I recently read Jacqueline Wilson's
Four Children and It, which was written as a tribute to E. Nesbit. The opening chapters are full of modern misery with a bunch of siblings, half-siblings and step-siblings who hate the thought of spending the holidays together. But unexpected things happen which affect the family and their relationships, and I was soon caught up in their lives and found some parts really moving. Two of the characters in particular appealed to me - the bookish girl who narrates the story and her sensitive little brother, who loves animals. People who have read E. Nesbit's
Five Children and It will get the most out of the book, but it can still be understood and enjoyed by readers who aren't familiar with Nesbit's characters.
At one point there's a mention of Enid Blyton, though it refers to the mythical "lashings of ginger beer":
"Yes, a picnic! I haven't had a proper picnic since I was a little kid myself. Sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs and cherry cake and lashings of lemonade," said Dad.
"That's an Enid Blyton picnic - and it's lashings of ginger beer, not lemonade," I said, but so quietly that only Robbie heard.
In a note at the end of the book, Jacqueline Wilson writes of her love for E. Nesbit and remarks, "When I read a biography of E. Nesbit, I discovered that she had a new silver bangle to celebrate the publication of each book - whereas I always choose a special silver ring." Whenever I've seen Jacqueline Wilson interviewed on television she's always been wearing enormous silver rings on her fingers, studded with stones of all colours.
Helen Cresswell also wrote a book inspired by
Five Children and It, called
The Return of the Psammead, but
Four Children and It takes things in a very different direction.