Five Children and IT (2003)

With their father away at war and their mother nursing the wounded, five children from London are sent away to stay with their Uncle in his dilapidated mansion by the sea. There they encounter a strange household, comprising Uncle, who demands absolute silence in order to write his book, Martha, the friendly but crazy housekeeper and Uncle’s son Horace, a small boy with a laboratory in the basement – an evil scientist in the making.

While exploring, the children find a secret passage under the house that takes them to a strange beach. What they thought was going to be a dull summer in the country is about to become the most exciting summer of their lives when they accidentally dig up an 8,000 year old sand-fairy, a Psammead. IT, is the crankiest creature they’ve ever encountered, the last sand-fairy in the world, according to IT, the greatest that ever granted a wish. IT confesses to dealing with greedy kings and corrupt officials with ideas above their station, but is certainly not used to children and does not care much for them either.

IT, although ancient and irritable, grants them a wish a day, lasting until sunset. The children soon learn that it’s very hard to think of really sensible wishes, and IT derives great satisfaction in misinterpreting wishes to cause maximum devastation. They crash cars, create chaos and destruction with a house full of clones, conjure up a T-Rex, sprout magical wings and try and rescue their father from the battlefield. Magic, the children find can be as awkward as it is enticing.