Description: "Finally, the admirable New York Review Children's collection has a new edition of E. Nesbit's The House of Arden and what a terrific story it is. The Mouldiwarp, a mole-like curmudgeon, isn't quite as good as the Psammead of Five Children and It but it too unlocks magic for Edred and Elfrida, two children in search of treasure. What a genius Edith Nesbit was." --Melanie McDonagh, The Year's Best Children's Books, The Spectator (UK) ". . .book after book, [Nesbit] rearranged [the stories] with enough invention and emotional intelligence to become one of the most celebrated children's authors of the Edwardian decade. . . . episodic and sometimes picaresque, shrugging off the moralizing that was native to young people's literature of the time, in favor of privileging a child's logic and point of view." --Jessica Winter, The New Yorker "I love E. Nesbit--I think she is great and I identify with the way that she writes. Her children are very real children and she was quite a groundbreaker in her day." --J.K. Rowling "New York Review Books deserves a medal for its burgeoning collection of reissues of out-of-print children's books, books that need to see the light of day in the hands of a new generations of readers, books such as T. H. White's Mistress Masham's Repose , Wee Gillis , by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson, a slew of books by Esther Averill and, of course, the incomparable Ms. Nesbit's The House of Arden . . . Magic, mayhem and time travel ensue . . . The book is a treasure itself, a slice of Edwardian life." -- The Globe and Ma il "[Nesbit] could present everyday people caught up in supernatural situations just as naturally as she permits the realistic details of everyday life to obtrude into her world of fantasy." -- The Horn Book "A good case could be made for E. Nesbit as the best writer for children ever." -- Washington Post Book World "For many readers -- H.G. Wells and Laurence Houseman, G.K. Chesterton and Noel Coward -- for these and thousands more, the most magical stories of modern times are those by that Edwardian wizard E. Nesbit . . . To come upon any Nesbit today, hitherto unread, . . . is like receiving a letter from a friend whom you have believed dead. . . . It doesn't really matter what her children do, they are real children, quite self-sufficient, almost always very funny and rarely insufferable. 'The reason why those children are like real children,' explained Miss Nesbit, 'is that I was a child once myself, and by some fortunate magic I remember exactly how I used to feel and think about things.' And she could have gone on to say, 'The reason why I write some of the best magic books in which anything, even miracles, can happen and everyone believes in them, is because I know that anything, even miracles, can and do happen all the time.'" --Leo Lerman, The New York Times "Nesbit's breezy voice, air of camaraderie and nascent feminism, as well as her sense of humour give House of Arden great liveliness and verve . . . Innovative in her time, Nesbit's keen sympathy for children's feelings and humorously practical take on the results of magic are still refreshing." -- The Toronto Star

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