Status
Available
Call number
Series
Publication
London : Macmillan Children's, 2007.
Description
Nothing could be more exciting than a daring night flight on Bill's plane! But Philip, Dinah, Lucy-Ann, Jack and Kiki the parrot soon find themselves flying straight into a truly amazing adventure. Who are the two strange pilots, and what is the secret treasure hidden in the lonely and mysterious valley where the children land?
User reviews
LibraryThing member leore_joanne
Oh how I've missed this series. I think this was my favourite series by Enid Blyton, and it is much more successful than the 'famous five'.
Nice and safe adventures with stupid, witless crooks, lots of food (there is always lots of food in Enid Blyton books!) and sleeping on "soft and springy
Of course there is the somewhat annoying issue of the sexism in the books, which comes to light in the boys doing all the dangerous thingswhile the girls stay to "keep watch" on the cave, but it is simply a thing you have to deal with when reading Enid Blyton.
6.3.07
Nice and safe adventures with stupid, witless crooks, lots of food (there is always lots of food in Enid Blyton books!) and sleeping on "soft and springy
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moss". Of course there is the somewhat annoying issue of the sexism in the books, which comes to light in the boys doing all the dangerous thingswhile the girls stay to "keep watch" on the cave, but it is simply a thing you have to deal with when reading Enid Blyton.
6.3.07
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LibraryThing member mandochild
I continue to be surprised by the Adventure series, the plots of which all seem to be longer and more involved than any other Blyton books I've read. The children certainly travel further than the Famous five ever do - this time they end up in Austria. But everything else is just the same - it is,
It is also fascinatingly possible to see evidence of the classism Blyton is always criticised for. Towards the end, the children are looked after by an elderly couple, who are always referred to as "the old people" and who are frequently talked about instead of to, as though the couple weren't actually present. It feels quite uncomfortable to read actually.
The strangest thing is the reference to the war. Blyton is known to be one of the children's authors who continued to write as though the war didn't exist. This novel, published in 1947, does in fact talk about the war in the past tense, although, strangely, as something that happened to other countries. The children appear to know there was a war (though they speak about it as though about something a long time ago) but don't seem to know much about it or feel that it had anything to do with them. Absolutely fascinating really. I wonder what it would have been like to read this book in England back in the latter 40s. I suppose that children young enough to read it then would have been too young to be really seriously involved in the war when it was on, but I would imagine they would certainly remember it. And rationing would most certainly not be a distant memory but a current reality for them!
Despite the greater complexity, I still can't take to the Adventure series as I do to the Five. But it really is interesting to see a series handled differently. I wonder what's next?
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for example, reassuringly possible to tell whether someone is good or bad just by looking at them.It is also fascinatingly possible to see evidence of the classism Blyton is always criticised for. Towards the end, the children are looked after by an elderly couple, who are always referred to as "the old people" and who are frequently talked about instead of to, as though the couple weren't actually present. It feels quite uncomfortable to read actually.
The strangest thing is the reference to the war. Blyton is known to be one of the children's authors who continued to write as though the war didn't exist. This novel, published in 1947, does in fact talk about the war in the past tense, although, strangely, as something that happened to other countries. The children appear to know there was a war (though they speak about it as though about something a long time ago) but don't seem to know much about it or feel that it had anything to do with them. Absolutely fascinating really. I wonder what it would have been like to read this book in England back in the latter 40s. I suppose that children young enough to read it then would have been too young to be really seriously involved in the war when it was on, but I would imagine they would certainly remember it. And rationing would most certainly not be a distant memory but a current reality for them!
Despite the greater complexity, I still can't take to the Adventure series as I do to the Five. But it really is interesting to see a series handled differently. I wonder what's next?
Show Less
LibraryThing member benfulton
The sexism didn't bother me as much as the bit at the end where Philip rather high-handedly tells the policeman to stop asking questions and go after the bad guys. It made me think of the bit in Terry Pratchett where Commander Vimes, a policeman, thinks how much he hates to be called "my man" in a
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particular kind of neighing voice. Still, the delight of reading an Enid Blyton always outweighs any of the negatives. Cool stuff includes a cave behind a waterfall and a collection of looted Nazi treasure. Show Less
Language
Original publication date
1947
Physical description
220 p.; 20 inches
ISBN
0330448358 / 9780330448352