The Phoenix and the Carpet

The kids from Five Children and It are back, and this time they've discovered a flying carpet! Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane, and their baby brother, the Lamb, are playing in the nursery with fireworks when they inadvertently burn the rug. The replacement carpet, a secondhand item of unknown origins, contains a stone egg that falls into the fireplace and miraculously hatches a phoenix.
The friendly phoenix explains that the magic carpet can transport the children to any location around the globe — but only three times a day. Fantastic and bizarre events follow, as the children and their new friend undertake local adventures in Edwardian-era London as well as expeditions to a French castle, an Indian bazaar, and a remote desert island. "The magic of the story is still potent," noted Kirkus, "fantasy done in a realistic vein, and enchantment for the imaginative child."

Edith Nesbit wrote more than 40 books for children, several of which have been adapted many times for film, including Five Children and It and The Railway Children. She is best known for her collections and retellings of classics such as Stories from Shakespeare for Young Readers, also available from Dover.