As someone who comes on but definitely isn't in the "in crowd" or maybe we should call it "The North Tower Girls" or something, I'd say I've never noticed any pulling rank or similar. There's a certain amount of leg pulling and sometimes a clearly in-joke, but nothing more than t...

I've just read your excellent summary of Sea of Adventure, Anjalli and I now want to read it again myself. I don't think I've read it since I was at school which was a lonnnnnnng time ago. This is the perfect time of the year to read The Sea of Adventure , John. It'll soon be May, and the book begi...

Split from 'The Troublesome Three 1955' ...I must say I much prefer reading Blyton-related posts than threads and photos of Dad's Army, pets and Abba! I guess the trouble with the former is trying to get any debate going about the books that hasn't already been covered so many times before. Since j...

I actually quite liked them having the surname "Barnard". Firstly, "Kirrin" never sat right with me as their surname. The Dads are brothers, Aunt Fanny was "Kirrin"; it wasn't their surname. But also, as far as I am aware, it's only used once in, I think, "Fix"...

I've watched it now and these are my thoughts. Warning: SPOILERS!! Short thought: Basically another reasonable adventure story with not really more than a wink to FF. Plot quite fun, but an awful lot of points where I went "really?" I know EB didn't look too hard at realism, but there's a ...

I suspect it's to make it more plausible that she appears as the leader of the group. She's only then got to overpower Julian, rather than Julian and Dick :D They did similarly with size in the Swallows and Amazons latest movie, having Susan and John look 15/16yo and Titty (Tatty) and Roger look aro...

They're okay covers at first glance. The first gets the atmosphere well, but I don't think they as a whole stand up well to closer scrutiny. My first thought was looking at Caravan, there is no way George would ever wear pink. Seems an odd decision when they could have either put Anne at the front i...

It's definitely not an EB only fault. My daughter was born without her hand. She complained that if there was a character without a hand in children's book it was either: 1. The villain, often used to enhance their evilness (you've all immediately thought of Captain Hook or Peter Pettigrew, haven't ...

I've continued my read of Summer Term. I'm always impressed when people can tell that someone is wearing a dress from an especially good material (like Sadie) or made exclusively for a that person by a tailor - I'd never notice :lol:. One thing I don't like in the books is if the look of someone is...

In Noel Streatfeild stories hand-me-downs are often part of the stories, but it's the badly fitted/obviously mended is the issue rather than them being hand-me-downs. The children often are aware of looking like the poor relation because of how the clothes are, not by the fact they are secondhand. T...

In the main books there aren't as much opportunities for hand me downs because often they're either boy/girl siblings, or they're so close in age that they may not be able to do that. My girls were the same height from about age 11 and 8yo with three years between them. For example Famous Five: Juli...

I love the Deans illustrations; they were also the books I grew up with so possibly partially due to that.

They had such characters with simple stories and generally did follow the books well.

I have that one! I have a bit of an odd story about it, which I may have told before, so sorry if I have. When I was in year 6 (age 10/11) our teacher read us a story about a group of children who find a baby and look after it. I searched for this book as an adult. I remembered the plot fairly well,...

@Katherine we're not referring to it not being a happily ever after ending. Don't worry on that account. It's something that (to me) totally ruins the magical atmosphere of the book for rereading is probably the best way of putting it. I felt it changed finishing the book on that lovely high of ever...

Do we need so much information about the two non entities of the Secret Seven? Au contraire . I think it is great to focus on characters that aren't in the forefront of every story. Let's face it, in a group of seven children (or adults, for that matter) there are bound to be a couple or so that st...