Five Children and It

Five Children and It by E. Nesbit is a children’s fantasy classic that has never been out of print since its 1902 publication. The five siblings of the title discover an ancient, magical Sand-fairy, known as the Psammead, in a gravel pit. The creature has the ability to grant wishes, but with a twist: The wishes only last until sunset, often disappearing to comical effect. As they navigate the consequences of their wishes, the children learn about the complexities of desire and the unintended effects of what they think they want; the novel explores themes of The Importance of Responsibility When Using Power, The Difference Between Childish Whims and Genuine Needs, and The Relativity of Justice and Moral Codes. The first in a trilogy about the “Five Children” (also called the Psammead trilogy), Five Children and It was followed by Nesbit’s The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904) and The Story of the Amulet (1906). The book has been dramatized several times, most recently in a 2004 film.

This guide refers to the Puffin Classics paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source text contains racist descriptions of Indigenous people and Romani people. This guide discusses these depictions and reproduces derogatory language in quotations only.

Plot Summary

Five Children and It begins as five siblings arrive in a hired carriage to a vacation house in the country. In order of age, they are Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane, and two-year-old Hilary, who is always called “the Lamb.” They are excited about exploring the house, which they call the White House, and its surroundings. The grounds include woods, a chalk quarry on one side for mining chalk (used to make cement and bricks), and a gravel pit on the other side (a natural deposit of gravel used in construction).

Both parents are suddenly called away, leaving the children in the care of the nursemaid, Martha. As the children explore the gravel pit, they discover a strange creature. It is brown, furry, and fat and has eyes on “long horns like a snail’s eyes,” ears “like a bat’s ears,” a tubby body “shaped like a spider’s and covered with thick soft fur,” and hands and feet (19). The creature reveals itself to be a Psammead (pronounced “Sammyadd”), an ancient Sand-fairy. It has the power to grant wishes that last until sunset and will give them one per day. Anthea wishes that she and her siblings were “as beautiful as the day” (24). Instantly, they are so beautiful that the servants don’t recognize them and won’t let them in the house for dinner. Tired and hungry, they fall asleep and awaken after sunset to find that they are themselves again.

The children agree that they will decide on future wishes together and that they will first wish that the servants won’t notice the Sand-fairy’s gifts. Robert then asks for the gravel pit to be filled with gold. Unfortunately, the gold is from the 18th century. Few shopkeepers will accept it, and a stable keeper assumes that they have stolen it and turns them over to the police. Luckily, they run into Martha, who is out with the Lamb, and who claims that they are innocent since she cannot see the gold. Sunset comes, the gold disappears, and the children return home.

The children are bent on asking for a sensible amount of modern money, but when the Lamb annoys Robert, he accidentally wishes that everyone else would want the baby. Immediately, everyone does, from a grand woman named Lady Chittenden, who kidnaps the Lamb, to a company of Roma people. The children anxiously stall the Roma until sunset dissolves the spell. Back at home, they muse that they wanted the baby themselves all along.

Anthea proposes that they take turns with their wishes. She goes first and wishes that they all had wings. They have a splendid time flying, though they find that the wings are as likely to get them into trouble as out of it. After they raid a vicar’s kitchen for some food and picnic on it in the church tower, they fall asleep and wake up stranded without their wings.

The children awaken the vicar and his wife and attract the attention of their servant and a gamekeeper. The men go to confront what they believe to be criminals in the tower and discover the children. The siblings tell as much of the story as they know the vicar and his wife will believe, and the adults take a liking to the children and give them cake. Much later, the servant and gamekeeper drive them home.

The children are punished and kept indoors, but Robert is granted half an hour to run an errand. He goes to the Psammead and, unable to think of a wish, wishes that the desire of one of the other children would be granted. When he returns to the White House, it has become a castle under siege. Robert is quite brave as he stands up to the besiegers and wishes himself back inside.

The children try various ways to prevent the besiegers from entering the castle. One does enter and manages to lower the drawbridge, so the children drop stones and pour water on the heads of the soldiers. The sun sets before the soldiers can reach the children, and Martha appears, furious because the water they poured landed on her new cap. Once again, they are punished, sent to bed without supper.

The children are playing at being bandits when they encounter the baker’s boy and pretend that they want to rob him. The baker’s boy takes offense and beats Robert badly, causing Robert to recklessly wish that he were bigger than the boy. Instantly, he is 11 feet tall. Jane decides that they should take Robert to a nearby fair and exhibit him as a giant for money. They find a couple who eagerly exhibits Robert in a tent, but the children know that there will be trouble at sunset when he turns back to his normal size. He and Cyril hatch a plan where one walks out the front of the tent and the other walks out the back, fooling the couple into thinking that they have each seen Cyril.

After the Lamb breaks both Cyril’s watch and one that he borrowed from his father, Cyril wishes that the baby were a grown up. The Lamb turns into an Edwardian dandy who keeps trying to get rid of the children. Their attempts to keep him safely under their watch work until he meets a young woman. When they try to explain that the young man is their baby brother under a spell, she thinks that the children are mad. As the sun sets, the Lamb is once again a baby.

Cyril absent-mindedly wishes that there were “Red Indians” in England. Afraid that the Lamb will be scalped, Anthea hatches a scheme to send Martha off with the baby to replace a jug that Anthea herself has broken. When the children see an Indigenous American outside the window, they dress themselves up with paint, feathers, and black wigs and confront their attackers by pretending to be fierce warriors. The leader, Golden Eagle of the Rock-dwellers, sees through their ruse, and his group tries to scalp the children but only succeed in removing their wigs. Martha returns with the news that she has become engaged to the gamekeeper whom the children met in Chapter 5.

Word arrives that both parents are returning home. Jane wants to do something nice for the children’s mother and wishes that Mother will have the valuable jewels that were recently stolen from Lady Chittenden’s home. The older children realize how much trouble this will cause and have visions of their parents being sent to jail. Mother comes home, finds the jewels, and goes to notify the police. Anthea and Jane rush to the Psammead and promise not to make any more wishes if it will just get them out of the mess. It does: Lady Chittenden has not lost her jewels after all, and Mother and Martha forget about them. The girls thank the Sand-fairy, bid it goodbye, and wish to see it again. As the novel closes, the author reveals that the children will see the Psammead again, but she will not say when.