Three siblings. One summer. A ring that makes magic real. When Jerry, Jimmy, and Kathleen stumble upon a sleepy princess in a hidden garden, they assume it's just another of their elaborate games. But the girl insists she's royalty, and when she shows them a secret room stuffed with treasure and a ring that grants wishes, the adventure stops being pretend. Statues come alive. A dragon materializes. The children must outwit an enchanted duke and figure out how to reverse the spell before they lose themselves entirely to a world where imagination has terrifying consequences. E. Nesbit, who practically invented modern children's fantasy, delivers a story that understands something profound: children take pretend seriously, and sometimes the games won't let them go. It's a tale of summer holidays spent in woods that hide impossible things, of siblings who bicker and brave and bond, and of the arresting question at its heart: what happens when the magic you wished for actually arrives?
