The Book of Dragons by Edith Nesbit

Eight madcap tales of unpredictable dragons — including one made of ice, another that takes refuge in the General Post Office, and a fire-breathing monster that flies out of an enchanted book and eats an entire soccer team!The Book of Beasts (Excerpt)He happened to be building a Palace when the news came, and he left all the bricks kicking about the floor for Nurse to clear up—but then the news was rather remarkable news. You see, there was a knock at the front door and voices talking downstairs, and Lionel thought it was the man come to see about the gas, which had not been allowed to be lighted since the day when Lionel made a swing by tying his skipping rope to the gas bracket.And then, quite suddenly, Nurse came in and said, Master Lionel, dear, theyve come to fetch you to go and be King.Then she made haste to change his smock and to wash his face and hands and brush his hair, and all the time she was doing it Lionel kept wriggling and fidgeting and saying, Oh, dont, Nurse, and, Im sure my ears are quite clean, or, Never mind my hair, its all right, and, Thatll do.Youre going on as if you was going to be an eel instead of a King, said Nurse.The minute Nurse let go for a moment Lionel bolted off without waiting for his clean handkerchief, and in the drawing room there were two very grave-looking gentlemen in red robes with fur, and gold coronets with velvet sticking up out of the middle like the cream in the very expensive jam tarts.They bowed low to Lionel, and the gravest one said: Sire, your great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, the King of this country, is dead, and now you have got to come and be King.Yes, please, sir, said Lionel, when does it begin?You will be crowned this afternoon, said the grave gentleman who was not quite so grave-looking as the other.Would you like me to bring Nurse, or what time would you like me to be fetched, and hadnt I better put on my velvet suit with the lace collar? said Lionel, who had often been out to tea.Your Nurse will be removed to the Palace later. No, never mind about changing your suit; the Royal robes will cover all that up....About Edith Nesbitt:Edith Nesbit (married name Edith Bland; 15 August 1858 – 4 May 1924) was an English author and poet; she published her books for children under the name of E. Nesbit.Nesbit published approximately 40 books for children, including novels, collections of stories and picture books. Collaborating with others, she published almost as many more.According to her biographer, Julia Briggs, Nesbit was the first modern writer for children: Nesbit helped to reverse the great tradition of childrens literature inaugurated by Lewis Carroll, George MacDonald and Kenneth Grahame, in turning away from their secondary worlds to the tough truths to be won from encounters with things-as-they-are, previously the province of adult novels. Briggs also credits Nesbit with having invented the childrensadventure story. Noël Coward was a great admirer of hers and, in a letter to an early biographer Noel Streatfeild, wrote she had an economy of phrase, and an unparalleled talent for evoking hot summer days in the English countryside.Among Nesbits best-known books are The Story of the Treasure Seekers(1898) and The Wouldbegoods (1899), which both recount stories about the Bastables, a middle-class family that has fallen on (relatively) hard times.The Railway Children is also known from its adaptation into a 1970 film version. Gore Vidal called the time-travel book, The Story of the Amulet one in which Nesbits powers of invention are at their best. Her childrens writing also included numerous plays and collections of verse.She created an innovative body of work that combined realistic, contemporary children in real-world settings with magical objects – what would now be classed as contemporary fantasy – and adventures and sometimes travel to fantastic worlds. In doing so, she was a direct or indirect influence on many subsequent writers, including P. L. Travers (author ofMary Poppins), Edward Eager, Diana Wynne Jones and J. K. Rowling. C. S. Lewis was influenced by her in writing the Narnia series and mentions the Bastable children in The Magicians Nephew. (Wikipedia)