Five Children and It

Edith Nesbit (1858–1924) lived in England and had dreamed of becoming a poet since she was fifteen years old. After her husband fell ill, it was up to her to support her small family. For the next nineteen years, she wrote novels, essays, articles, poems, and short stories; but it was not until 1899, when The Story of the Treasure Seekers was published, that she achieved great success. Her groundbreaking style of depicting realistic, believable children quickly gained a popularity that has lasted for more than a century.

Johanna Ward (a.k.a. Kate Reading) is an Audie Award–winning narrator and has received numerous Earphones Awards from AudioFile magazine. She is also a theater actor in the Washington, DC, area and has been a member of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company since 1987. Her work onstage has been recognized by the Helen Hayes Awards Society, among others. She and her husband live in Hyattsville, Maryland, with their two children.