The Railway Children, illustrated by Pamela Kay (1990)

I think I'm going to cry - I'm on the last chapter of Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders. It so, so meaningful to me, I also doubt I've ever seen a modern sequel to a classic work that really worked, and added something new that truly was worth adding. I don't know that other people would have the same experience of it - my journey with this book was really shaped by my childhood reading and a few things I've been through more recently - but that's okay.

And now I need to post pictures from the dear 1991 BBC production (the only good screen version of the first book.) I am doing this to put off finishing the book...

Fan art for "The Princess and the Hedge-pig", one of many original fairy tales by the brilliant early twentieth-century fantasy author E Nesbit. So many of Nesbit's fairy tales are fun and funny and clever, but Hedge-pig (just another name for a hedgehog) has long been my favorite. Our heroine, the Princess Ozyliza, who can fight and shoot as well as any Prince Charming, is ousted from her throne. Her enemies attempt to assassinate her with a barrage of arrows. But her childhood friend, a strapping young baker's apprentice, throws himself in the line of fire, is repeatedly impaled in the back, and, to save his life, a good fairy turns him into a hedgehog. From there, they set out to win back her kingdom.

Nesbit often writes with an eye for humor, so I wanted to capture a bit of silliness in this.

Series info:

Book 1 of Five Children

Book 2: The Phoenix and the Carpet

Book 3: The Story of the Amulet

🧊 The Ice Dragon by E. Nesbit and Carole Grey

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

In this story for children, George and Jane adventure to the North Pole when curious about the Northern Lights, but soon find a dragon and wicked seal-skin dwarves.

A fun and imaginative story about the North Pole that feels perfect for the low temperatures at the moment. I wish the dragon played a bigger part in the story, since the story IS named after him, but I thought this was still entertaining to read.

She had the power of silent sympathy. That sounds rather dull, I know, but it's not so dull as it sounds. It just means that a person is able to know that you are unhappy, and to love you extra on that account, without bothering you by telling you all the time how sorry she is for you.

E. Nesbit, The Railway Children

E Nesbit, who wrote The Railway Children in 1901, also wrote a collection of children's stories about dragons, the last one of which was called The Last of the Dragons, and it opens with this very British scorn of the US

Of course you know that dragons were once as common as motor-omnibuses are now, and almost as dangerous. But as every well-brought-up prince was expected to kill a dragon, and rescue a princess, the dragons grew fewer and fewer till it was often quite hard for a princess to find a dragon to be rescued from. And at last there were no more dragons in France and no more dragons in Germany, or Spain, or Italy, or Russia. There were some left in China, and are still, but they are cold and bronzy, and there were never any, of course, in America.

anyway Does The Dragon Die? no, it's okay

Books that take me back to childhood summers

AUTHOR EXTRAORDINAIRE

Edith Nesbit - who published under the name E Nesbit - is known mainly as a children's author with classics such as The Railway Children, Five Children and It and The Phoenix and the Carpet. She also wrote novels and short stories for adults, particularly ghost and horror tales.

Happy late pride to this sapphic queen in E. Nesbit's book of dragons.

(Image ID:

"And won't you have something for yourself?" asked the Queen. "Any little thing you fancy—would you like a country, or a sack of jewels?"

"Nothing, thank you," said the witch. "I could make more diamonds in a day than I should wear in a year."

"Well, but do let me do some little thing for you," the Queen went on. "Aren't you tired of being a witch? Wouldn't you like to be a Duchess or a Princess, or something like that?"

"There is one thing I should rather like," said the witch, "but it's hard to get in my trade."

"Oh, tell me what," said the Queen.

"I should like some one to love me," said the witch.

Then the Queen threw her arms around the witch's neck and kissed her half a hundred times. "Why," she said, "I love you better than my life! You've given me the baby—and the baby shall love you too."

"Perhaps it will," said the witch, "and when the sorrow comes, send for me. Each of your fifty kisses will be a spell to bring me to you. Now, drink up your medicine, there's a dear, and run along home." )

Later in the story, they move into a tower together because the king is evil.

MELISANDE by E. Nesbit (New York: Harcourt, 2006). Illustrated by P.J. Lynch.

source

Book 298

The Deliverers of Their Country

E. Nesbit / illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger

North-South Books 1996

This is the only one of my children’s books by Lisbeth Zwerger that’s in paperback. It’s a funny book about several hundred thousand dormant dragons—that look suspiciously like winged iguanas—that hatch in Britain during an unusual heat spell.

Top Ten Tuesday - Childhood Favourites (Freebie)

Top Ten Tuesday – Childhood Favourites (Freebie)

Hi friends, I’ve decided to start up with Top Ten Tuesday, I used to do this every week on my old blog and I thought it would be nice to get back into it. This week’s topic is a freebie and I couldn’t think of my own topic, so I looked back at the list of past topics and decided to do Childhood Favourites. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl (more…)

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TIL that not only did E. Nesbit write about a socialist utopia in her books, she also wrote about her dog exactly how 95% of the Internet does

She had been to her Great-Aunt Willoughby's before, and she knew exactly what to expect. She would be asked about her lessons, and how many marks she had, and whether she had been a good girl. I can't think why grown-up people don't see how impertinent these questions are. Suppose you were to answer: "I'm the top of my class, auntie, thank you, and I am very good. And now let us have a little talk about you, aunt, dear. How much money have you got, and have you been scolding the servants again, or have you tried to be good and patient, as a properly brought up aunt should be, eh, dear?" Try this method with one of your aunts next time she begins asking you questions, and write and tell me what she says.

Unnatural Creatures, stories selected by Neil Gaiman “The Cockatoucan; Or, Great-Aunt Willoughby”, by E. Nesbit