The Valley of Adventure

[Debbie]

I really wanted to find a cave behind a waterfall after reading it.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I loved the cave too. The idea of having a parrot which would fly around freely but still come back to me was very appealing as well.

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

The idea of having a parrot which would fly around freely but still come back to me was very appealing as well.

Don't they?

[Anita Bensoussane]

I've known people who had parrots but they kept them in cages or aviaries. When I first read about Kiki in The Valley of Adventure, I pictured her in a cage (I hadn't yet read any other books in the series). I was delighted to realise, after a page or two, that Kiki flew around freely.

[Chrissie777]

I really wanted to find a cave behind a waterfall after reading it.

Me, too!

[Chrissie777]

I've known people who had parrots but they kept them in cages or aviaries. When I first read about Kiki in The Valley of Adventure, I pictured her in a cage (I hadn't yet read any other books in the series). I was delighted to realise, after a page or two, that Kiki flew around freely.

Anita, when we walked along the Jurassic Coast from Durdle Door to Lulworth Cove in August 2008, we met a couple who had two small parrots sitting on the woman's hand. They had tiny little harnesses. I'll send you the photo via FB message now.

[Chrissie777]

The fact remains that her books were some of the best ever written for children and as they are still selling in large numbers I'm not the only one who thinks this.
What we think of her books as adults is irrelevant. They weren't written for us. When we read them as young children did we analyse every book and see the occasional mistake? No, we devoured them because they gave us what we wanted, thrills and excitement, good against bad, a roller coaster ride which we all wished we could be part of.
Enid wouldn't give two hoots what we think. Unless we were under 12 years of age.

John, I agree. Actually I never tried to analyze EB's books, I was always much more taken with her beautiful locations descriptions.
And I feel so sorry about American kids today who cannot find anything more interesting to read than Harry Potter, Little House on the Prairie, Little Women and Nancy Drew.
In 2001 I've seriously tried to read the first Harry Potter book and found it so boring. I guess I'm expecting more from children's books, because I grew up with EB books.

[Chrissie777]

I've been pulled into many fictional realms over the years, but only a few books have drawn me in so completely and powerfully and kept me riveted from the first page to the last.

The only other books which did that to me were "The Little Girl who lives down the Lane" by Laird Koenig, "The Island Keeper" by Harry Mazer, ""Goodnight, Mr. Tom" my Michelle Magorian, "Dancing at the Harvest Moon" by K. C. McKinnon and "A Peculiar Chemistry" by British author Kitty Ray, a wonderful novel. I also feel drawn in from the very first page when I reread "Coming Home" and "Winter Solstice" by Rosamunde Pilcher.
"The Secret Island" by EB is another one.

[Chrissie777]

The Valley Of Adventure is just a stunning story. I read it every year.

I reread it every few years and am delighted that it never fails to fascinate me.
I also love "The Castle of Adventure" and "The Sea of Adventure".

[Chrissie777]

I know how you felt, Pete! It was mainly my grandparents, aunties and uncles who asked about the books I was reading, when we went to stay with them. I wondered why they didn't want to read them themselves, and felt quite anxious at the thought that I would be grown up too one day, and would no longer want to read Enid Blyton. Little did I know...!

My husband gave in and read "Five on a Treasure Island" in early August 2008, before we drove from Uxbridge near London to Dorset to visit Corfe Castle and the Jurassic Coast for a weekend.
However, he was not impressed with the first FF book and never read another one.

Years later when his older grandson was 10 years old (the same age when I discovered the FF books) we gave him a gorgeous copy from FOATI (an old red hardcover copy) and he unpacked it and looked at it as if it was contagious, because it was a used book (in excellent state though).
He never read it. A month later he complained that he had no more books to read. So I asked my daughter-in-law if he ever read FOATI, but of course he hasn't.
Well, it's his loss, not mine.

Enid Blyton opened up a world of books to me that I wouldn't want to be without.

[Chrissie777]

I'm glad I didn't know you, Catbury, when I was twelve! I can agree now with most of your logic, apart from #9. Obviously it was the Germans/Nazis that were the enemy.

I seem to remember South-Americans being the baddies in "Valley".

[Anita Bensoussane]

Anita, when we walked along the Jurassic Coast from Durdle Door to Lulworth Cove in August 2008, we met a couple who had two small parrots sitting on the woman's hand. They had tiny little harnesses. I'll send you the photo via FB message now.

The parrots are lovely, Chrissie! Reading Enid Blyton books made me long to have either a parrot or a monkey that would fly/roam freely but would always return to me.

I've been pulled into many fictional realms over the years, but only a few books have drawn me in so completely and powerfully and kept me riveted from the first page to the last.

The only other books which did that to me were "The Little Girl who lives down the Lane" by Laird Koenig, "The Island Keeper" by Harry Mazer, ""Goodnight, Mr. Tom" my Michelle Magorian, "Dancing at the Harvest Moon" by K. C. McKinnon and "A Peculiar Chemistry" by British author Kitty Ray, a wonderful novel. I also feel drawn in from the very first page when I reread "Coming Home" and "Winter Solstice" by Rosamunde Pilcher.
"The Secret Island" by EB is another one.

As well as The Valley of Adventure, I had that experience with The Sea of Adventure, The Castle of Adventure, The Secret Island, The Secret Mountain, The Ring o' Bells Mystery, The Naughtiest Girl in the School and The Six Bad Boys. Some non-Blyton books that drew me in very strongly were Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce, When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson, Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery, The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Story of the Amulet by E. Nesbit, Apple Bough by Noel Streatfeild, The Runaway Summer by Nina Bawden, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis, Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence.

[Chrissie777]

As well as The Valley of Adventure, I had that experience with The Sea of Adventure, The Castle of Adventure, The Secret Island, The Secret Mountain, The Ring o' Bells Mystery, The Naughtiest Girl in the School and The Six Bad Boys. Some non-Blyton books that drew me in very strongly were Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce, When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson, Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery, The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Story of the Amulet by E. Nesbit, Apple Bough by Noel Streatfeild, The Runaway Summer by Nina Bawden, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis, Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence.

That's quite a list, Anita!

I liked the Anne of Green Gables TV series, but couldn't get into the books by Lucy Maud Montgomery (but I did visit the real Green Gables on Prince Edward Island/Canada in 1994).

I forgot to mention Douglas Kennedy's novel "Pursuit of Happiness", his master piece. It's captivating from the first to the last page.

[Judith Crabb]

I have a lot of favourite books from childhood, many of them by Blyton. Like Anita I remember that a very few of them took over my mind (psychologically if not physically making my hair stand on end). The 'Castle' and the 'Valley' were two of them, also 'The Emerald Crown' and 'The Horn of Merlyns' both by Violet Needham and 'Knight's Fee" by Rosemary Sutcliff. About the age of twelve I noticed that although reading was as important to me as it always had been I could no longer experience the intensity described above. I can still read with enjoyment the books mentioned above but I'm so pleased that I read and re-read them as a child. There is no substitute for childhood.

[timv]

I had that experience of an intense absorption in a book's fictional world most often in my last few years at primary school and first few at secondary school (from aged around nine to twelve) , and I also felt a wish to belong to it. This occurred most often with books featuring the countryside and animals, but increasingly with history too - which later became my grown-up career. The earliest I remember feeling this was with Kenneth Graham's 'Wind in the Willows', and aged eight or so with Enid's 'Castle of Adventure' (as the first of the Adventure series which I read, though once I'd read others I preferred 'Island' and 'Sea's storylines) , 'Six Cousins at Mistletoe Farm', and 'Rilloby Fair Mystery'. Other leading books which had this effect at around that age were Monica Edwards' 'Punchbowl Harvest' and 'Punchbowl Midnight', and for her Romney Marsh books 'The Summer of the Great Secret' (again , the first of her series which I read, though I preferred some of the storylines in other books of hers when I later read them) , Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' (though I read 'The Hobbit' first), and US author Mary O'Hara's Wyoming-based horsey ranch book 'My Friend Flicka' (also a film).

The history books came a little later, and were led by Rosemary Sutcliff's 'The Eagle of the Ninth' and its sequel 'The Silver Branch' . But the long-running adventure series which I read did not have such an intense effect, probably because plot was the dominant feature not character or setting - and settings usually changed from book to book. The Adventure series by Enid was thus special in having such intense and well-described locations and atmosphere - helped of course by Stuart Tresilian's illustrations. Similarly I never had an intense reaction to the various school series which I read, or wanted to 'join in' and belong to them - possibly because I found larger schools rather scary places, as I experienced a couple of times when switching from a small local school with small classes to larger ones with huge classes. Popular boys' series of the 1960s-70s like 'Jennings' left me mildly amused but not really interested, unlike country-based family/ animal/ conservationist works or 'exotic' overseas/ historical ones. I liked what I could get hold of by Violet Needham too, but they were difficult to get hold of; in the late 1960s I read more of the historical thrillers by Geoffrey Trease, which were available in 1950s hardback editions in the school library - but tended to be a bit repetitive as to character and basic plots.