Customer Reviews

E. Nesbit's Psammead Trilogy: A Children's Classic at 100 (Children's Literature Association Centennial Studies)

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Please note that this is a collection of 13 essays on the trilogy by E. Nesbit, not the trilogy itself!

E. Nesbit's writing is superb. She doesn't preach down or dumb down but fully expects children to be as alert interested, articulate and imaginative as they are if you let them.I read her books at around 12 years old and enjoyed and remembered them. My smart 7 year old has had many of her books read to him a few times but the adult who reads it gets as much pleasure and interest as he does.There's nothing cutesy or predictable. Her stories are about real children who act, feel and think like three dimensional children. Gore Vidal felt,in the Dec.3rd 1964 New York Review of Books, that E.Nesbit was crucial childhood reading. He says it better than me so google it. The Psammead is an ancient curmudgeonly wish granter. The fact of receiving what one wishes for may not be as ideal as one hopes for and the varied scrapes these children find themselves in are interesting. Their relationships as older and younger siblings are dealt with in a real and lively way. E. Nesbit wrote in England during the Victorian era and so the settings and trappings are of the period but her expression of human thoughts ,feelings and behavior are very fresh and not at all stilted. The children are trying hard to live up to the values they believe in and often fall short but find ways to try to repair any problems they have caused or tripped into. E. Nesbit was a very interesting character ahead of her time in many ways (again Google and Wickipedia provide more than I can). Her books teach ethical, honorable and compassionate behavior without a hint of preachiness. They also teach kids to think for themselves clearly and creatively. They are a lot of fun. She wrote about 40 books for children so you wont run out soon!