"The Enchanted Castle" from Edith Nesbit. English author and poet (1858-1924).

The Enchanted Castle (1907) is a children’s fantasy novel by English writer Edith Nesbit. Using elements of magic and mystery familiar to readers of her beloved Bastable and Psammead Trilogies, Nesbit crafts a tale of wonder and adventure for children and adults alike. While on a school holiday, children Jerry, Jimmy, and Kathy explore the open landscape of rural southwestern England. One day, they discover an immense country estate, designed like an ancient castle and complete with towers, gardens, groves, and even a lake. In the middle of its central rose garden, they find a maze at the end of which a young girl lies asleep. Waking, she reveals that she is the princess of the castle, and agrees to show them some of its mysteries. One of these is the ring of invisibility, which, when she slips it on her finger to demonstrate its power, actually works. Startled, the princess reveals that she is really the housekeeper’s niece, and admits that she was only fooling around. Scared at first, the children begin to experiment with the ring, unleashing its powers in fantastic and terrifying ways. The Enchanted Castle is an entertaining, endearing novel, a masterpiece of mystery and adventure with enough excitement to ignite the wonder of children, and to fill any adult with a sense of childish wonder. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Edith Nesbit’s The Enchanted Castle is a classic of English children’s literature reimagined for modern readers.

Edith Nesbit (married name Edith Bland) (1858-1924) was an English author and poet whose children's works were published under the androgynous name of E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television. She started a new genre of magical adventures arising from everyday settings and has been much imitated. She was also a political activist and co-founded the Fabian Society, a precursor to the modern Labour Party. Nesbit's books for children are known for being entertaining without turning didactic, although some of her earlier works, notably Five Children and It (1902) and even more so The Story of the Amulet (1906), veer in that direction.

There comes a time in everyone's life when they wake up and realize that the fairy tales they cherished so much in childhood are nothing more than make-believe. The real world can be cold and uncaring, but there is still beauty to be found within it. Love does not happen overnight, but when it does, it is the most precious thing in the world. Castle [and other poems about growing up in a fairy tale world] is an anthology of poetry about fantasy, love, and reality. It consists of nearly one hundred poems for children and adults alike who are struggling to make the transition between their perfect world of magic and dreams and the world they are physically living in. Its three categories--"Once Upon a Time: poems about fantasy," "Happily Ever After: poems about love," and "Through the Looking Glass: poems about reality"--were made to create a gradual transition for idealistic dreamers into the real world and attempt to unravel its mysteries.