"That going to the seaside was the very beginning of everything, -- only it seemed as though it were going to be a beginning without an end, like the roads on the Sussex downs which look like roads and then look like paths, and then turn into sheep-tracks, and then are just grass and furze bushes and tottergrass and harebells and rabbits and chalk." In Nesbit's 1913 novel, Wet Magic, the children of the Desmond family -- Francis, Mavis, Bernard and Kathleen -- are looking forward to a holiday by the sea. They get more of an adventure than they had planned on, though, when they accidentally summon a mermaid. And when that mermaid is captured and put on display at a local circus, they decide they must rescue her. As their reward, they are permitted to visit the hidden kingdom of the mer-people, but find they must now stop a war to save their new friends.

Author Biography

Edith Nesbit (1858 - 1924) was an English author and poet. She wrote or collaborated on more than 60 books of fiction for children. She was also a political activist and co-founded the Fabian Society, a socialist organization later affiliated with the Labour Party. Nesbit published approximately 40 books for children, including novels, collections of stories and picture books. Collaborating with others, she published almost as many more.