Edward Eager

Playwright and lyricist Edward Eager began writing children’s books after he failed to find any suitable stories to read to his young son. Himself a huge fan of children’s literature, Eager’s books are full of respectful references to Sir Walter Scott, Lewis Carroll, Louisa May Alcott, and E. Nesbit (whom Eager considered to be the greatest children’s author ever).

Eager’s books are pleasantly formulaic: four children with too much time on their hands stumble across a magic talisman, the magic talisman never quite works out as planned, fantastic hijinks ensue. That doesn’t mean that he was careless with his plotting, however—Eager obviously enjoyed constructing complicated situations wherein characters from one of his novels interacted with characters from another.

As children’s fantasy writers from the first half of the twentieth century go, Edward Eager was neither as creative as E. Nesbit nor as adorably weird as James Barrie. But that’s okay—his books have their own easygoing charm, and there’s room enough on the Wordcandy bookshelf for ‘em all.

Aftertaste:
None.

Availability:
Everywhere.

Other Recommendations:
Anything by E. Nesbit

Anything by George MacDonald