E. Nesbit 3 hr 37 min read

Digging in a gravel-pit, five children unearth a Psammead, a grumpy, ancient sand-fairy who grudgingly grants one wish a day, each of which goes hilariously, disastrously wrong.

E. Nesbit's 1902 classic is one of the greatest of all children's fantasies, wise, funny, and endlessly inventive about the perils of getting what you wish for. Warm, sharp, beloved. Read it for a foundational family fantasy that shaped a century of children's literature.

In its time

Published in 1902, during the 1900s, the scientific romance.

Reading it

3 hr 37 min read (a novel-length work, settle in).