Five Children and It

When five British children discover a temperamental sand-fairy in a gravel pit, they are granted a series of wishes, but learn how troublesome it can be to get exactly what you wish for. They wish for beauty and become unrecognizable at home; they wish for riches and end up with outdated currency; they wish to fly and get stuck atop a bell tower! Their wishes get them into trouble and into dangerous situations, too. This is the first book in a three volume series.