Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit

A family of five children move from London to countryside. Father is away on business and mother also is away looking after Granny. The children are on their own with the servants. They start digging the gravel pit near their home in the hope of reaching Australia only they end up finding Sammyadd. If you think "'that's Greek to me.' 'So it is to everyone" In plain English, it is a Sand-fairy. A sand-fairy that could grant one wish a day, a wish that would stop working at sunset. The kids are excited and ask for wishes, one every day. If you think that the children don't want the sun to set so that their wishes would not end. You are wrong. All the wishes somehow land them in trouble and they wait for the sunset when the wish would wear away and everything would be normal again.

They have all kinds of adventures with these wishes and are always happy when the sunsets and their adventures end. I liked the witty writing style of the author. It's a fun book to read. I haven't read anything else by Edith Nesbit hope to redeem it soon. 

Published in 1902, this ebook can be downloaded for free from Project Gutenberg. 

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

I read 'Kim' as a kid and enjoyed in very much. Though I have seen a cartoon version of The Jungle Book on TV I never got to read it. I picked this book for the Back to Classics challenge. First and foremost, this is not a novel but a collection of short stories and songs. Three of these stories tell the tale of Mowgli. The first one narrates the story of how the Father Wolf and Mother Wolf save the Human child from the Shere Khan and adopt him. The next story tells the story of how Mowgli learns about the Law of the Jungle and learns who his friends are. Third one tells the story of how Mowgli won his fight against Shere Khan. While the characters and main plot line for the cartoon series I saw was derived from The Jungle Book, the cartoon is very different from the Mowgli stories here. I enjoyed getting reacquainted with Bhageera and Bhaloo. Other short stories also deal with animals, 'The White Seal' tells the story of a white seal that goes in search of an island faraway from human habitation to escape being hunted by humans for fur. 'Rikki Tikki Tavi' features the legendary fight between a mongoose and a snake. 'Toomai and the Elephant' tells the story of a young boy Toomai who forms a bond with elephants and gets to see and lives to tell about the rare elephant dance. 'Her Majesty's Service' tells the story of the camp animals, while I enjoyed all the other stories in this collection, the last story didn't hold my attention. There are jungle songs in between the short stories, I don't think I cared for them either. Overall, I feel I may have enjoyed it more as a kid. 

This book is available as a free ebook from many websites including Project Gutenberg and Goodreads. 

The Middle Temple Murder by J S Fletcher

Spargo, sub-editor of Watchman, returning home after the papers have gone to the press at 2 in the early morning, spots news near Middle Temple lane when he finds policemen there. A porter had reported that he found a man lying dead in one of the entrances to the lane. There was nothing on the man that could lead to his identification.

They find a scrap of paper with a barrister's address on it. But the barrister is not aware of any such man. So who was he? Why was he murdered? Who murdered him? Spargo plays an active role in the investigation. He uses his influence of as a journalists to get the case solved.

With the help of the cap, the dead man was wearing, they trace him. It is a complicated and confusing case involving embezzlement, impersonation, hidden identities, invaluable stamps, hidden leather box and a twenty-one year old case.

I didn't guess the killer or the reason. There were many twists that I hadn't anticipated. Interesting mystery that got me glued from start to finish. I liked this book much much better than The Charing Cross Mystery by J S Fletcher. The Middle Temple Murder published in 1919 is available as a free ebook from many websites including Gutenberg and Amazon.