Books I have deliberately misunderstood

Continuing series, Part 1, liable to forget, blah blah, etc.:

Five Children & IT - Edith Nesbit's remarkably prescient 1902 prequel to The Phoenix and the Carpet. Information Technology is represented here, in metaphorical form, as a rather grumpy sand-fairy of whom any requests made are inclined to end unsatisfactorily. Perhaps the most uncanny thing, though, is Nesbit's realisation that, as the raw material for silicon chips, today's IT systems would - like the Psammead - spring forth from sand.