The Story of the Treasure Seekers: Being the Adventures of the Bastable Children in Search of a Fortune

When their father's business collapses, six children decide to take matters into their own hands. Dora, Oswald, Dicky, Alice, Noel, and H.O. form a secret society dedicated to restoring the family fortunes through increasingly elaborate treasure-seeking schemes: buried gold, highway robbery (very gentlemanly, of course), divining rods, and schemes involving the neighbors' suspiciously rich-looking houses. But as the narrator himself eventually admits, their adventures are far more entertaining than profitable. E. Nesbit wrote this in 1899, and it still feels startlingly modern. Rather than sentimentalizing children or talking down to them, she captured the real texture of childhood: the fierce loyalty, the elaborate logic, the way small problems feel enormous and enormous fun feels like it will last forever. The narration is a game itself, with Oswald constantly breaking the fourth wall to challenge readers to guess which of the six he is. The result is a book that understands children as vividly as children understand themselves.