Write your own Five Children and It story

Anthea ("Panther")

The eldest girl of the family, Anthea is kind-hearted, thoughtful, and the most diplomatic of the children. She tends to finish what she starts and is the first to speak gently to the Psammead. Her nickname among the siblings is 'Panther,' a playful distortion of her name.

Cyril

The eldest boy and de-facto leader of the sibling group. Cyril is practical, sometimes bossy, and quick to come up with plans, such as hiring a pony-cart to spend their gold in Rochester. He is proud of having nine pockets sewn into his suit. He is the most likely to snap at his siblings under pressure but generally means well.

Robert

The second boy in the family, Robert is brave but grumpy under stress and competitive with Cyril. He is the first to bravely address the Psammead and is good-natured at heart, sharing a bedroom with Cyril. He is skeptical of magic until he sees it himself.

Jane ("Pussy")

The younger girl, Jane is imaginative and sometimes dreamy. Her nickname is 'Pussy,' shortened further to 'Puss.' She is occasionally called 'silly' by her siblings but often offers creative and perceptive observations, such as imagining what Martha tells her relatives about the Baby.

The Lamb

The infant baby of the family, called 'the Lamb' because 'Baa' was his first word. He is carried by turns among the older children and is too young to be affected by the beauty wish, remaining his ordinary self. He is Anthea's favourite sibling and becomes distressed when he cannot recognize his siblings after the beauty wish takes effect.

Martha

The family's nursemaid, Martha is strict, no-nonsense, and deeply suspicious of strangers. She refuses to let the beautiful-wish-transformed children into the house and empties a toilet-jug of water over Robert. She is fond of dressing up and taking the Lamb to visit her cousins in Rochester on Sundays.

The Psammead (Sand-fairy)

An ancient creature of prehistoric origin, the Psammead resembles a fat spider covered in thick brown fur, with eyes on long telescoping stalks like a snail's, bat-like ears, and monkey hands and feet. It is irascible, vain, and easily offended, but will grant one wish per day to those who find it. Its wishes last only until sunset, after which everything granted reverts to its natural state or turns to stone. It is the last of its kind, having survived thousands of years buried in dry sand to avoid getting wet.

Mother and Father

The children's parents, who are largely absent during the story's opening events: father leaves suddenly on business and mother goes to care for an unwell grandmother. Father is noted for his dry wit about the house's architecture, and he told the children that the gravel-pit was once an ancient seabed. Their absence gives the children freedom to interact with the Psammead unsupervised.

The White House

A plain white country house on the edge of a hill, three miles from the station, surrounded by a green lawn, rose garden, orchard, and a brambly wilderness beyond a broken gate. It has a stable with a hay loft and a dry fountain on the side. The children's family has recently moved here from London and the children consider it a fairy palace after years of city life.

The Gravel-Pit

A large, bowl-shaped excavation near the White House, described as being like a giant's washbowl with grass and dry wildflowers at the rim and holes in the sides that serve as bank-martins' nests. The Psammead lives buried deep in the dry sandy floor. The pit was once ancient seabed, as evidenced by shells thousands of years old found in the sand.

Rochester

The nearby market town where the children attempt to spend their fairy gold. Local tradespeople refuse the unfamiliar coins, calling them 'furrin money' or card-counters. The Saracen's Head inn is noted as a place to buy horses and carriages. Rochester is reachable by pony-cart from the village.

The Village

A small village more than a mile from the White House, containing the Blue Boar Inn and The Chequers inn where a pony-cart can be hired. The local constable is stationed here. The village is the children's nearest source of food and transport.

Spade Guinea (Fairy Gold Coin)

The form taken by the Psammead's gold wish, these are old-fashioned spade guineas bearing an unfamiliar king's head on one face and a spade-shaped coat of arms on the other. They are not recognized as legal tender by Victorian tradespeople, who call them 'card-counters' or 'furrin money.' One coin was enough to hire a pony-cart for the day when the right buyer was found.

The Rules of the Psammead's Wishes

The Psammead grants exactly one wish per day to whoever finds and speaks to it. Wishes are granted by the Psammead swelling itself up and expelling its breath; the effort is physically taxing for it. All wish-granted things, people, or conditions revert at sunset—either returning to normal or, in prehistoric times, turning to stone. The Psammead cannot grant wishes that persist past sundown and cannot exceed certain natural limits (e.g., it struggles with large transformations if out of practice). Servants and adults generally do not notice the effects of wishes unless specifically wishing otherwise.

Prehistoric Age of Sand-fairies

In prehistoric times, Sand-fairies were plentiful and lived on ancient seashores. Children would come each morning with flint spades and pails to find them and receive daily wishes, typically wishing for Megatherium (a giant mammal), Ichthyosaurus (a large sea reptile), or Plesiosaurus for food. Leftover food turned to stone at sunset, becoming the fossils found today. The Sand-fairies were nearly wiped out because children built moats in their sand castles, and the wet sea caused the fairies to catch cold and die. The sole surviving Psammead retreated inland to dry sand.

Fairy Gold and Its Limitations

Gold conjured by the Psammead appears as antique spade guineas rather than modern sovereigns, with a man's head on one side and an ace-of-spades-like symbol on the other. Local tradespeople refuse it as foreign or counterfeit currency. The gold is extremely heavy in bulk—enough to fill an entire gravel-pit. Like all wishes, it reverts at sunset. This makes fairy gold nearly impossible to spend in practice, despite its vast quantity.