Product Description

A collection of 3 classic adventures. "Five On A Treasure Island" "Five Go Adventuring Again" "Five Go To Billycock Hill

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #172827 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-14
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover

About the Author
Enid Blyton died in 1968 but remains one of the best-known and best-loved writers of children's stories. She is consistently voted a children's favourite in author polls. She has over 600 children's books to her credit, including the Famous Five series, the Secret Seven series, the Naughtiest Girl series (all Hodder) and the Malory Towers and St Clare's series (both available from Hodder on audio).

Customer Reviews

Three Famous Five Adventures
This volume is an excellent way to introduce a young reader to the Famous Five. It includes the first two novels "Five On A Treasure Island" (where the Kirrin children meet George & Timmy for the first time) and "Five Go Adventuring Again". The third story is "Five Go To Billycock Hill", which was written some years later - being the 16th story in the Famous Five series.

The book is sturdily bound, and uses original illustrations.

The stories have been slightly updated - eg. references to fifty pence rather ten shillings. But the Fifties feel is there - which is why I still love these books in middle-age!

My Daughter Loves Them
I have a very vague hazy recollection of reading these stories about 25 years ago and decided to buy this collection to read to my daughter (currently 6 years old). As mentioned in one of the other reviews we get 3 stories "Five On A Treasure Island", "Five Go Adventuring Again" and "Five Go To Billycock Hill".

The first adventure tells the story of how the 5 come together and from that moment on the fun never stops (well at least it doesn't if you are six years old).

From a personal point of view the stories are fairly well crafted but the language is very much of it's time, which sometimes leads to me stumbling over some sentences as the word structure is old fashioned. I also find that the adventures all end up being the same - where is the secret passage leading to the hidden treasure. That aside there are some wondeful descriptive passages that show an idyllic version of the late 40s early 50s - young children camping in the countryside without a care in the world, taking the most extraordinary picnics with them. As with all things from this time it does feel somewhat sexist - Anne always makes the food and washes the dishes, whilst Julian and Dick are the strong protective type who look after the women folk and lead the way into danger. However as I said that is my view.

My daughter has a much simpler way of looking at it all. She would love to have adventures like this! All the sexism just passes over her, the somewhat clunky language is fine for her, the fact that the stories all follow the same basic premise is a bonus. If she could I would keep reading nothing but the famous five until I have read all the books...

I am going to have to give this book 9/10 and round up to 5 stars .

Lashings of Ginger Beer- Hooorah!!
I loved the famous Five Books when young and was very disappointed to discover my mum had got rid of them all years ago so I bought this trilogy to read to my own children. Although the style does seem dated to me my children adore Enid Blyton's tales.
Fortunately this set has not been changed (The faraway Tree Books updated in the 80's have lost a lot of their charm with their updated political correctness). Some of the writing comes across as incredibly sexist for our era but my daughter doesn't seem to mind. The adventures are fun from a more innocent age and more importantly this has got my children interested in books and reading.

Mind you I do have to stifle a few laughs when I'm reading about their lavish picnics. It just brings to mind the fantastic Comic Strip spoof from the 80's. Just the thought of Adrian Edmundson in those shorts makes me guffaw.