While readers might be slightly incredulous at the outcome of one horrific event, Saunders casts it in realistic detail. Comfortably blending fantasy elements with an English period piece about a close family, Saunders ( The Whizz Pop Chocolate Shop) doesn’t shy from the tragedies of WWI, but handles them with a tender sadness, eschewing any hints of sentimentality or melodrama. In a daring move, Saunders delivers a sequel to the classic fantasy, taking up the characters in 1914 (except for a few instances of time travel), adding a new sibling, and not just reviving the Psammead, but providing a backstory for the “senior sand fairy” that has its own suspenseful movement. Nesbit’s Five Children and It is an irresistible read for a wide range of readers.
Published in 2014 (the centennial of the start of WWI) in England, where it won the Costa Children’s Book Award, Saunders’s moving homage to E.
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