When young Philip Haldane builds a play city out of odds and ends, the fantastic creation comes to life, and he and new stepsister Lucy are magically transported into it. Now they must try to save the Magic City by fulfilling an ancient prophecy--despite a mysterious adversary determined to steal their glory for herself. How Philip and Lucy come to forge a friendship and together triumph over impending disaster makes for a riveting read.

Read this when I was younger. An ok read but I always found the main characters to be miniature adults..a little too wellbehaved.But I guess its something to do with the era wich it was written. ( )

My edition had an introduction by Ann A. Flowers in which she states that the book's only significant flaw is that Helen isn't more kind to Philip when she suddenly gets married and leaves on a honeymoon. Well, Flowers ignores a few points of data. 1 - in those days, children were expected to cope better if given less time to dread (think of all the times you've read of a child suddenly being presented with a newborn sibling - didn't they wonder about the mom's belly?). 2 - Helen was swept up in her own fairy tale dream-come-true, her romance with Lucy's father, and may not have been thinking fully clearly. 3 - Lucy is a very nice girl and Philip a whiny brat who would have been fine (during said honeymoon and after) if he'd simply tried to accept her overtures when they first met.

I believe the flaws are racism, sexism, imperialism, and too much topical slang. I just can't fully enjoy a story in which the only two lions of the kingdom are killed (rather than simply avoided), and in which the strong, smart, and brave girl has to constantly prove she's as capable as the bratty boy, and in which there are far too many references to characters as 'brown savages' etc., and in which there are many words that Nesbit meant to be colloquially appealing but are now difficult, such as 'bunked' for 'chickened out.'

Otoh, this story is interesting in that it attempts to be somewhat more plausible, giving it more of a science fiction vibe than a fantasy one. And the explanations are charmingly written. For example: We come here when we're too asleep to dream. You go through the dreams and come out on the other side where everything's real. That's here."" ( )

One of my absolutely favorite books as a child, partly because like the hero Philip I loved to build cities not only out of toy bricks but out of anything else available. In this story Philip by magic gets into a city he has build, along with a girl, Lucy (namesake and perhaps inspiration of Queen Lucy of Narnia, since C.S. Lewis said the Narnian children were influenced by Nesbit), and --accidentally-- their odious nursemaid. (Philip comes out of the city and has to choose to go back in by tears "Tears are very strong magic." --a line I have always remembered. It is said by Mr. Noah (originally the Noah in a Noah's Ark set, but animated as a wise guide to the children). The city has prophecies of the coming of two mythic figures, the Deliverer and the Destroyer. The Deliverer has a series of deeds to perform to earn the title, which Philip sets out to do, with Lucy's aid (originally they were not friends, but they become so.) The nursemaid also claims the Deliverership, and is known throughout the book as the Pretenderette (to the Claimancy of the Deliverership) , though as is remarked, the Claimancy of the Destroyership is also open.. Spoiler Warning. . Ultimately she calls in the barbarians from Caesar's Gallic Wars (one of the books of which the city is built) to seize power, but is defeated when Philip calls up Caesar himself and his legions. Yet Caesar greets the defeated Pretenderette with respect "I hail, madame, your courage." --part of that ethic of understanding for enemies that runs through Nesbit's work, and impressed me as a child. .
There are a lot of other psychologically sophisticated aspects of the story -- Philip's beloved elder sister Helen had marred Lucy's father, a situation he found hard to accept, but he is able to work through it with an encounter with Helen n an island they had invented together which he is finally able to give away. ( )

One of my favorite books of all time. Read it when I was around 12 and ten years later I still love it. There's so much imagination and adventure. I would recommend this book to people of any age. Yes, it's a children's book, but it's just too good to miss. ( )