An extremely unhappy ten-year-old magically escapes into a city he has built out of books, chessmen, candlesticks, and other household items.

On a holiday at the seashore, Bernard, Mavis, Kathleen and Francis save a mermaid from captivity and must race against time to avert a war and save their underwater friends.

When four brothers and sisters discover a Psammead, or sand-fairy, in the gravel pit near the country house where they are staying, they have no way of knowing all the adventures its wish-granting will bring them.

Retells the stories of some of Shakespeare's best-known plays, including "Hamlet," "Romeo and Juliet," and several of the comedies, adorned with vintage late nineteenth and early twentieth-century illustrations.

The Waterbury family are completely happy until mysterious men take their father away and they have to move up to Yorkshire without him. The three open-hearted children soon make many friends including their Old Gentleman whom they regularly wave to on his morning train journey. Bobbie, the eldest girl, makes contact with him to try and get help for the problems they are facing. Meanwhile the children find themselves involved in several unexpected...

Four children on holiday with their parents in Cornwall, England meet a magical creature with the power to grant wishes. They find out the hard way that the sand fairy's wishes only last until sundown, and they aren't the only family member who would like to be using the magic.