New Treasure Seekers; Or, The Bastable Children in Search of a Fortune

The Bastable children are back, and they're still not rich. Oswald, Dicky, Dora, Noël, H.O., and Alice, the most enterprising siblings in Edwardian London, have decided that this time, their fortune-seeking schemes will actually work. They will not be discouraged. From founding a theatrical company to establishing an investigative bureau, from buried treasure to disastrous boarders, these children approach every new venture with absolute conviction and almost no competence at all. E. Nesbit writes with a comic precision that captures childhood exactly as it feels: the earnest seriousness of small ambitions, the elaborate plans that collapse in laughter, the fierce alliance of siblings against a world of bewildering adults. H.O. climbs into a trunk and causes a bomb scare. A mysterious lodger takes a room. The children scheme, fail, scheme again, and discover that the real treasure was the chaos along the way. Nearly a century and a half later, Nesbit's understanding of how children think, plot, and love each other remains unsurpassed. For anyone who ever believed a modest plan could become magnificent.