the other servants. Digging in the gravel-pit, they uncover a cross, furry creature with eyes on long horns like a snail's, bat's ears, and monkey's hands: a Psammead, or Sand-fairy, thousands of years old, which once granted Stone Age children a Megatherium for breakfast. It agrees to give them one wish a day, which will last until sunset, and at their request arranges that the servants will never notice the magic. Every wish goes wrong. Wishing to be as beautiful as the day, they are shut out of their own house by Martha, who does not recognize them. Boundless wealth fills the pit with gold guineas that no Rochester shopkeeper will change, and the boys are taken to the police. Robert's grumble that he wishes everyone wanted the Lamb leads a lady in a carriage and a camp of gipsies to try to claim the baby. Wings carry them over the countryside, but after taking food from a clergyman's larder and leaving money and a note, they fall asleep on a church tower and wake wingless and locked in; the clergyman and his gamekeeper find them. A castle wish puts them under siege by armored knights, with an invisible dinner. Robert grows eleven feet tall after a fight with the baker's boy and is exhibited at a fair for fifteen shillings. A careless wish that the Lamb would grow up gives them a grown young man who bicycles off with a lady and wants nothing to do with them. Cyril's reading of The Last of the Mohicans brings a war party of Indians to the gravel-pit. At last Jane wishes that their mother could find lovely jewels at home, and the jewels of the local great lady, Lady Chittenden, appear in their mother's room, threatening her and the servants with suspicion of theft. Anthea promises the Psammead that if it will undo the mischief they will never ask for another wish; it grants a string of last wishes, asks one for itself, that they may never tell grown-ups about it, and disappears into the sand. The book was first serialized in The Strand Magazine in 1902 as The Psammead, or the Gifts, with illustrations by H. R. Millar, and published the same year in book form by T. Fisher Unwin. The children return in The Phoenix and the Carpet and The Story of the Amulet.

Plot or Argument

• Beautiful as the Day (Chapter 1)

  The children arrive at the White House, dig in the gravel-pit, and find the Psammead, who explains its history and the rule that wishes last only till sunset. Anthea's hasty wish for beauty makes them so lovely that Martha shuts them out and they spend the day hungry in a ditch.

• Golden Guineas (Chapter 2)

  They ask that the servants should not notice the gifts, and then for boundless wealth, which fills the quarry with old gold coins. In Rochester no one will take a guinea without suspicion; the hire of a carriage goes wrong, a policeman takes them in charge, and the gold vanishes at sunset.

• Being Wanted (Chapter 3)

  Robert, cross with the baby, wishes that everyone wanted the Lamb. A lady tries to adopt him, and a camp of gipsies will not give him back until sunset, when the spell lifts and a gipsy woman blesses him.

• Wings and No Wings (Chapters 4-5)

  Anthea wishes for wings. The children fly over the countryside, eat a farmer's plums, take the clergyman's cold tongue from his larder leaving a note and money, and fall asleep on the church tower. At sunset the wings vanish; they shout until the Vicar and the keeper climb up, and Jane's tearful honesty wins their pardon.

• A Castle and No Dinner; A Siege and Bed (Chapters 6-7)

  Robert absently lets the others wish without him, and comes home to find the house turned into a besieged medieval castle. Martha's real dinner is invisible to the children, the besiegers prepare to storm the gate, Robert locks the soldier Jakin in the drawbridge room and beats another man back from a window, and at sunset they find themselves in the front bedroom, sent off to bed.

• Bigger than the Baker's Boy (Chapter 8)

  Beaten in a fight, Robert wishes to be bigger than the baker's boy and becomes a giant. The others take him to Benenhurst Fair, where a showman exhibits him; he earns fifteen shillings, and they slip away before sunset shrinks him back.

• Grown Up (Chapter 9)

  Cyril's thoughtless wish turns the Lamb into a fashionable young man who calls himself Hilary, scorns his siblings, mends a young lady's bicycle, and rides off; the children must keep him in sight until sunset makes him a baby again.

• Scalps (Chapter 10)

  Cyril's breakfast wish, inspired by The Last of the Mohicans, brings a war party into the gravel-pit. The children disguise themselves in blankets, scarves, turkey feathers, and black calico wigs, are captured and scalped only of their calico wigs, and are released when the Psammead grants the chief's wish to be back in his own forests.

• The Last Wish (Chapter 11)

  Jane's careless wish brings Lady Chittenden's stolen-seeming jewels into their mother's bedroom just as she comes home. Anthea holds the Psammead and promises that they will never ask again; it undoes the trouble, asks that they never tell grown-ups about it, and burrows away as the jewels turn out never to have been lost.

Characters

• Cyril, eldest brother

  The oldest boy, inventive and fond of adventure stories, whose reading prompts more than one rash wish.

• Anthea, elder sister

  Called Panther; kind and thoughtful, she treats the Psammead gently and makes the final bargain with it.

• Robert, brother

  Hot-tempered but brave, he leads the defense of the wished-for castle and becomes a giant after a fight with the baker's boy.

• Jane, younger sister

  Called Pussy; timid and tender-hearted, she cries easily and makes the wish that brings the jewels.

• The Lamb, baby brother

  The baby, named for his first word, whose real name Hilary is revealed when he is wished grown up.

• The Psammead, sand-fairy

  An ancient, grumpy, furry creature with snail's eyes and bat's ears who hates getting wet and dislikes giving wishes.

• Martha, nursemaid

  The outspoken servant in charge while their parents are away, who cannot see the magic and ends engaged to the gamekeeper Beale.

• Lady Chittenden, great lady

  Owner of Peasmarsh Place, whose diamonds are believed stolen in the last chapter.

Lessons

• Be careful what you wish for

  Every wish the children make seems wonderful until it is granted. Beauty gets them locked out of their own house, wealth makes them look like thieves, and wings strand them on a church tower. Nesbit shows that a wish can grant exactly what was asked for and still miss what was really wanted.

  • Which wish do you think went the most wrong? Why?
  • Why can the children not spend their gold guineas in Rochester?
  • If you met the Psammead, what would you wish for, and how might it go wrong?

• Words spoken in anger can hurt

  Robert says in a temper that he wishes everyone wanted the Lamb, and the wish comes true in a way that nearly loses them their baby brother. Later Cyril wishes the Lamb would grow up, and the baby they love is replaced by a stranger. The children learn that careless words about the people we love have consequences.

  • How does Robert feel after he speaks crossly about the Lamb?
  • What do the others do while they wait for him to be sorry?
  • Why do the children want the baby Lamb back instead of the grown-up one?

• Honesty when no one will believe you

  The servants cannot see the magic, so the children often have no story anyone will believe. On the church tower and with their mother at the end, they still try to tell the truth, and Robert repeats their father's advice that those who do nothing wrong and speak the truth need not be afraid.

  • What do the children tell the Vicar when he finds them on the tower?
  • Why is it hard to tell the truth when the truth sounds impossible?
  • How does the Psammead's last wish protect it from grown-ups?

Context

The story is set in the Edwardian Kent countryside near Rochester, among limekilns, oast-houses, and a brewery, where a middle-class London family has rented a house for the summer. It reflects the household of its time, with a nursemaid and cook in charge while both parents are away, travel by hired fly and governess-cart, and gold guineas a century out of date. Nesbit wrote it in the period that also produced Peter Pan and The Wind in the Willows, when English children's fantasy was turning toward the real, quarrelsome, funny child rather than the model child of moral tales.

Composition

The chapters first appeared monthly in The Strand Magazine in 1902 under the general title The Psammead, or the Gifts, illustrated by H. R. Millar, who went on to illustrate Nesbit's later fantasies. T. Fisher Unwin published the book the same year. It is dedicated in verse to the young child John Bland. In the last chapter Jane mentions F. Anstey's comic novel The Brass Bottle (1900), about an unwanted genie, as a source of the children's idea.

Reception

The book was popular at once and led to two sequels with the same children, The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904) and The Story of the Amulet (1906). Its pattern, ordinary siblings, a single magical helper, and comic consequences worked out with strict rules, became a model for twentieth-century children's fantasy; C. S. Lewis, who opens The Magician's Nephew with a nod to Nesbit's Bastable children, was among the writers who admired her. It has been adapted several times for television and film.

Comparisons

• the-railway-children

  Nesbit's other famous family story, written four years later, keeps the same lively siblings and absent father but replaces magic with real hardship and the kindness of strangers.

• the-magicians-nephew

  Lewis begins in the London of Nesbit's Bastables and, like Nesbit, sends quarrelsome, ordinary children into magic that has strict rules and serious consequences, though his magic opens on to creation and redemption.

• the-arabian-nights

  The Psammead is a grumbling cousin of the genies of the Nights; Nesbit's narrator compares the misty valley to the Arabian Nights, and her comedy depends on readers knowing how wishes work in such tales.

• the-last-of-the-mohicans

  Cyril's reading of Cooper's novel produces the war party of Chapter 10, a comic example of how children's heads were filled with frontier romance.

• peter-pan

  Both Edwardian fantasies give children the power to fly, and both end with magic withdrawn and the children safely home; Barrie's is wistful about growing up, while Nesbit's wish to make the Lamb grow up is played for comedy.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The Psammead's rules: one wish a day, everything lasts only until sunset, and the servants never notice the magic.
• Who makes each wish, and whether it is made on purpose or by accident.
• What the children have to eat, or fail to eat, on each wishing day.
• How the narrator talks directly to you, the reader, as if you were one of the children.
• Anthea's promise to the Psammead in the last chapter.

Key terms and names

Psammead

The Sand-fairy's own name for itself; the children pronounce it Sammyadd.

Megatherium

A giant prehistoric ground sloth; the Psammead says Stone Age children wished for one for breakfast.

Guinea

An old English gold coin worth twenty-one shillings, no longer made in 1902, which is why shopkeepers are suspicious of the children's gold.

Gravel-pit

The large sandy hollow near the White House where the Psammead lives.

Sunset

The moment each day's wish ends and everything goes back to normal.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What does the Psammead look like, and what does it most dislike?
2. Comprehension Why does Martha refuse to let the beautiful children into the house?
3. Comprehension How do the children end up stuck on top of the church tower?
4. Interpretation Why do you think Nesbit made all the wishes end at sunset?
5. Interpretation The children argue a lot, but they also stick together. When do they help each other most?
6. Interpretation Why does the Psammead not want grown-ups to know about it?
7. Big Question If you could have anything you wished for, would it make you happy? Why or why not?

Faith Connections

• 1 Kings 3:5-12 (Scripture)

  When God offers Solomon whatever he asks, Solomon asks for wisdom rather than riches or long life. The children ask first for beauty and wealth and learn that those wishes do not make them happy.

• James 4:3 (Scripture)

  James says people ask and do not receive because they ask amiss, for their own pleasures. Nearly every wish in the book is made in a hurry, for fun or out of crossness.

• Philippians 4:11 (Scripture)

  Paul has learned to be content in whatever state he is. After all their wishes, the children are happiest with their ordinary house, their mother home, and the Lamb a baby again.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: A wish is granted exactly as spoken, but people rarely say exactly what they mean or know what they truly need. So getting whatever you wish for brings trouble instead of happiness, and the children are wise at last to give up wishing altogether.

Rhetorical device: direct address to the reader. In Chapter 1 the narrator tells readers that they, too, believe the earth is round only because grown-ups say so, and so they can believe in a sand-fairy; later chapters ask readers to try the experiment of looking for a lost knife with a baby brother in tow.

Debate: Resolved: that the children were right to promise never to ask the Psammead for another wish.

Memory Work

It is wonderful how quickly you get used to things, even the most astonishing.

Father says we need never be afraid if we don't do anything wrong and always speak the truth.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Choose the two wishes that went most wrong. For each one, explain what the children wanted, what they actually got, and what they learned.

Comparison with The Magician's Nephew: Compare the Psammead's magic with the magic rings in The Magician's Nephew. Which magic is more dangerous, and what do the children in each book learn about using it?

Medical Lens

This is a comic fantasy with little medical content. Its background is an ordinary Edwardian household: the mother is away nursing an ailing grandmother, the baby is said to be benefiting from country air, and the children doctor one another with nursery remedies such as licking sand from a baby's eye. The recurring comic misfortune of missed meals, in Chapters 1, 4, and 6, treats hunger as the most immediate hardship a child can feel. There is no illness or medicine of note.

• Chapter 3

  When the Lamb gets sand and then ginger-beer in his eyes, Jane cleans them with her tongue, which the narrator calls the only safe way.

  Nursing Caregiving
• Chapter 6

  Inside the wished-for castle, Martha's dinner is invisible and cannot even be felt, and the four children share out a few broken biscuits from Cyril's pocket.

  Starvation Nutrition

Creative Prompts

• Fiction

  Write a new chapter in which the children make one more wish before their promise. Decide what they ask for, and show how the Psammead's rules make it go wrong before sunset.

• Classroom

  Draw the Psammead from Nesbit's description in Chapter 1, with snail's eyes, bat's ears, a spider-shaped furry body, and monkey's hands, then compare drawings with H. R. Millar's original illustrations.

• Essay

  The Psammead never refuses a wish, yet every wish disappoints the children. Explain whether the fault lies with the Psammead or with the children, using three chapters.

• Adaptation

  Act out the scene in Chapter 1 when Martha refuses to let the beautiful children into the house, with one student as Martha and the others as the children trying to prove who they are.

Further Reading

• The Phoenix and the Carpet, E. Nesbit

  The first sequel, with the same children and a magic carpet.

• The Story of the Amulet, E. Nesbit

  The last book of the trilogy, in which the Psammead returns and the children travel in time.

• The Story of the Treasure Seekers, E. Nesbit

  Nesbit's first book about the Bastable children.

• The Brass Bottle, F. Anstey

  The comic genie novel Jane mentions in the last chapter.