Edith Nesbit "Five Children and It"
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Edith Nesbit
‘It’ is a Psammead, a sand-fairy, which the children find one day when they are digging in a gravel-pit. It is thousands of years old, and Psammeads, of course, can give wishes - one wish a day, and the wish ends when the sun goes down. Anthea, Cyril, Robert, and Jane think this is wonderful. Their baby brother, too young to enjoy wishes, mostly stays at home, but the others plan to wish for some exciting things. But what? To be beautiful, to be rich, to fly like a bird? Sometimes it is difficult to think of really good wishes, and very easy to say, ‘Oh, I wish ...’ - and then get something that you don’t really want. And the Psammead can be very unhelpful. ‘Why don’t you think before you wish?’ it says crossly, when things go wrong. And things often do go wrong ...
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Text Analysis: Unique words: about 700 Total words: about 6,700
Hard words: baker, believe, diamond, dig, enormous, fair, fairy, fur, Good Heavens!, gravel, gravel-pit, jewel, kick, lemonade, nursemaid, plum, Psammead, sand, servant, vicar, wish
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