The Story of the Treasure Seekers

Nesbit's narrator is one of the great comic voices of children's fiction: proud, pompous, honest despite himself and endlessly confident in his own cleverness. His attempts to hide which Bastable he is, and the transparent way he gives himself away, are a running joke that still works. The other children are sharply characterised too.

Each chapter tells a self-contained scheme, and the results range from farce to quiet pathos. Beneath the comedy runs a real sense of the family's hard times and the children's love for their father, which gives the ending, when their luck finally changes, genuine warmth. Nesbit's style influenced many later writers of family adventures.

Some attitudes and language are of their time and may need discussion with young readers. The vocabulary is richer than in modern children's books, so it suits confident readers or reading aloud. As a witty, warm classic, it rewards the effort, and it pairs well with Five Children and It. Reading it aloud is especially rewarding, since the narrator's grand, self-important sentences are a pleasure to perform and children quickly learn to spot when he is bending the truth. About 256 pages in the Puffin Classics paperback; older Puffin printings run 208.