The Children of Kidillin

[Kirrin]

Not enough mention of this excellent book I think, aulthough its one of the shorter ones it goes into real adventure stuff especiallly with the war aspect as well and its set in scotland like adventurous four., are there any otrher eb books with a war theme?

[Adventure]

One of EB's books with a war theme is the Adventurous Four.

[Julie2owlsdene]

I think the book Smuggler Ben, was something to do with spies during the war years.

[manzanita]

The names escape me, but there are a few books that allude to war, but none so strongly as those ones or a war within the UK...

Manzy

[Irene Malory Towers]

The war ones are :
The Adventurous Four which is really the best in my humble opinion and quite scary, The Children of Kidillin, Smuggler Ben - both one offs and quite good and the Valley of Adventure which is brilliant. I read all of them for the first time as an adult and I was amazed at how grown up the Adventurous Four and The Valley of Adventure were, I was glued to my seat and was almost scared for the children. I am not aware of any more war time books that she wrote. The Valley of Adventure is post war but it deals with the war theme.

[Lucky Star]

Yes The Adventurous Four is really her ultimate wartime story as it deals directly with the enemy, the war itself and is as you say the most exciting by a long chalk. The Valley of Adventure is often cited here as her best ever book, certainly it's one of her most gripping and atmospheric. Given the exciting stories she did get out of World War 2 it is a pity that she did not write more with this setting.

[John Pickup]

The Valley of Adventure is often cited here as her best ever book,

Yes, by me, repeatedly. I must admit that it was only when I became older that I realised the significance of the war in the story.

[Irene Malory Towers]

The Valley of Adventure and the Adventurous Four are 2 books out of a few (maybe Island of Adventure and Sea of Adventure) where the children actually come close to death. In most of her other books the children would be left for a few days in an unpleasant situation but not close to death. Joe is probably the worst of her baddies actually gloating as he left them to drown in the Island of Adventure. Even I was scared when I read that.

[Daisy]

Yes, in the Adventure series the children are in more perilous situations than in most of her other books. Jo-Jo (as he was originally) is a really cruel but very clever villain, and I too had a holding my breath type of moment the first time I read the story.

[Debbie]

Yes The Adventurous Four is really her ultimate wartime story as it deals directly with the enemy, the war itself and is as you say the most exciting by a long chalk.

Although when I read the Adventurous Four (as a child) I didn't pick up immediately it was a war story. I think the reference is simple "the sign of the crooked cross; the enemy of half the world." It's possible my copy was abridged and didn't have any further references-I think it was Dean edition.
I would have been about 7 or 8 at the time, and that was too subtle for me. I did pick it up reading it a couple of years later.
Otoh my son picked it up straight away, but he's always been interested in WWII. However he then pointed out the lack of rationing, and the likelihood that the parents would have let them go off on a joyride into dangerous seas at that time. He's a stickler for accuracy

I always felt the Adventure Series was aimed at older children. The adventures are a step up from the little local crooks in FF and Find Outers.
I don't think the Adventurous Four feels, as a child reading, as dangerous as them. When reading as a child, it was much more about the fun living on the island, they don't really feel in that much danger. Even at the end when they escape it's to tell the RAF about the submarines rather than because they're in direct danger.
In the Adventure Series, there are several times where you feel the criminals will actually hurt the children and/or Bill. The chase at the end of Sea, where Bill says "Don't worry" (to LA) "they won't hurt children" sounds both hollow and in the knowledge that they will hurt him, for example.

[Irene Malory Towers]

I decided to reread EB's books with the theme of war, starting with the great Adventurous Four, and now just reread the Children of Kidillin. I just had to comment on the name of the dog of the Germans. It is Nigger ! oops - rather un pc. The description of the dog is just that it is a large brute of a dog, no mention of its colour. The edition I have was printed in 1970 and I am surprised that the name has not been changed given its negative connotations.

[Lucky Star]

I imagine it's been changed now Irene MT. The word nigger was being printed up until the late 70s or even early 80s as far as I remember.

[Irene Malory Towers]

I quickly looked up the history of Agatha Christies' excellent book "And Then They Were None" which was originally titled "10 Little Niggers". Even when it was first published in 1939 the title was deemed to be offensive. However (just doing a google search) it says as late as 1978 the original title was sometimes being used. So yes the word Nigger was still being used in 1970 and at least it wasn't part of the title !

Having said all that it is quite a good short story, not nearly as good as the Adventurous Four and even I think Smuggler Ben is better when you are comparing war stories. I like the theme of the 4 cousins not originally getting on and then they accept each other's strong and weak points. A recurring theme that EB uses, in the Mistletoe and Holly Farm books and These Dreadful Children I think.

[Debbie]

We used the n version of the counting rhyme "eenie meenie mino mo" when I was a child in the 80s. Didn't have a clue what it meant at the time, and it wasn't particularly a popular counting song, so wasn't used much. I think I thought it was a made up word along with the first four.
I only really clocked it when my eldest started saying "eenie meenie mino mo" and I thought I was about to have to have an interesting conversation with her (she was 3yo). But she used the word "fishes" in place much to my relief!

This reference is one that can easily be changed-to Digger if you want something similar, or a totally different name, so I would hope it was changed fairly early on.