The Phoenix and the Carpet is a fantasy novel for children, written by E. Nesbit and first published in 1904. It is the second in a trilogy of novels that begins with Five Children and It (1902), and follows the adventures of the same five children: Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane and the Lamb. Their mother buys the children a new carpet to replace one from the nursery that they have destroyed in an accidental fire. The children find an egg in the carpet, which hatches into a talking Phoenix. The Phoenix explains that the carpet is a magic one that will grant them three wishes a day. The five children go on many adventures, which eventually wears out their magic carpet. The adventures are continued and concluded in the third book of the trilogy, The Story of the Amulet (1906). From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).

Inspired by Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, this book, which Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum wrote under the pen name Edith Van Dyne, is much in the same vein as Alcott's cozy coming-of-age tale. The first in a series, the story of this novel follows three nieces who are summoned to their wealthy aunt's estate so she can decide to whom she will bequeath her sizable inheritance. Although the girls couldn't be more different personality-wise, a series of calamities brings them ...