The magical adventures of siblings Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane and their baby brother continue.
It's startling enough to have a phoenix hatch in your house, but even more startling when it talks and reveals that you have a magic carpet on the floor. The vain and ancient bird accompanies the children on a series of adventures through time and space which, magic being what it is, rarely turn out as they were meant . . .

I'm glad this was chose for our Vintage Book Circle pick of the month. I was lucky to find my copy buried on the shelves of my books for children. It prompted me to reorganize my shelves to get better access to these wonderful old titles. Some great adventures in this one. ( )

So this is a direct sequel to 'Five Children and It', so if you havn't read that, this might seem a bit odd in places.
I think i rated both books the same, this is superior in places but has a harder time trying to find reasons for things to happen and struggles to avoid repeating itself.
There's some jokes which might appeal to adults rather than kids in places so not a terrible thing if your reading it to someone.
Overall not a huge fan but entertaining enough. I listened to some of it on a very good Libravox recording by a Helen Taylor. ( )

Nesbit does a delightful job creating a modern-esque fairy tale. ( )

This is the sequel to Nesbit's Five Children and It that I read last month. I remembered this affectionately from a TV adaptation in the 1970s, but I must admit I didn't find this quite as engaging as its predecessor. Again, the story relies on them getting the wishes they choose wrong and ending up in various scrapes, but somehow these did not engage as much in this one. Perhaps this was partly due to there being no illustrations in my edition, which added to my enjoyment of the first novel, and of The Railway Children. All that said, still a good children's story that a reader of any age can enjoy. ( )