Favourite Enid Blyton book.

[goldenecitrone]

You're right of course. And I never noticed it all those years ago but look at his initials. Nasty Enid

A classic example of how a young boy's destiny can be hijacked by the initials of his name

 

[keybored]

A classic example of how a young boy's destiny can be hijacked by the initials of his name

Nothing to do with all them pies then?

 

[geminisnake]

Faraway Tree for me too. There was a similar Magic Chair or something?

Yep, it grew wings at its ankles iirc

Another Faraway Tree fan here. I think I've read most Enid Blyton books, I read a lot as a child, still read quite a lot now tbh.

 

[zoooo]

Yeahhh!

Was it... a Wishing Chair or something? Loved those books.

I could so easily Google it, but am just too damn lazy.

 

[tastebud]

my mum always disapproved

mine too. but that's mostly cos i read them over and over.

 

[killer b]

My favourite was the Island of adventure.

I must have been about 9 years old when I read that and loved it. When I was reading it i was just lost in my imagination, could picture it all so clearly, cant remember the storyline but just that feeling of being on an unknown desert island. I've loved island stories ever since

wiki is your friend

i seem to remember a lot of evil negro servants called jojo or similar. i knew they were dreadful at the time, but enjoyed them anyway. easy reading i guess...

also:

The villain, Joe, was a black man named Jo-Jo in the original novel. References to his ethnicity have been removed. In the original novel, he is described as follows: "Jack and Lucy-Ann saw a coloured man coming towards them. His skin was black, his teeth were very white, and he rolled his eyes in a peculiar way." This has been changed in later editions to: "Jack and Lucy-Ann saw a strange man coming towards them. His skin was lined, his teeth were very white, and his eyes darted from side to side as he looked at them." All references to Jo-Jo's "white teeth" have been changed by removing the word white.

 

[scifisam]

Faraway Tree for younger kids' stories, and The Secret Island for older kids. I also loved the Famous Five and the Adventure books - I so wanted to live in a cave behind a waterfall where the walls had natural shelves, and you kept your food fresh by storing it in a stream (not entirely sure how that one worked, actually).

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I never had any interest in anything beyond the Faraway Tree ones - not at all interested in anything based in the so-called "real world" - but I also fell foul of this "bad for the vocabulary" thing which made them pretty much contraband. I never quite worked out by what mechanism they would suck the words out of my little brain.

 

[scifisam]

I don't really understand the 'bad for your vocabulary' thing. If it makes kids think they're better readers than they really are, then they'll gain confidence and will be more likely to read books that have more sophisticated language.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

mine too. but that's mostly cos i read them over and over.

My mum just seemed to object that they were quite 'trashy' compared with the things she would rather I was reading.

She used to buy me all these Rosemary Sutcliffe history books which I found impossible to read at the time.

 

[hammerntongues]

I must have read them all but the one I remember most is The Land of far Beyond , it was Blyton`s childrens take on Pilgrims Progress , I went out and bought it again for my kids , they thought it was shit All the characters were given names to reflect their character , Mr Scornful , Ms Spiteful etc etc , the voyage of adults and children from The Land of Turoil to the Land of Happiness .

I also remember Mr Goon`s son was called Ern and was always chewing toffee.

 

[Clair De Lune]

I read quite a few of the famous five books as a kid cos my mates were into them but I gotta be honest, I thought they were shit, I hated the kids in them as they seemed so unreal and goody goody to me.

 

[rikwakefield]

I liked the Wishing Chair books and The Famous Five collection. Probably the happiest moments of my childhood were spent reading her books.

 

[Badgers]

I did enjoy the books as a kid, my mum always disapproved, but didn't mind as I read such a lot. They seem desperately inane now compared with Dahl, the Bottersnikes, et al.

greatest kids books ever IMO.

http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=135913&highlight=Gumbles

Heh