If you found a
fairy who could grant you any wish you wanted, what would you wish for?
Now that we’ve read
FIVE CHILDREN AND IT by E. Nesbit, we know that this isn’t necessarily as
brilliant as it first sounds.
We loved the
suspense and the adventure in this story, which kept us turning the pages as if
it was written yesterday, and not 100 years ago.
It was only the
clothes that really give it away as being a classic: Maia was very intrigued to
know what pantaloons were. (Very long baggy pants that girls used to wear under
their very long dresses, since you’re asking!)
There is a lot in
this book that is not as we might have expected, before we started to read. For
example, when we hear the word ‘sand fairy’ we all have quite particular
pictures in our minds: maybe a Disney style fairy, with a sandy dress, or a boy
with an elf hat made out of sand, and sandpaper wings. Definitely not the
strange bug-eyed creature described in the book, and so brilliantly illustrated
on the cover by Quentin Blake. The Sammyad (for that is his name) looks more
like a rat than a fairy, we thought.
So the children
in the story are quite brave, really. Even though Mercedes’ favourite animal is
a rat, she wasn’t sure she’d make friends with one straight away, if she found
one in the sand.
The other thing
that turns out not quite as we expected are the wishes. We learned that you must
be careful what you wish for, because the Sammyad is very literal in the way
that he grants them.
We talked a lot
about what we would wish for, if we had the chance.
Maia thought
wings.
Rafferty would
like things to be perfect (but then, thinking more carefully, knew that the
Sammyad would give you what you thought was perfect, which might not be perfect
for other people …)
Mercedes would
like to change people’s minds about destroying the rainforests.
Giacomo would
stop wars and guns.
Grace would feed
the children in Africa.
Maia wishes she
could meet Jessie J, and she and her best friend could go on tour with her.
Bea would wish to
raise all the funds for her trip to Africa – oh, and for world peace, too!
Then we had a
really interesting discussion about what the Sammyad might make of our wishes.
For example, what if the way he granted Grace’s wish, to feed the children in
Africa, was by taking all our food to feed them? Food for thought, indeed …
So here is a
book, written a hundred years ago, and starring children who wear pantaloons
and don’t have telephones, which got us thinking about the world and talking in
a most interesting way.
And we realized that
not a lot has changed, really, if you don’t count the clothes and the
technology: especially when it comes to country life versus the city. We all
agreed that our friends and relatives who live in the countryside are much more
free to run around and have adventures.
But, you know,
they don’t live near Ottie and The Bea …
See you all after
the holidays, when we’ll be talking about THE WOLVES OF WILLOUGHBY CHASE. It’s
another classic: will you love it as much as I did, when I was your age?
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| © Copyright Nigel Cox and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence |
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| Photograph: Kelly Redinger / Design Pics Inc/Rex Features |
PS Here is a picture of the gravel pit near where I grew up. As you can see, it's been turned into a nature reserve now ... on the right is a working gravel pit: you can see why parents might not want you to play there!
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