“I love E. Nesbit too, and I think I have learned a lot from her about how to write stories of this kind.” ~C.S. Lewis The six Bastable children used to be rich, but then their mother passed away and their father’s business partner ran away with their money. Now the children must restore the fallen fortunes of their house by looking for treasure. Whether they are selling poetry, engaging in banditry, making medicine, saving a rich old man from deadly peril, or even just digging for treasure, the Bastables must all learn something that’s even more important than buried gold.

“People think six is a great many, when it’s children. …they don’t mind six pairs of boots, or six pounds of apples, or six oranges, especially in equations, but they seem to think that you ought not to have five brothers and sisters.” “This is why I shall not tell you in this story about all the days when nothing happened. You will not catch me saying, ‘thus the sad days passed slowly by’–or ‘the years rolled on their weary course’–or ‘time went on’–because it is silly; of course time goes on–whether you say so or not. So I shall just tell you the nice, interesting parts–and in between you will understand that we had our meals and got up and went to bed, and dull things like that.” “I never read prefaces, and it is not much good writing things just for people to skip. I wonder other authors have never thought of this.” “Being editors is not the best way to wealth. We all feel this now, and highwaymen are not respected any more like they used to be.” “Besides, it is wrong to be angry with people for not being so clever as you are yourself. It is not always their faults.”