The Story of the Amulet

E. Nesbit's The Story of the Amulet is a magical adventure for 11 year olds that begins with an old friend for sale in a London pet shop.

What happens

It's a horrible start to the summer for Cyril, Anthea, Robert and Jane. Father has gone abroad to report on a war. Mother is very ill and has gone away to get better, with the baby. So they're left with old Nurse in a gloomy lodging house near the British Museum.

Then a hutch in a backstreet pet shop whispers "Buy me". It's the Psammead, the grumpy sand-fairy they met in the country. It's thin and dusty and it's bitten the shopkeeper eleven times (good for it).

Getting it out is a brilliant scene. The children have to look as if they don't care, so they stare at a white rat. They stare so hard the poor rat hides its face in its paws!

The Psammead knows of a charm in a junk shop window. It's half of an ancient Amulet, and the whole thing could bring them their heart's desire, which for these four means Father and Mother home safe. The half they've got can take them anywhere they like to hunt for the rest.

And anywhere really means anywhere. Their search sends them a VERY long way back in time, to ancient Egypt and Babylon among other places.

This is the third book about these children, and the Psammead is as rude as ever. The morning after they've saved its life, it tells them they're "rather silly". Who talks to their rescuers like that?

There's real sadness under the fun too. Anthea cries in Father's empty room, then pulls herself together for the others. If you've got a reader who's ever had a parent away for a long time, that bit will probably hit home.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Some of it is very hard to read now. In one chapter the Queen of Babylon turns up in London, and City businessmen with Jewish names are written with mocking comedy accents. That's an antisemitic stereotype, plain and simple. Her guards also cut people down in the street before a wish undoes it all.

It's probably one to read alongside your reader. A confident reader who loves the Psammead will still get a great adventure, and those pages deserve a proper conversation. It also opens by telling you how Five Children and It ends, so start there if you can.

What to read next

If it's the British Museum and the writing nobody can read that grabs them, try Rick Riordan's The Red Pyramid. Carter and Sadie Kane get a private tour of the museum after dark from their Egyptologist dad, and it all goes very wrong in front of the Rosetta Stone.