Least Favourite Enid Blyton Series?

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timv
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Re: Least Favourite Enid Blyton Series?

Post by timv »

I started with the Noddy books and Brer Rabbit when I was learning to read and read most of the other main series and individual family/ adventure books between the ages of around eight and eleven - barring St Clare's which I did not read until my early teens at school (a bit surreptitiously as both my parents and friends supposed it to be 'cissy' to like any girls' books!). There was not one series that I did not enjoy when I read them, which testifies to how good a writer Enid was. Also I read most of them at the 'right' age they were aimed at - from the Secret series, the Secret Seven, and Galliano's Circus (plus Family at Redroofs, Hollow Tree House, Those Dreadful Children, and House At The Corner aged around eight to the last Famous Five and Barney books aged around eleven.

I did not notice any obvious weaknesses then, but in retrospect I would say that the St Clare's series (when taken together not as individual books) is probably the weakest - and most uneven/ disorganised - despite each book having strong characters and stories. This is probably due to Enid experimenting with her first school series as she went along, which enabled her to avoid slips easier in Malory Towers. It is noticeable that whereas the main characters in most series continue to dominate the stories, in St Clares the twins 'fade' into the background compared to the more interesting Bobby, Carlotta, Mirabel etc . And why does Pam leave for one book then return? It isn't very obvious why the twins get made Head Girls when they haven't made much impact, compared to Miss Grayling's choice of (more understanding) Darrell over (more forceful but insensitive) Alicia to which the series has led up by showing them learning or not over several years.
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Re: Least Favourite Enid Blyton Series?

Post by Stephen »

I've read about half the Secret Seven books, but the trouble is I can't remember which one's which. I was never hugely fond of the characters who seemed more like a gang of precocious street urchins, albeit with their hearts in the right place. They were (or at least seemed) younger than the FF and FFO, and Peter had a massive superiority complex despite being no Fatty or Julian, while the most intelligent character (Susie) was constantly treated as an antagonist!

Having said that, there were a few standout moments. The runaway girl disguised as a stable hand fooled me up the very last moment. And the bit where some of them were attacked by older youths who were vandalizing birds' nests was unusually gritty for a Blyton.
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Irene Malory Towers
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Re: Least Favourite Enid Blyton Series?

Post by Irene Malory Towers »

I am resurrecting an old thread here by just browsing through the topics. I disagree with many people here as I think the Secret Seven for the age group and the volume on the whole were very good books. Good plots and sometimes quite complex given their length and yes not all characters are fully fleshed out but for the intended age group that is fine. The passage in the last page of Shock for the Secret Seven is so moving when Matt the shepherd is united with his dog Shadow. The writing is really poignant without being over sentimental. However I am being controversial when I say my least favourite series from what I have read is the Naughtiest Girl series. Yes I know lots of people love it but I found the concept ridiculous of the children running the school council, humiliating even for the children being punished and again the concept of sharing all the money equally is unworkable and not even fair. Takes the incentive out of working hard and also it is a life lesson that not everyone receives the same amount of money. I hope I am not upsetting die-hard fans. But everyone to their own ! The caravan series sounds weak but I have never read it and reading the comments have no desire to read it !
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Re: Least Favourite Enid Blyton Series?

Post by Fiona1986 »

Whyteleaf was probably heavily influenced by Summerhill School, though. http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/an-overview.php Even today classes are optional at Summerhil.
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Re: Least Favourite Enid Blyton Series?

Post by Katharine »

I do agree with the comments about the way Whyteleafe School is run. Even though when I read it as a child I would have been the one to benefit most from the pocket money system, I hated the idea of faults being discussed in public and other children making the rules.

If it can be classed as a series, my least favourite, to the point of strongly disliking, are the Brer Rabbit stories. As I've mentioned before elsewhere, I find it very hard to comprehend how Enid Blyton could have put her name to these tales. I am shocked by their lack of morals, ie Brer Rabbit is a cheat, a liar and a thief and yet 9 times out of 10 he gets away with his crimes.
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Re: Least Favourite Enid Blyton Series?

Post by Irene Malory Towers »

Phew I am not the only one not to like the Naughtiest Girl series. I must look up the link for the school it was based on , Thanks for sending it. Optional classes sounds interesting. Although I have to say that my 2 kids were pleased to go back to school after lockdown so maybe after a while the fun of bunking classes do pale and the kids come back in their droves to the lessons. Thank goodness I have never read the Brer Rabbit series, so thanks for the warning there,
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Re: Least Favourite Enid Blyton Series?

Post by Hannah »

I think Naughtiest girl is my least favorite too - the thought of the bullies potentially running the school never appealed to me. Of course they had a great head boy and head girl and selected their monitors well but I always have to think how thinks would have worked out if my own school had been run like this. I'm sure there wouldn't have been many sensible choices of monitors...

I'm not at all into toys stories or fairy tales so have never read these books - they might rank lower.

When I read the Secret Seven as a child I quite liked them though not so much as the other series.
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Re: Least Favourite Enid Blyton Series?

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Irene Malory Towers wrote: 28 Jun 2021, 21:08I am being controversial when I say my least favourite series from what I have read is the Naughtiest Girl series. Yes I know lots of people love it but I found the concept ridiculous of the children running the school council, humiliating even for the children being punished and again the concept of sharing all the money equally is unworkable and not even fair. Takes the incentive out of working hard and also it is a life lesson that not everyone receives the same amount of money. I hope I am not upsetting die-hard fans. But everyone to their own !
I love the Naughtiest Girl series but I don't find it at all upsetting to read a different viewpoint, Irene. It would be deadly dull if everyone thought the same about everything! It's true that the system at Whyteleafe only works because the children regard (or gradually come to regard) everyone at the school as members of one big family but I rather like the concept, even though it's idealistic and would only have a chance of working in a relatively small community (which Whyteleafe appears to be).

For four years Enid Blyton ran her own small school at Southernhay in Hook and it had a family atmosphere. That wasn't surprising as Enid lived in at Southernhay, which was the family home of four of her pupils (the Thompsons) and her other pupils were the children of families who were friends with the Thompsons. I'm sure her own little "experimental school" (as she described it) influenced Whyteleafe - though Summerhill no doubt had an influence too.
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Re: Least Favourite Enid Blyton Series?

Post by Courtenay »

Whyteleafe is definitely a highly idealised school that probably wouldn't work so well in real life, but I really enjoyed the Naughtiest Girl series — except for the ending of The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor, which I find too rushed and awkward. (Elizabeth loses her status as monitor through her own mistakes, but in the end she isn't redeemed by showing that she's learned better and can do the right thing when it comes to keeping good order among the students. She just suddenly rescues a child from drowning and is made a monitor again for that. It's all too "deus ex machina" and a big let-down after such a strong story in a strong series overall.)

However, I was just thinking exactly the same could be said for Galliano's Circus — an extremely idealised organisation where all the animals are well looked after and happy and all love performing, and anyone who abuses them or makes them suffer is not welcome. In real life, circuses aren't like that; there's no way naturally wild animals like chimpanzees or elephants or bears can be "happy" living in captivity, travelling from place to place and being made to perform tricks. As an adult, the only kind of circuses I would support are ones with either human performers only, or no animals other than dogs and horses (and then only with very high welfare standards). But that doesn't stop me from enjoying Enid's circus books hugely, even though I know they're depicting a world that would never be like that in reality. Same goes for any of her books, really! :wink:

Back on topic... as for my least favourite Blyton series, I'm not sure, as there are too many I haven't read, or at least haven't read in full! But after reading one Secret Seven story, I found it a bit thin compared to the Famous Five or the Five Find-Outers and haven't ever felt like reading the rest. Even in that one story (Secret Seven Adventure), I got the impression Enid was taking on too big a group of characters and there's not enough individuality in them to make it really interesting. It was still an enjoyable book, though.
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Irene Malory Towers
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Re: Least Favourite Enid Blyton Series?

Post by Irene Malory Towers »

You are right (Courtenay) re Galliano's circus and i did wonder how likely the chimpanzees would like living in caravans etc. But for some reason I did not find that hampered my enjoyment of the books and I love them even more as an adult. So I am not sure why I did not like the Naughtiest Girls, maybe I just did not resonate with the characters. Certainly one of the problems is that I find Elizabeth more annoying than endearing and even now as an adult I have to like the main character(s) of a story and if I don't I just don't like the book that much.
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Re: Least Favourite Enid Blyton Series?

Post by Bertie »

This is a tricky one as I imagine my actual 'least favourite' series would turn out to be some that I've never fancied / got round to reading - I've never read any of the girls school books, the 'farm' books, etc.
But of the series that I've read, I'd say the 'Secret...' series would come near the bottom. I quite like 3 of the books - Secret Island, Spiggy Holes, Moon Castle - I've read far worse individual books than any of those. But I'm not fond of Secret Mountain or Killimooin, and, apart from Jack in the first book, there's none of the characters that I'm as fond of as the likes of Fatty, Dick, Barney, Snubby, etc. And a lack of a recurring animal character like Timmy, Buster, Kiki, Miranda... So I'd definitely rank the series below any of those.
The Adventurous Four / Again only has two books, so isn't really a series, but, again, I'd rank that below the others. I quite like the books - especially the first one, the second feels like a slightly inferior rehash of it. And Andy stands out as a good character. But the rest of the group don't offer much and, again, there's no pet in the series. So I see it more as a couple of bonus books to read occasionally rather than a series I'm really fond of.
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Re: Least Favourite Enid Blyton Series?

Post by Splodj »

I've noticed some other male posters say they didn't read the girls school books, but I did because I had a sister who did and didn't want to be left out of the discussions about them with our mother!
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Re: Least Favourite Enid Blyton Series?

Post by Bertie »

I've just got two older brothers, and by the time I was two or three they were reading / being read the same series of books that I started with and pretty much still read nowadays - Famous Five, Find-Outers, Secret Seven, Barney's, Adventure series, etc. They'd already moved on from the younger books such as Noddy, and, as far as I know, never read books like Malory Towers / St Clare's series. I certainly never heard them being read or discussed.
And I've always stuck, really, with what I started with because, having occasionally read some of the other books, I quickly saw both generations before me - my brothers and my mum (who was a huge Enid fan) - had zeroed in on the best half dozen or so series of Enid's books by some distance.
That's why I was saying, just of those series I know well, I'd put 'Secret...' and Adventurous Four at the bottom. But there's other series that I can't really rank which of those is the worse because I've never really fancied them enough to read throughout.
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Re: Least Favourite Enid Blyton Series?

Post by Bertie »

As an addendum to the post above, I'm not all that fond of school based books in general. Even PG Wodehouse, my joint favourite author with Enid, started off his early writing career with light-hearted books based on his school days at a boys school and I very rarely read those either.
With starting reading Enid while I was young, and not liking school myself, I loved that all the series I read were always set during the school holidays, so always based in a village or on holiday, rather than at a school. So I probably wouldn't have read / enjoyed a series had they been set at a boys school either.
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Re: Least Favourite Enid Blyton Series?

Post by Anjalli »

I loved her books and i can't see to remember not liking a series. When i was younger and reading the books, i could not get enough of them, i loved them so much. I have not read the Noddy Books but never knew about them until later on. Whatever faults or discrepancies are found and talked about now, did not bother me then or even now. I just love the books for the books.
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