Aided by a magic model soldier that has been in the family for generations, Roger begins a quest to earn a magical cure for his father's illness. When Roger's father takes ill and needs treatment at a Baltimore hospital, the children go to spend the summer with their cousins. This 1956 story tells the adventures of a little boy named Roger, his younger sister Ann, and their cousins Jack and Eliza, all of whom are descended from the children in Half-Magic. Some pilgrims stopped and asked the four children the way to Canterbury. In the distance a gallant knight was chasing a grimly giant with puissant valor, and in the other direction a grimly giant was chasing a gallant knight for all he was worth. The next moment seven merry milkmaids skipped past, going a-Maying. Four queens were just passing, riding under a silken canopy. Here's a paragraph I found particularly delightful: The next thing the four children knew, they were standing in the midst of a crowded highway. The story is riddled with references to good books, including the Bible, David Copperfield, E. In the meantime their adventures include falling into the hands of a greedy Arab merchant, joining Sir Launcelot on a quest, becoming half-invisible in a crowded theatre, foiling a jewel heist, and becoming part of the wrong family. Naturally this causes some hilarious problems, but it finally leads the family to greater happiness, with a new father and a more enjoyable summer in sight. So anything you want, you had better wish for twice as much.

So the four siblings (Jane, Mark, Katherine, and Martha) are idly wondering what to do with their summer vacation, when they come across a magical talisman (easily mistaken for a nickel) which grants wishes by halves. Only in this story, the children don't have a father, and their mother is too busy to take them out in the country for the summer, and on top of everything else, they live in Toledo, Ohio, sometime in the 1920s (the silent film era, anyway), so it isn't quite the aristocratic British fantasy typical of E. Nesbit ( Five Children and It, etc.), he creates a similar style of fantasy/fairy-tale, starring a winning family of children. Eager was a playwright and lyricist who turned to writing children's books in order to have something to read to his son.

Edward eager