A review by leskit
Five Children and It by E. Nesbit

4.0

I read this aloud to a 5th grade class and they enjoyed it very much. I was a little surprised for the enthusiasm for the book. I mean, I thought they would like it, but I was surprised at how much. It can be challenging to read such an old book to children. Lanaguage structure can be problematic, but they enjoyed it - which was great! There were a few things I explained and we talked about. There's a mention of Bedlam (the psychiatric hospital) and I was surprised and pleased that one girl knew all about it. We had a discussion on advances in caring for the mentally ill. There was one spot nearly at the end of the book that the housekeeper calls a maid a slut and I had to creatively deal with that. I don't think slut was meant in the same way we mean it now. I read a lot of older books to kids and have had to improvise or discuss things quite a few times. I do think kids like to hear about how children entertained themselves "long ago." Anyway, it was a fun read aloud and also pleased the kids enjoyed it so much.