The Magic Faraway Tree recap

A cousin comes to stay with the children while his own mother is ill, and is soon convinced that the Enchanted Wood and its Faraway Tree are real. Together they climb to the lands at the top of the tree: the Land of Topsy-Turvy, where the brother is turned upside down and has to be cured with a spell bought in the Land of Spells; the Land of Do-As-You-Please, with its runaway train; and the Land of Goodies, built of things to eat. When the children's own mother falls seriously ill and the doctor is baffled, the Land of Magic Medicines arrives just in time, and they fetch a get-well cure that restores her. The book ends with a happy final visit to the Land of Presents, full of Christmas trees and gifts, before the cousin's stay comes to an end and the children settle back at home with their mother well again.

In the first book, a brother and his two sisters left the town for a country cottage and found the Enchanted Wood close by, and in it the towering Faraway Tree. Living along its trunk were Moon-Face, with the slippery-slip slide that spirals down inside the tree; the golden-haired elf Silky, free with her Pop Biscuits and Google Buns; the clanking, half-deaf Saucepan Man; the short-tempered Angry Pixie; the sleepy Mister Watzisname; and Dame Washalot, whose wash-water pours down the branches. At the very top a ladder climbs through a hole in a cloud into a land that changes from time to time - some lands a treat, some a danger, and every one to be left before it moves away and strands the visitor. The children made firm friends of the tree folk, helped drive a band of Red Goblins out of the wood, and came safely home, keeping the tree their own secret.

A cousin comes to stay with the children while his own mother is unwell, and at first he only half-believes their talk of a magic tree. Taken into the Enchanted Wood, he soon meets Moon-Face, Silky and the rest for himself and is quickly won over. On an early climb the children and their cousin go up the ladder into the Land of Topsy-Turvy, where everything is upside down. Their brother is rude to an upside-down policeman there and finds himself turned head-over-heels by the same magic, unable to right himself. He has to shelter with Moon-Face until, luckily, the Land of Spells arrives at the top of the tree. A trip into that land, with Moon-Face and Silky along, lets them buy a spell to undo the topsy-turvy magic and set the boy the right way up again. The cousin has had a sharp early lesson in how real - and how risky - the tree's lands can be.

With the cousin now a firm believer, the children go on visiting the lands that settle at the top of the tree. They spend time in the Land of Do-As-You-Please, where they ride animals and end up on a runaway train, and in the Land of Goodies, where houses and hedges are made of chocolate and other good things to eat. The cousin's greediness lands the group in trouble more than once, and the tree folk help pull them clear each time. Through it all the children keep to the rule of the tree - climb down before a land moves on - and share the treats and the mishaps of life on the Faraway Tree with Moon-Face, Silky and the Saucepan Man. Between climbs they slip back to the cottage, as careful as ever to keep the tree a secret.

The adventures take a serious turn when the children's own mother falls ill and the doctor cannot help her. As luck would have it, the Land of Magic Medicines comes to rest at the top of the tree. One of the sisters stays at the cottage to nurse their mother while the others climb up to fetch a cure. The land is a hazardous one - the cousin meddles with the medicines and is made first to swell to an enormous size and then to shrink almost to nothing before he is put right - but the children manage to bring away a general get-well medicine. It works, and their mother recovers completely. With the worry over, the friends make one last, happy visit to the Land of Presents, a land full of Christmas trees and every kind of gift, a cheerful close to the cousin's stay. The cousin's visit then comes to an end, and the children are left safe with their mother well once more.

The book ends with a health crisis resolved by the tree's magic. The children's mother falls ill and the doctor can do nothing, but the Land of Magic Medicines settles at the top of the Faraway Tree at the right moment. While one of the sisters stays behind to nurse her, the others climb up and, despite the cousin swelling to a huge size and then shrinking almost to nothing among the medicines, come away with a general get-well cure that restores their mother to full health. With the danger past, the friends take a last celebratory trip to the Land of Presents, a place of Christmas trees and gifts of every kind. The cousin's visit then draws to a close, leaving the children to their ordinary life with their mother well again. The tree folk - Moon-Face, Silky, the Saucepan Man and the others - remain in the Faraway Tree as ever, and the way is left open for a new visitor, Connie, to arrive in the next book.