Enid Blyton

I saw a sign in Tesco the other day: "5p OFF".

I thought they'd started selling Enid Blyton books.

My older brother was given Five Go On A Hike Together when he was home from boarding school during the summer holidays. I nabbed it when he went back and from that day I was completely smitten. My DGCs favourite which they begged me to read them every time they visited was Five Go Off To Camp. Trains in tunnels are exciting for small children.

I devoured Enid Blyton as soon as I could read to myself. My grandparents used to send me a kind of junior book token called a Book Tally and when I had collected enough, I took them to the local book shop to buy another book. Then I discovered Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series and Elinor M Brent-Dyer's Chalet School books, both of which trumped Enid Blyton.

Looks like we all grew up reading Enid Blyton! Like someone else on this thread has said, Friday [last lesson] at primary school was story time [ I was 10 at the time]. The teacher was reading The Secret Of Banshee Towers [is that secret 7?]I was feeling a bit anxious and scared as to the outcome, what with there being a banshee and all. Of course, I needn't have worried.Compare [and contrast] that to todays 10 year olds with all the scary stuff that they see and read about.
As a child I didn't discover The Far Away Tree series, but read them to all our children and they loved them, they also loved all the pixie and talking toy stories that she wrote, especially the 3 golliwogs.

I was a passionate Enid Blyton fan and read everything she wrote, some of them several times. My favourites were The Famous Five, Secret Seven, Magic Faraway Tree, Mallory Towers and St Clare's. I still have a collection of her books and have read Faraway Tree to my grandsons, who loved it. Yes, I do wince at some of the words, but gloss over them quickly because the stories are so good.

ps another change, acc. to Wiki: Dame Slap has become Dame Snap!

Like others on here, I asked for an Enid Blyton book for birthdays and Xmas, and searched the library regularly.
My sister was born whan I was 10, and she's called Gillian Mary after one of EB's children.
One silly thing that I read recently, the names of 2 of the characters in reprints of the Faraway Tree books have been changed - from Dick and Fanny to Rick and Franny

My GD loves The Famous Five, she likes to have one of the stories on audio disc at bedtime.

My G/S , eight, has started reading them !
:-)

We've a lot to thank Enid Blyton for, - many of us were encouraged to read
because of the great readability of her books, as lots of you state.
I cetainly was, and loved her books with a passion. Every Christmas and biirthday I was given one, and then a bookcase to contain them. I still
have that lovely little bookcase.
I've no time at all for the 'correctness police' who criticise these books.
They were of their time, and were absolutely loved by milliions of children. Many books , films etc. could be criticised because some of the sentiments expressed in them seem unacceptable to us now. Like I said, they were of their time.. and many children today still enjoy them anyway.

When I was a child, I loved The Famous Five stories, also the 'secret' series. I think they must have started me on the pleasure of reading.

I was hooked on Enid Blyton all through primary school and must of read all of her books.
I read the Noddy books to my oldest grandaughter when she was about three and she loved it, especially the naughty goblin ones.She is 21 now and still remembers them.
None of my other grandchildren were interested though..
My two sons loved the Ladybird Peter and Jane books when they were very little.My DS2 is dyslexic and I would try and encourage his slow reading ability.He loved having books read aloud but made little progress in reading.He is 41 now and still not a book fan.

Im going to knit her jumper for my little great niece.

Yes I agree, I ordered 2 Katie Morag books for the grandchildren, beautiful illustrations.

katie M was ok but I think I prefer the magic of the lovely illustrations more.

Thank you storynanny for reminding me about Katie Morag.
Had completely forgotten.

Not sure it will be the same but hopefully todays little ones will start watching Katie Morag on cbeebies this Sunday teatime at 5.25 pm and it will bring those lovely stories by Marie Hedderwick alive.

grateful, genius to have got hold of a box set of the BBC Sunday tea time series of Little Women. I'm going to see if I can get copies for my sisters christmas boxes this year. There seem to be so many of us who were lucky enough to watch whichever BBC children's series was on at Sunday tea time. We had sandwiches, mum's home made chocolate or fruit cake and tea in cups with saucers.

Thanks, grateful!

gettingonabit
The one with the boy called Kit is The boy next door.
The other is possibly The Valley of Adventure, they were in a cave near a big waterfall.
They are both featured on the Enid Blyton Society website, so you could get more info there to confirm.

Happy hunting

Can anyone help me find these books? One was about some children who hid a boy called Kit on a houseboat on a river. I can't remember much else, apart from the boy being American and there being lashings of ginger beer.

Another one I remember has some children hiding out behind a waterfall.

Any ideas, anyone?

I loved the Cherry Tree Farm and Willow Farm books by Enid Blyton, and I think I learnt a good deal about animals and wild-life from them. Even though her vocabulary was somewhat limited, and she used too many exclamation marks, (I realise now), I loved her books!

My son was not able to read much at 8yrs. despite being in a small group
to assist. I decided to help him further myself and started with Enid Blyton, as I'd loved her books. Because they were interesting, within 6months he was fluent. By 10yrs he was reading Shakespeare for pleasure -which I would never have done! So you can imagine I value her writing even more, especially as he's now a Psychiatric Nurse who really cares.

Jud wasn't it great? Used to love the BBC Sunday childrens programmes, was lovely to have all your favourite characters come alive.
I'm still on a mission to find a recording of Heidi that I also remember well from childhood. Also a serialisation, but not sure if it was the BBC.
They made such an impression on me that, even now, if I read them again, I can see and hear them in my head, as the people I watched on the TV.

I never forgave Laurie for not marrying Jo in Little Women