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these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”

Friday 6 September 2013

Enid Blyton Challenge Book 05 - The Enchanted Wood

I made this: Unknown at 8:00 am
One of our Superstar Guest Stars has agreed to a new challenge based on our chats relating to #LBCPuffins.

Can't wait to read each review as they come! Huge thanks - as always - to Helen...though now I think on it...missing out on all these wonderful stories... Clearly we need each other!

Helen's Enid Blyton Challenge



About the Author
About the Author
Born in 1897 in South London, Enid Mary Blyton was the eldest of three children and showed an early interest in music and reading. She was educated at St. Christopher's School, Beckenham, and - having decided not to pursue her music - at Ipswich High School, where she trained as a kindergarten teacher. She taught for five years before her 1924 marriage to editor Hugh Pollock, with whom she had two daughters. This marriage ended in divorce and Blyton remarried in 1943, to surgeon Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters. She died in 1968, one year after her second husband.

Enid Blyton was a prolific author of children's books, who penned an estimated 800 books over about 40 years. Her stories were often either children's adventure and mystery stories, or fantasies involving magic. Notable series include: The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, The Five Find-Outers, Noddy, The Wishing Chair, Mallory Towers, and St. Clare's.


The EnchantedWood
The Book
Jo (Joe), Bessie (Beth) and Fanny (Franny) move to the country and find an Enchanted Wood right on their doorstep. In the magic Faraway Tree live the magical characters that soon become their new friends – Moon-Face, Silky the fairy, and Saucepan Man. Together they visit the strange lands (the Roundabout Land, the Land of Ice and Snow, Toyland and the Land of Take What You Want) atop the tree and have the most exciting adventures – and narrow escapes.
 My Review

The copy I have been reading was loaned to me along with t he wishing chair books by the lovely Kirsty aka @Kayelle5 on Twitter.

We open the story where we meet three children on the day their family are moving from the town to the country. From the edition I’m reading I did actually think this was about three girls, their names being Jo, Bessie and Fanny you know Jo being as in Joanne but apparently it was short for Joseph. In later editions it has been changed to Joe, Beth and Franny.
‘‘wisha-wisha-wisha-wisha!’ 
said the trees in the woods’
First written in 1939 it is classed as a piece of fantasy writing and you can see why. Not one chapter allows you to stop and think for a second, it’s crazy! It is a wonderful book for kids, the thought that you climb up a ladder from a tree and at the top will be a different ‘land’each time you go. Not always nice, pleasant ones but ones that will always give you an adventure. The children get to learn of other lands and their inhabitants and their different characters like Moon Face and the strange Mr Saucepan Man and the not so nice Mrs Snap or again in later editions Mrs Slap.  Who had a school for naughty pixies, fairies and brownies with horrid punishments.
“up the lane and down the lane and around the lane.”
It is the classic story of children being warned not to do something and they do it. 

The tree they find is apparently the oldest and most magic tree in the world and it turns out to be the faraway tree which once you reach the top can fill you with all sorts of surprises. 

And of course the three children have nothing better to do but explore and are determined to find out whats at the top and find all sorts of characters and objects and another world.


‘But everybody cheered up a little at the thought of tea’
Reading this as an adult I did find it quite difficult with the constant changing of lands and characters and perhaps as I’m getting old the pace of the book was just to fast for me. All the silly names as well threw me but if I were to read this as a child or to children it would have them absorbed I am sure of it as it’s such a lovely little book. And as  with all Enid Blyton’s stories there are lessons to be learnt is that life is full of  scary adventures and most of all you should be thankful for what you have and be careful what you wish for!

Next book: The Magic Faraway Tree
The Book List

Dec - The Twins at St Clare's
Nov - The Mystery of the Pantomime Cat
Oct - The Naughtiest School Girl
Sep - Mr Galliano’s Circus
Aug - The Boy Next Door
Jul - Adventures of the wishing Chair
Jun - The Magic Faraway Tree
May - The Enchanted Wood
Apr - The Adventures of Scamp
Mar - Secret Seven
Feb - Five on a treasure Island
Jan - The Book of Brownies

Helen tweets from @isfromupnorth and has her own blog Hello from me to you. It's worth bookmarking because Helen knows EVERYONE and is involved in all sorts of lovely events!

The Hobbit (book) review


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