Five Children on the Western Front

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for a new sequel to an old classic series, I hold this one close to my heart something about it just. If I didn't know otherwise you could have convinced me this was a recently unearthed manuscript of Nesbit's. The time is at the start of World War 1 and Cyril, the eldest of the Pemberton boys is off to fight. If the narrator hadn't said he was a 'common' sort and therefore there was issues of class and separation between him and his love - I never would have guessed.

I know I'm being harsh, but in employing the material of one of children's literature's giants, Saunders has laid claim to some serious ambitions. She is the one who started the revolutionary change of children being encouraged to read for pleasure. It's sad to see this character profoundly injured and that character die, but the book is so quick to an assurance that everything is all right really. Taste and personal preference, as always, is what sways opinion in reviews and although I didn't hate it, I didn't like it.For example, at one point the Psammead is taken to the future to speak at length with the deposed Kaiser, and the two find they have a lot in common. I'm still not a fan of modern interpretations but Kate Saunders somehow managed to tap into Nesbit's voice perfectly and it was almost impossible to tell at times that this wasn't written by one of the first (and best) women authors for children herself.

I can say that the broad idea of these characters encountering the war will stay with me and provoke thought and feeling.I really liked this book, because it had detail, but just at the right sport not to boor you into a coma, but also has just the right amount of detail that you will have no idea what the storyline of book is. And Edie is the most adorable addition: Cyril and Anthea are grown up, Robert and Jane are teenagers, and so it's through the eyes of Edie (9) and the Lamb (11) that we keep that sense of childlike wonder and belief in magic. Like, one time Anthea is nursing a distressed patient and suddenly hits on the idea to tell him stories about the Psammead to calm him down, and the Psammead takes full credit for this. The Psammead's slaves worshipped him, and he admits that some of them "died in horrible circumstances" – though, as he says, "My dear Lamb, everyone kills a few slaves!

Now the chickens have come home to roost and he must repent for his past sins or find himself stuck in a world without his magic anymore.In this book the sand fairy reappears without his magic and is forced to look to his past and realise his mistakes - much like Scrooge from a Christmas carol. BUT there were also some great lines, such as the Lamb describing the Psammead as a "furry Jack the Ripper. You don't learn about the war very much but you learn about all the risks that the family takes and what they suffer from the war. She refuses to think less of the Psammead, whatever he has done: ‘I’ll never think less of you’ and when the Psammead finally prepares to leave, Edie’s words will break a little piece of your heart off: ‘I’m sorry, I can’t help crying… It’s just that I love you so much!