4.5 ★ - (loved it, favorite!) I've started rereading books that I know I enjoyed when I was younger realizing that I had forgotten a lot of the story. With this one especially I only recalled vibes and select scenes vaguely. So time for a reread it was! I'm quite late in reviewing this (I read it in November whoops) but it's clearer in my memory that it was before so here goes XD I enjoyed this book immensely, just as much, if not more than the first time! CWs - or things that caught my attention: lying, secrets, magic (fairytale kind), inanimate objects coming to life. 4/22/24

** spoiler alert ** Edith Nesbit's fantasies all seem to follow a similar pattern. A large family of children are left to adventure on their own and find real magic beyond what they can conjure with their imaginations. Usually their dabbling in magic leads to trouble and of course life lessons. The Enchanted Castle falls squarely in this category. The book follows the misadventures of siblings Jerry, Jimmy and Cathy and their new friend Mable. Mable lives in the enchanted castle but most of the magic happens due to the wishes granted by a troublesome ring. Like The Five Children and It, the book mostly focuses on the wishes that each character makes and consequences of them. As each character in turn uses the ring to wish (including the unnamed Nanny, known only as Mademoiselle) the wishes become more fantastical and the results more surreal and potentially dangerous.

"Perhaps there's given up being magic because people didn't believe in it any more.” Truth. I mean, who really knows? Who's to say there isn't magic? This is a charming story, following a group of youngsters who happen upon a castle said to be magical. There, they find a ring which is more than meets the eye.