Magic City by E. Nesbit. 206 pp RL4
Edith Nesbit is perhaps one of the greatest, most influential writers of children's literature that you have never heard of. Born in England in 1858, Nesbit lived until 1924 and published most of her children's books between 1898 and 1913. She is a known influence to CS Lewis and Edward Eager, author of the fabulous Half Magic , among others, both of whom published their children's fantasy novels some forty years after Nesbit. CS Lewis went so far as to mention the Bastable children, characters from Nesbit's The Treasure Seekers , in his book The Magician's Nephew . In her 2002 article linking George Balanchine's production of The Nutcracker to the works of Nesbit and Eager, who himself was a minor figure in the New York theatre scene of the 1940s, Mimi Kramer emphasizes the influence of Nesbit on Eager's writings for children. She cites a 1958 article Eager wrote for the HornBook Magazine of children's literature in which he admires what he cal