Enid Blyton Challenge Book 08 - The Boy Next Door

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

The Boy Next Door

THE BLURB (Taken from the back of this edition)

First edition 1944 my edition 1951About the book: Robin, Betty and Lucy are delighted when some new people move into the empty house close to theirs – especially when they spot a boy of their own age over the fence. But a sinister mystery surrounds Kit, the boy next door – a secret so terrible that he is forced to live like a prisoner. The children try to help him escape- and find themselves in a desperate struggle against a ruthless criminal. 

THE REVIEW

*****SPOILERS*****

This for me has to be the best so far. Obviously it doesn’t compete with the book of Brownies for nostalgia reasons but as for writing and a story it’s almost as if it wasn’t Enid Blyton. A mixture of Secret Seven and Famous Five but with a bit more danger thrown in. 

The story begins with us meeting Betty who is awaiting the arrival of her brother Robin, home from boarding school for the summer and her cousin Lucy and her dog Sandy come to stay.

Robin returns home feeling much older and doesn’t want to play with the girls thinking girls can’t catch and wishes for another boy to play with. They are told a new family are coming to stay next door and the children hope, well Robin hopes that it is another boy to play with. They hear a lot of howling from next door and sure enough there is a boy dressed as a Red Indian, we soon discover is They decide they are going to dress up and seek next door to give the boy a fright. However the boy captures them and ties each of them to a tree and disappears. The woman who had been sat reading when they first looked into the garden comes across them and is shocked to find them. They tell her the boy tied them up and she exclaims there never was one. She unties them and tells them never to come back. 
Later a ball comes over the fence with a message in it explaining that he would like to meet but the hole has been covered up in the hedge where they entered, and that another rout must be found but they must not be seen. The children begin to wonder what kind of mystery is going on next door if the boy they met ‘does not exist!’

The story leads on to the discovery that the boy is in hiding from his ‘evil uncle’ since his father was killed in a plane crash leaving him an orphan and very rich and that ever since his ‘evil uncle’ has kidnapped him twice and is trying again to gain his fortune. The children do find a way to meet again and discover a houseboat on the river which a gentleman - Mr Cunningham - agrees to let them have for two slices of birthday cake. The children set about redecorating the boat and plan ways to seek Kit out onto the boat so they can have picnics and adventures.
Then one day they find out Mr Cunningham has gone abroad and the children and told by two nasty men to stay clear of the boat as they want peace and quiet. However it turns out they are working for Kit’s Uncle and they hide the boat. It’s discovered by Robin later on under some willows down a back stretch of the river and has had its windows bordered up.

A few days later Robin wonders what has happened to Kit and goes next door to investigate and discovers Kit locked in his bedroom. After hearing Mr Barton climb the stairs he hides only to be discovered by the adults. Robin makes his escape but only just and runs to tell the girls. He decides he must go back and help Kit and in doing so discovers that Mr Barton is plotting with the ‘evil Uncle’ to have the boy kidnapped again. Robin decides it would be best to hide Kit and takes him to the boat, only to discover later that is where the evil Uncle was planning to hide him. Its here where the adventure reaches its climax and good again conquers evil with a few surprises on the way.

This to me was a child’s introduction to mystery and crime writing and if I had children I would definitely read this to them. I was totally gripped and found myself shouting ‘no don’t do that, it’s a trap!’ It involved kids using their imaginations, wits, looking out for each other, and learning that not all adults are friendly. They climbed trees, dug holes, played games, made dens and created a friendship that would last forever, a childhood everyone should have.

P.S. 
Whilst writing this I tried researching the book and found very little apart from this the Enid Blyton society and this blog HERE.

Next book: Mr Galliano's Circus

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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Guest - Table of Contents

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Full Table of Contents

Enid Blyton Challenge Book 07 - The Adventures of the Wishing Chair

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

The Adventures of
the Wishing Chair

I’ve fallen behind on my challenge. A lot behind. I started to struggle with a couple of Enid’s books and decided to get back into it. This was June’s choice and I have fallen in love with this. I had to remember this is a book for children and to not be as critical over as I was with the enchanted wood which felt a bit strange. I’m convinced I read this as a child but I can’t remember. The illustrations look so familiar and the chair growing wings brought something back. I’ll get on to that a bit more in a moment but here’s part of a review I found which summed it up completely.

The Story: (Goodreads)
Once Mollie and Peter have discovered the Wishing-Chair, their lives are full of adventure. It takes them to all sorts of magical places, from the giant's castle where they rescue Chinky the Pixie, to the amazing party at Magician Greatheart's castle.

What others thought:
 ‘People seem to think that using simple English is talking down to children or having a rather simplistic story line is somehow patronizing to kids. Which seems to be the more common complaints against Miss Blyton.

I strongly disagree with this reasoning. Sometimes kids need a simple story so they can grasp it easily and get straight to the fantasy. Sometimes they just need a book that doesn't seek to teachthem a bunch of words. Using simple English doesn't necessarily mean patronizing, it's often far easier for the child to be immersed in the story. Immersed being the key word there.

Enid Blyton has this knack for knowing a child's wildest fantasies and tapping into their desires. Her simple but direct manner of writing is easy for a young child to get into and there's a sort of whimsy and wonder found in her words.

Her worlds offer a place of escape for the child and the simple manner it is delivered makes it easy for the child to immerse themselves into whatever faraway world is on offer.

I think that's why she's so endearing even to modern audiences. Her books offer all the places of magic and wonder we were already wishing to travel to in our youth.’

“We have been given two ears and only one mouth, so you should talk only as half as much as you hear - Mollie

This is so far one of my favourites besides the brownie book. I loved it. From the moment Mollie and Peter go in search for something for their Mother’s birthday and wonder off into a shop to find it run by a wizard, almost made me wonder if J.K. Rowling had read Enid Blyton’s work as a child.

The children get scared by the little man in the shop and end up sitting on a chair and are very frightened when suddenly Peter says ‘Oh, I do wish we were back home’  only for the chair to sproutwings and fly out the window. They land safely back home and decide to leave the chair hidden in the playroom. After that day they wait for it to grow wings and fly off for an adventure where they rescue Chinky - the elf/pixie - which then leads to lots of magical adventures. They gain a new friend; learn to be careful what they wish for.  Because sometimes they landed in some rotten places. They discover the rewards from helping each other out, even complete strangers. That how we treat each other is important and we shouldn’t be horrid to each other because we’re not happy or don’t get what we want.

This is a fantastic adventure - at some points it was too fast for me but if I was reading this as a child I wouldn’t want to stop nor get whoever reading it to me to stop. So please pick it up and read it and meet the wonderful characters as I don’t want to give too much away.

Oh and one last thought, I like the idea of fairies being at the bottom of the garden. One day I might find them.

Check out The Enid Blyton Society page for more history on the book

Next book: The Boy Next Door

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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Guest - Table of Contents

* * * * *

Full Table of Contents

Enid Blyton Challenge Book 05 - The Enchanted Wood

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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Guest - Table of Contents

* * * * *

Full Table of Contents

Enid Blyton Challenge Book 04 - The Adventures of Scamp

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

BLURB

Scamp is a bundle of mischief when the children choose him as their puppy. He makes a lot of trouble as he fits into the new household, and some lessons are learnt the painful way, but the children have fun training him, and in the end his devotion to his young mistress saves her life.

REVIEW

This is a delightful little book about a little dog called Scamp. And everything he gets up to. This is the third Enid Blyton book, bumped up to allow Mallory towers in the challenge after much disgust that I hadn’t included it. Sorry ladies. J

So on to Scamp. This story is about two children called Kenneth and Joan, who get to choose a puppy from a litter to take home. They sit and play with the puppies and decide to choose a small one with a black patch over his ear as he is being quite mischievous. They think it will be fun and name him Scamp.

However, before he leaves his Mum, Scamp gets himself into all sorts of trouble. He first encounters a cat, and because it is wagging his tail he thinks it’s friendly and pleased to see him. Wrong! The cat attacks him and he runs back to his Mum who explains how cats and dogs communicate, there’s different signals. The cat wasn’t pleased to see him and he should be more careful. Scamp learns his first lesson there but still torments the cat but doesn’t get to close.

Through the story Scamp gets taught lots of lessons from being naughty, some he doesn’t learn from straight away. First one is that he keeps chewing things and it’s only when he eats the Aunt’s hat and is scolded that he realises that there are only certain things to chew. And then there’s the moment where he gets with a couple of older dogs, who like chasing sheep and the family get a warning from the farmer that if he were to do it again he might get shot. Next time Scamp is out he sees the dogs 

again and because they call him a ‘baby’ for not wanting to do it he doesn’t want to look silly and does it anyway resulting in him getting shot, and they have ran off without checking on him. Scamp knew it was wrong to do this but didn’t want to look silly in front of his new friends. I think his lesson there was not to do things that you know are wrong but do it to look good in front of someone. But real friends wouldn’t do that to you.

Scamp get up to all sorts whilst growing up and becomes a big part of the family and proves his worth not once but twice, when there’s an attempted robbery doing the night at the next house and he accidently trips one of the robbers over and he is knocked out and then barking to raise the alarm and everyone comes out to see what happens and the robbery is stopped. The second time Kenneth and Joan argue as to what to do one afternoon and Kenneth says Scamp should stay with him to help do the garden so Joan goes off on her own and ends up slipping into the river after trying to look at ducks. Kenneth regrets keeping Scamp, as he’s older he knows he has done wrong and sends Scamp after Joan who finds her almost drowning in the river as she can’t swim. Scamp jumps in to drag her back to safety but panics that he can’t do it, but summons all his strength as it’s beloved Joan and he does! Becoming ‘the best dog in the world that ever lived!’

I liked this book, I loved the illustrations within it and it was a sweet little story, but the term that comes to mind to how this book is written is if it’s quite ‘jolly’, making it feel slightly dated. I did like how it seemed to change tone when things start to go wrong, to when they were good again. 

Like when Scamp is naughty and puts himself in danger. Doing this I think Enid Blyton is trying to instil lessons into us while reading, this book is similar to ‘The Book Of Brownies’, i.e. mischief/being naughty gets you in to trouble and makes people unhappy with you whilst being good and helping people makes them proud and happy.

The one thing I’ve noticed since I started reading children’s books a few years back, is that we read quite different as an adult to when we did as children, as our lives are more complex and when we come to reading we bring to it our life experiences and add that to the story, we see things that possibly a child wouldn’t.  I started to read them because I felt adult fiction was filled with too much information and perhaps was too much like the ‘real world’ and I felt like I needed to escape and just enjoy the story with its hidden message, which I think is what children books are about.

9/10

Next book: The Enchanted Wood

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

* * * * *

Guest - Table of Contents

* * * * *

Full Table of Contents

Enid Blyton Challenge Book 03 - The Secret Seven

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

BLURB

The Secret Seven - which is the first of the fifteen titles in the official Secret Seven series - was first published in 1949.

The Secret Seven are a secret society who hold regular meetings and organize things to do, whether it's helping the community in some way, solving mysteries that turn up, or just having fun playing Red Indians in the woods.
The Seven have a secret password, a badge, and a secret headquarters in a garden shed. The Seven are led by Peter and include Peter's sister Janet, and their friends Jack, Colin, George, Pam and Barbara. They are joined by their golden spaniel, Scamper.
The society was actually formed in a short story prior to the first book in this series. The first was At Seaside Cottage, featuring Peter and Janet, and the second was The Secret of Old Mill, which featured the entire gang in their first Society meeting.
Peter enforces the rules and delegates tasks for the members. The Seven investigate mysteries by shadowing, interviewing and, most importantly, looking for clues. The Seven tackle all sorts of mysteries from missing dogs to mail robbery, and always come out on top.

REVIEW

Straight away we meet Peter and Janet two siblings at home. Peter - the leader of the gang/group - tells Janet that they need to arrange a meeting of the Secret seven as there hadn’t been one for ages. They sit at the table and write letters to announce the meeting informing them they can only enter with a password.

‘Janet always wrote with her tongue out, which made her look very funny.
But she said she couldn’t write properly unless her tongue was out, so out it had to come’

The headquarters of the Secret Seven was the shed in the garden with a sign ‘SS’ on the door. Janet had made it all cosy. Janet places five boxes and two flowerpots for people to sit on along with sacks as rugs. There is also a shelf where biscuits and blackcurrant tea, a mix of blackcurrant jam, sugar and boiling water sit.

When the time comes for the meeting everyone starts arriving and as it has been a long time Jack has forgotten what the password is and you’re not allowed in without it so he tricks Colin into telling him what it is. This later gets changed toO in case someone else had heard it and might try to enter.

Both Janet and Barbara reminded me of me, as I stick my tongue out and I get my words mixed up like Barbara does.

“Delumptious’ says Barbara says ‘do you mean delicious or scrumptious?” asked Janet
“Both of course!” said Barbara”

They sit around and eat and drink and discuss what they should do.

“Can we solve a mystery or something?” asked George

After agreeing this is what they should do they go and build snowmen in the fields. As they leave Scamper (the dog I forgot to mention) runs off and escapes into the garden of a large house where an old man called the ‘caretaker’ lives. Spooky name! He shoos scamper off and threatens if he comes in again he would shoot him.

Later at bedtime, Jack who gets sent to be early with no supper for kicking his sister’s governess under the table. He was meant to hit his sister which of course was still wrong. When he gets to bed he realises he has lost his badge and knows he can’t got o a meeting without it. He remembers he had it while building snowmen and that must be where it is!

So Jack sneaks out and goes back to the snowmen and while looking he thinks one moves and gets spooked and says to himself:

“Don’t be silly” he told himself, sternly. “You know they’re only made of snow! Be sensible and look for your depressed button!”

He finds his button and heads back only to see a car at the end of the field and think it’s lost. He goes to help but then sees two men, and sees a car with a van or something attached and hears squealing. Jack realises they are up to no good and runs off home. Jack decides it’s a mystery for the Secret Seven to solve and leaves a message at the shed to arrange an urgent meeting.

The next day, Peter tells Janet to open the door to the shed to air it as it won’t be used that day and almost misses the note. A meeting is called and they all agree to split up and investigate believing it might be a tied up prisoner they decide to go in search of different things, like finding out who owns the house, did the old caretaker here anything. They also investigate where the tracks go.

They all meet back at the headquarters and discuss their findings and agree they need more evidence before they can go to the police in case it turns out to be something quite simple. They decide to set a plan for the boys to sit and watch the house and decide it would be a good idea to wear sheets and disguise themselves as snowmen.

I know this is fictional but I was amazed that these kids could wander around at the dead of night and their parents not find out or stop them, but obviously this was a long time ago and possibly a lot safer.

At this point I had picked up a clue what was going on but did a silly thing and flicked through the book looking at the illustrations and saw what happened, so slightly spoilt it for myself. Silly me.

Anyway back to the story.

‘The three boys and Scamper had had an exciting time. They had gone down the lane. Noting the car and the tracks’

The boys find the snowmen have started to melt but still stand in wait. They then here a noise and Peter and Jack go and investigate. They find a window of the house open and climb in. They find the old caretaker still asleep upstairs and go and investigate the lower floors. From the cellar they hear a noise and call out but get no reply. They then here a key turning in the door they try to hide but the two men who entered come across them and lock them in the cupboard. 
Dun! Dun! Dun!

The men leave them there and go and deal with Kerry Blue. Who’s Kerry Blue you ask. Well it’s a horse. When the men leave, Peter switches on his torch and there standing in the corner is a horse.
It is a fine horse and appears to be covered in dye. There is nothing the boys can do but sit with the horse and wait.

Meanwhile outside Colin, George and Scamper are still in the field waiting and start to wonder where they are when they hear the car and the men approaching and stand stock still so as not to give the game away. When they’ve gone they rush to the house and find the others locked in. They help them escape and lock the door back up. Peter takes the horse back to his parent’s farm and
puts Kerry Blue in the stables.

In the morning Peter shows his father the horse and explains what happens and they call the police who capture the men and find out they were horse stealers and Kerry Blue was an important horse
and they were trying to pass him off as another.

The owner of Kerry Blue is informed and an award is sent to the children who in reply say,

“We didn’t expect a reward. The adventure was enough!”

ending with

“The best secret society in the world! Hurrah for The Secret Seven!”

Although it was a big adventure and the boys were captured and that was quite scary, I don’t think it stands up against the other books so far. Yes the children took risks as worked as a team, and pointed out they didn’t do things to be rewarded they did it as fun, it just didn’t grip me as much. Granted I spoilt it for myself but I just didn’t enjoy it as much as the Famous Five. Someone pointed out on Goodreads that there were too many characters and it was a bit like Scooby Doo and not so serious. 
‘Damn those pesky kids!! or whether it’s because I really didn’t like Peter who annoyed me because he thought he was better than the rest of the gang. It could be I didn’t like this story as
much because I had recently read three adventure stories and this one just didn’t stand up against the others. However I am sure loads of little boys would love a story like this.

Throughout the book I caught sight of a little letter at the bottom of the page and I thought there was a secret code going through the book but found out it may have been what the printers used to bind sections together. Another mystery solved J!


One last thing before I go. A big thanks Alison from Leeds Book Club for lending me this copy. This edition was illustrated by George Brook and printed in 1952 in Norwich (the place where I was born) I loved the feel and the smell of the book. Old books have such a nice smell, that’s why I love secondhand book shops. They’re like another world.

Next book: The Enchanted Wood

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

* * * * *

Guest - Table of Contents

* * * * *

Full Table of Contents

Enid Blyton Challenge Book 02 - The Famous Five

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

In 2012 The Famous Five turned 70 years old.

History of The Famous Five from The Enid Blyton society 

The Famous Five are among Enid Blyton's best-loved creations and countless children have gone adventuring with them since the publication of Five on a Treasure Island in 1942, the first of twenty-one full-length adventures and numerous short stories. Armed with maps, torches, packets of sandwiches and a plentiful supply of ginger-beer, Julian, Dick, Anne, their tomboy cousin George (Georgina by rights) and Timmy the dog like nothing better than to spend their holidays hiking and

biking, camping and exploring by themselves, invariably falling into adventure.

Friends like Jo the gypsy girl, young Tinker Hayling, Sooty Lenoir, and even George's scientist father (Uncle Quentin to the others), often get caught up in the strange goings-on too. And what thrilling places they visit and discover — Kirrin Island, Smuggler's Top, Owl's Dene, the lighthouse at Demon's Rocks and farms, castles, caves and secret passages galore. Whether they're outwitting thieves, smugglers or kidnappers, seeking hidden treasure or encountering spook trains, the Five's courage and determination always wins through!

Enid Blyton's original books were charmingly illustrated by Eileen Soper but there have been numerous interpretations and adaptations of the Famous Five over the years including continuation novels written by French author Claude Voilier, cinema films, stage plays, two television series and, more recently, a Disney cartoon series featuring the children of the Famous Five. 

However, the twenty-one original books have never been out of print and remain popular with readers worldwide. Long live the Famous Five!

BLURB

The very first Famous Five adventure, featuring Julian, Dick, Anne, not forgetting tomboy George and her beloved dog, Timmy! There's a shipwreck off Kirrin Island! But where is the treasure? The Famous Five are on the trail - looking for clues - but they're not alone! Someone else has got the same idea. Time is running out for the Famous Five, who will follow the clues and get to the treasure first?

This is the second book in my challenge for LBC and it did not let me down. I absolutely loved this book, it kept me gripped. I must admit that some of the wording Enid uses made me cringe (I apologise deeply for that) but to be fair it was written quite a while ago and has stood the test of time.

I’m beginning to wonder what I have missed out on regards reading both as an adult and as a child. What was I doing as a child not to read more of Enid Blyton? I remember at junior school taking books home and borrowing from the library and the as I went into teenage years, we always used to visit the library and charity shops for books, but only a very few have stuck with me.

The copy I had, has a cover illustrated by Quentin Blake, I love his work. And like him this is my first introduction to The Famous Five. So let’s begin.

We are straight away introduced to Julian, Dick and Ann, who are sat eating breakfast at home and their parents tell them their holiday is going to be different this year. Instead of going with them they are to be sent to their Uncle Quentin’s, Aunt Fanny’s and Cousin Georgina’s in Kirrin Bay.

The children are driven down by their parents stopping off for a picnic on the way. They get really excited about seeing the sea and I remember as a child sat in the back of the car on a day trip eager to see the sea suddenly appear. It always felt like a different part of the world.

When they pull up outside their Aunt’s house they discover their cousin Georgina or ‘George’ has vanished. They are warned that their cousin prefers to be called George and won’t answer to anything else as she hates being a girl. This instantly made me think we had a spoilt naughty child on our hands.

The next day George is told to take her cousins down to the bay and show them around. George, not being happy with this, as she never wanted them to visit takes them out and shows them Kirren Island and explains one day it will all be hers. Unfortunately her cousins think she’s lying. George has a secret and we find out she has a dog called Tim who she found as a puppy on the moors and took him home. But as Tim grew he became very noisy and parents told her she couldn’t keep him anymore so she pays the local fisher-boy all her pocket money to look after him meaning unlike other children she doesn’t get sweets or ice-cream like other children.

George has become a very isolated little girl and doesn’t have many friends and finds being an only child she very rarely gets to share things with people. She feels embarrassed when her cousin Julian offers her an ice-cream and she doesn’t want to take it as she has nothing to give back saying ‘it’s mean to take from people if you can’t even give a little back’.

George is a very frustrated young lady and Julian tells her after he and Anne try to explain that she would like things and gets frustrated with them by saying

‘All right, All right, my goodness, how you do go up in smoke! Honestly, I believe anyone could light a cigarette from the sparks that fly from your eyes!’

I’m sure at one point everyone’s felt like that, I know I have. She explains she is always tense because she always has to be on her best behaviour because her Father works really hard and earns very little so making him always bad tempered.

George reluctantly agrees to take her cousins out to the island the next day but once she gets there and spends time with them she realises how fun it is to do things with Julian and the others and share her island with them. She also shows them the spot where her Great-great-great Grandfather’s ship went down. They are so busy exploring the island they don’t realise the storm is coming in and end up hiding in a room in the ruined

castle that’s on the island. I forgot to mention there was a ruined castle didn’t I?

I loved this description of the storm: 

‘The lightning tore the sky in half almost every minute, and the thunder crashed so loudly that it sounded almost as if mountains were falling down all around.’ 

The storm causes the wreck to surface and the children agree to get up early the next day and explore the wreck. They get onto the wreck and explore it’s cabins and find a locked cupboard they open it and find a box, as they go to leave they find that other ships have discovered the wreck has surfaced and come to explore.

When the children get home they are in trouble for missing breakfast and Uncle Quentin takes the box away. The children plot to get it back and Julian succeeds when Uncle Quentin finally falls asleep and he seeks in and grabs it. He takes it down to the others who are on the beach. They open the box and find some old papers and a diary that belongs to George’s Great-great-great Grandfather. They put the diary back as they can’t read the illegible writing and discover one of the parchments is a map of the island and the castle, and that it could be where the lost gold is. They decide to trace the map and go and explore the island the next day. When they get back to the cottage, they put the box back but then find out Uncle Quentin has sold it, along with the island, as someone wants to rebuild the castle and turn it into a hotel. George is furious and yells at her Mother for doing such a thing. But Julian later explains that they wouldn’t have sold it if it was useless but now that it’s not and they need the money and that it could mean she could keep Timothy. However Julian believes the man only wants to buy the island to find the treasure.

So the children decide to go and spend the weekend on the island saying they want to spend as much time on their before it’s sold but really to look for the treasure. They go with Timothy in tow. When there, they realise the entrance to the dungeon (where the gold must be hidden) is in the small room and start to clear

it. Suddenly a rabbit pops up and Timothy shoots off to find it ending up down the well, George is frantic and with the help of the others she climbs down the well to get him, lifting him on her shoulders and climbing back up. Anne then stumbles across a stone with an iron ring. They find they have to work together to pull it open and discover it leads to the dungeons. They wander down but find they get lost but then find the door and it’s

locked. They realise that it’s getting late and decide to have tea and return the next day.

When they go back into the dungeons the next day they decide to mark the walls with chalk so they can find their way back. They having taken an axe down and when they reach the door and start to break it down, whilst doing this a splinter flies off and hits Dick in the cheek, so Anne and Julian take him back to clean him

up and leave George to finish breaking the door down. Julian returns to help George and when they get in they find the ‘ingots’ or ‘curious bricked shaped things’.

Suddenly Timothy starts barking. It turns out two men have come down to the island and discover them in the dungeons. George yells at them that they can’t take away the island once her parents know what’s happening, but then Timothy starts growling at the men and he threatens her with a gun and tells her she isn’t going home. They lock Julian and George in the dungeon and they realise there are others so they make George send Timothy up with a note to bring them down. However Dick and Anne realise it’s a warning and set a plan to rescue Julian and George. However, Timothy returns to find George and the men realise something’s up and go in search of the others. Dick and Anne see them coming so hide in the well. The men decide to return to

mainland, leaving the children food but taking the oars from the children’s boat. Dick and Anne return to the entrance of the dungeon and find it blocked up. They have to go in search of the other entrance by the tower but again can’t gain entry. In the end Dick goes down the well and rescues George and Julian.

They then come up with a plan to trap the men in the dungeon. It’s down to Dick to get down the well and hide. The plan doesn’t work and the children find themselves fleeing the island. Before they do they damage the men’s boat, so they can’t follow.

The children return home and try to explain it to Aunt Fanny, knowing Uncle Quentin might not believe them. Even Timothy gets involved. In the end the police are called and they go to the island. Finding the men gone, they secure the gold and return it to the family. The result being it makes Uncle Quentin into a nicer person because they have no more money worries and Timothy gets to live with George.

This book for me was about how George discovers its fun to share things, that doing things or being alone isn’t always the fun. George learns how fun it is to work together as a team. I liked it when George realised that sharing things with people is a lot easier than keeping it a secret and bottling things up I think she says-

‘Talking about things to people does help a lot. They don’t seem so dreadful then; they seem more bearable

and ordinary’.

She also learns how our actions/reactions to people effects the way people treat us in return. ‘Having her cousins there makes her realise how her behaviour, makes her parents react to her and likes the effect her cousins are having on her’.

I think this book teaches us a lot about secrets, about relationships, about life, about how children see adults and vice versa. Like I said before I absolutely loved this book and as a result I think the message there are a lot of messages in this book, It’s good to share, we react in certain ways because of the situation we’re in, but my favourite is that once in a while we should all have a little adventure, but perhaps not go looking for gold on a deserted island.

Next book: Secret Seven

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.


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