House of Arden

For my Children's Classic, I went with a Nesbit because I wanted something totally new to me but I also wanted to be pretty sure we'd all like it. My kid's love Nesbit but I normally rely on audiobooks.  House of Arden happened to be one I didn't know of an easy audiobook source for so that made it an easy choice. I read it out loud to my 5 and 7 year old and it did take quite a while. It's long but a good part of the reason for our taking such a long time is I'm struggling with anemia and sometimes found it hard to read more than 5 minutes before getting too out of breathe to continue so that doesn't really reflect on the story. I do think that helped me enjoy it more. We really had time to get to know Edred and Elfrida (although I still wish they had different names - I was always stumbling over those!).

As I think it pretty standard for a Nesbit novel, this one has a couple of kids and a bit of magic. I wasn't expecting the historical aspect to the time travel and it was a lot of fun, especially for Lucy and I who recognized some of the names. I also really appreciated that they while the plot had fantasy, the kid's seemed pretty realistic. They were siblings who were basically good kids but struggled to get along at times -not so sugary sweet that mine couldn't related but not so obnoxious that I didn't want to keep reading without adding a commentary about how they needed a good consequence or two. Even though I was older than the target audience, I found the story engaging and complex but it was not too confusing for my 5 year old. All in all, a great read-aloud.

The House of Arden is my Back to the Classics Children's Classic selection. For more classic reviews, head over the Books and Chocolate.