And when that mermaid is captured and put on display at a local circus, they decide they must rescue her. As their reward, they are permitted to visit the hidden kingdom of the mer-people, but find they must now stop a war to save their new friends. -That going to the seaside was the very beginning of everything, - only it seemed as though it were going to be a beginning without an end, like the roads on the Sussex downs which look like roads and then look like paths, and then turn into sheep-tracks, and then are just grass and furze bushes and tottergrass and harebells and rabbits and...

Twenty stories from the plays of William Shakespeare (as well as a simple biography of his life) are retold in this volume, first published in 1907. Nesbit does a wonderful job of transforming these old classic plots into forms that can be understood and enjoyed by children.

The enchanted castle of the title is a country estate in the West Country seen through the eyes of three children, Gerald, James and Kathleen, who discover it while exploring during the school holidays. The lake, groves and marble statues, with white towers and turrets in the distance, make a fairy-tale setting, and then in the middle of the maze in the rose garden they find a sleeping fairy-tale princess.

The children are eventually banished to the country, where they form the society of the Would-Be-Good to aid all of mankind and themselves in the bargain. -When we were poor but honest we always used to think that if only Father had plenty of business, and we did not have to go short of pocket money and wear shabby clothes (I don't mind this myself, but the girls do), we should be happy and very, very good.-

Included are such memorable stories as -The Book of Beasts, - (where young Lionel is crowned king, but accidentally releases a dangerous fire dragon on his kingdom and must find a way to return the dragon to the magic book from whence it came), -The Island of the Nine Whirlpools- (featuring a princess and her true love, Nigel, who find the way -- via love and mathematics -- to free her from the curse her wicked father wished upon her), and -The Last of the Dragons- (about a princess who, not wanting to uphold the tradition that all royal maidens must be rescued from the dragon by their...

Day after day Philip goes on with his building, putting into it almost everything you can think of. He makes steps of the dominoes, and a terrace of the domino-box. He gets bits of wood from the garden to stick into cotton-reels, which make lovely pots -- and the results look like ornamental trees in tubs. Brass finger-bowls serve for domes -- and the lids of brass kettles and coffee-pots make minarets of dazzling splendour It is a city -- a fabulous, exotic, miniature city Just to look upon it seemed magical enough -- but even Philip had no clue just how magical it might turn out to...

The sparkling stories from the author of Five Children and It and many other classics? -Uncle James, or the Purple Stranger, - -The Deliverers of Their Country, - -The Ice Dragon, or Do as You are Told, - -The Island Of the Nine Whirlpools, - -The Dragon Tamers, - -The Fiery Dragon, or the Heart of Stone and the Heart of Gold, - and -Kind Little Edmund, or the Caves and the Cockatrice.- These stories -- written in 1900 for The Strand magazine -- still charm and sparkle like pixie dust and dragon's gems for young and old alike more than a century later.

The sparkling stories from the author of Five Children and It and many other classics: -Uncle James, or the Purple Stranger, - -The Deliverers of Their Country, - -The Ice Dragon, or Do as You are Told, - -The Island Of the Nine Whirlpools, - -The Dragon Tamers, - -The Fiery Dragon, or the Heart of Stone and the Heart of Gold, - and -Kind Little Edmund, or the Caves and the Cockatrice.- These stories -- written in 1900 for The Strand magazine -- still charm and sparkle like pixie dust and dragon's gems for young and old alike more than a century later.