Here's some unexpected news for Jacqueline Wilson fans: the Tracy Beaker author is going to write a new version of E Nesbit's classic Five Children and It.

The book, first published in 1902, features the adventures of a group of children who move from London to the Kent countryside and discover a sand fairy, a Psammead, who will grant a wish a day. The children eagerly make their wishes but the outcomes aren't quite what they expect.

Jacqueline Wilson, a former children's laureate, described the job of updating a much-loved children's book as "an exciting challenge" and said that Nesbit is her "all-time favourite classic children's author". The book is due to be published by Puffin Books in August 2012.