Will the Enid Blyton’s fans please stand up?

It is a pity that some parents do not introduce Enid Blyton’s stories to their kids anymore. They are now in all those educational stuffs and focused too much on IQ, EQ and all the blehs of modern times.

Many wants their children to read encyclopedias and stuffs like that to make their kids brighter and smarter, thus robbing off the magical world of childhood. Gone were the pixies, fairies, gnomes, goblins and wholesome children’s stories.

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Worse still, some parents went as far as forcing workbooks and school related books on their children, leaving the kids very little time to get totally enchanted with the wishing table, the magical faraway tree and other silly stories.

Enid Blyton lived in the good old world of the 40s, 50s and 60s (born 1897- 1968) where children were well-mannered and they do fun stuffs like having picnics, solving mysteries and running away from homes to beautiful islands. I have read and re-read stories like The Enchanted Woods, Secret Island and Cherry Tree Farm and still do not mind reading again when my children read them.

The beautiful thing with having so many kids is they go through the Enid Blyton’s phase and each round, I will join the kid to be 10 years old again.

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I recalled borrowing Enid Blyton’s book from my school library and secretly read them under the blanket with a torchlight. Usually, I finished one book within a day. In order to grab new books, I asked the teacher in charge of the library to let me be his assistant. So, while indexing the new books, I borrowed them home.

Now my kids are much luckier. I can afford to buy a whole series if they want to. My sister-in-law also gave me some old books. We have a lot of books at home, one lying around at every corner and nook. This way, the kids naturally love to read.

So, parents, are you introducing Enid Blyton’s stories to your kids? And how many of you adults are still captured by The Secret Seven, The Famous Five, Amelia Jane, The Mistletoe Farm, St. Clare, Malory Towers and etc? There were no emo kids, no self-mutilation kids, no suicidal kids, no teenage sex, no alcohol abusing kids, no eating disorder kids, no drug abusing kids in Enid Blyton’s world. I can almost break into a song after reading Enid Blyton. Oh what a wonderful world.

31 thoughts on “Will the Enid Blyton’s fans please stand up?

  1. I used to be a sickly kid and my mom would buy me books to read for entertainment (last time no tv, lah).So my companions were the Classic comics, Beano and Dandy,Archie etc.. I usually bought them from the book stall opposite the Cathy cinema (it is at the bottom of a flight of stairs).The other bookstores were along Penang Road and Hutton Lane.

    My favorite was Enid Blyton. I must have read the whole series of The Five Find-outers and Friends and lots of the other titles.They kept me company when I had to miss school due to sickness.

    Later I read Agatha Christie,the Perry Mason series by Erle Stanley Gardner. This was during my ‘mystery and detective’ period.Of course I went thru the ‘mushy love stories’ period too.

    But nothing beat Enid Blyton as an introduction to reading. I have maintained my reading habit and have to read books daily (newspaper not counted). Leave me in a bookstore and I’m in heaven. All thanks to Miss Enid Blyton!!

  2. Secret Island is part of my warmest childhood memories. Too bad I can’t find it in my city. Thumbs up for feeding your kids wholesome mental food! 🙂

  3. Being in a very ulu kampung in Kelantan, I didn’t get much oppurtunities la. I remember being occupied with books in the library but we seriously didn’t have much collection. I can’t really remember much what I read, maybe due to limited English that time (even now hehe). Anyway, what really stuck in my mind is Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Height. It was really a challenge to comprehend what I read.
    Thanks for reminding…I will get the books like right away! Bea1 is still reading Peter and Jane, and a lot of those relatively new Barbie-based Princessy stuffs.

    mama22beas´s last blog post..Some updates on the wee one and new PAX in the living

  4. Lilian, I grew up with Enid Blyton..ahem, her books of course, hey, I still keep The Cherrytree Farm, one of the family treasure. :> . I love the silly Mr Twiddle, the naughtiest girl in school & those detective series, the fairyland one, last year bought 2 compilations of The Faraway Tree & The Wishing Chair & reading it at my age again! Mind you! Because my childhood years mostly borrowed from friend, now can afford to buy those loved books…can’t wait for my boys to read it..

    Somehow, the republishing of Enid Blyton nowadays lose it’s original touch from what I observed, can’t see lots of those that I used to read when I was lil kid

    Hanz´s last blog post..Baby Sign with my 2 sons

  5. When my daughter was born, I bought almost all the series, now they are still untouched. Shes in U now and some of the books used in school in Canada were.- Captain Underpants ( who cares about some hero in diapers and a cape??) high school –The devil wears Prada., Wicked etc ( contemporary works with poor grammar) Shakespeare was used maybe once. What a shame… maybe I will read them.

  6. oh i LOVED enid blyton books!! i read and re-read the entire st clare and malory tower series, also the famous five. i dreamed of picnics and tea parties as a kid and many a time would the short stories that i wrote include pixies, fairies and goblins!

    lingzie´s last blog post..OXO Cafelab @ Queensbay, Penang

  7. lingzie – Yalor, those picnics with their scones, sandwiches and even the boiled egg with a pinch of salt! Boy, was I really crazy about the foods they ate like fresh milk, toffee etc etc.

  8. \o/ i lurvvvve enid blyton books. still do. i borrowed the books from state library when i was in primary school. especially love those with ‘secret’ in the title. later i got to buy 2 for my own collection. soooo happy. ‘Secret Island’ is my favorite.

  9. I had forgotten how much I loved reading Enid Blyton books! I read all the Amelia Jane series, Mr. Twiddle and Mr. Meddle and I adored the talking golliwogs and teddy bears! Thanks for making me remember again. Can’t wait to introduce Enid Blyton books to my kids. No more Hannah Montana and Ben 10 for them! LOL 😛

  10. Enid Blyton, my all-time favourite author. I have read all her books from the Naughtiest girl, Faraway Tree (loved Moon-Face), Famous Five, Secret Seven, Malory Towers (I went to a boarding school too!) etc. Now, my eldest girl is reading Enid Blyton too. They don’t write books like Enid anymore.

    Charming´s last blog post..Asian Food Gallery

  11. I love Enid Blyton. Me and my cousin sister,just like you. We normally go to the shop and borrow them. Read them under the blanket with a torchlight. Because, my aunt wan us to off the light after 10pm. So, this is wat the 2 of us do lor.

  12. Hallo Lilian,

    I’m a silent reader of yours.. I enjoy every bit of your writing and amaze on how you express your thoughts.

    I love to read Enid Blyton too but I’m not sure whether they have it here in Germany. But my elder boy loves to read as well and the books he has are all in German. If by any chance when I do come back to Msia, can my family and I visit you in Penang? Both my grandparents are from Penang, Seberang Prai and we are Hokkien family.

    My cousin, Pauline and her sister Madeline are both catholics from birth. As for me I’m married to a Catholic too. Sorry for the long-winded story.

  13. Aiyah, now you make me feel bad. I was suppose to get my daughter some of Enid’s books as there were book fares by MPH in Gurney Plaza when I was there last week. Instead, she opted for other books with more graphics and pictures of big cats and sharks(more expensive some more). I knew I should have persuaded to try Enid….never mind, this weekend take her to Popular or MPH again and try to brainwash her one more time.

  14. I LOVE her books too. Must have read Famous Five, Secret Seven, Enchanted Tree, Wishing Chair a zillion times, borrowing & re-borrowing from the school library. Those were the good ole days…

    Lil’ Monsters, Inc.´s last blog post..Lazy Translation

  15. i love E.B ever since I can read. I’m already in my 30s but I still have my E.D collections. I keep them in a cupboard nicely and I read them to my nieces and nephew. i learn a lot from reading E.B books, I enjoy all the suspense, the joy and mystery she brings us with every books she wrote. till now I can’t say which is my favourite since I love them all.

    Nora Hii´s last blog post..Just a thought

  16. you are so blessed to have kids who like to read. i buy lots of books for my kids to read but none of them seems to pick the habit. I do have a few Enid Blyton’s story book at home also. They are more into music, computer games & tv. So, because of that, writting essay/karangan is quite a hard task for them due to poor vocab & grammar.

  17. hey, i remember when we were young, you always buy Enid Blyton books for us !!! that’s where golliwogs came from, rite ? the pages of enid blyton !

  18. Count me in! I’m a E.B. fan eversince I’m 10! Now I’m hunting hard for the old version of E.B books such as The Enchanted Wood, The Magic Faraway Tree, The Folk of The Faraway Tree, Tale of Toyland and other Stories, A Book of Fairies and many more. Anybody here can help me to find these oldies but must be in good conditions? I’m interested to buy them. I got so upset when I bought the new version of The Faraway Tree Collection which was heavily bridge and 6 chapters from the original books were missing from this book. What a shame! I want the publisher (Egmont)to bring back the original version without editing anything from it. I hope you fans would stand by me and protest the new version and demand to bring back the good oldies without scrapping and editing any of it. Anyone is with me?

  19. Special – Oh really? They took out some parts? No wonder I can’t seem to find the childhood magical moments when I was reading The Enchanted Woods the other day. I think my niece has the original Enchanted Woods hardcover but nope, we are not selling. 🙂

  20. Hi! Lilian,
    Thanks for your response. Of course I’m not asking anyone here who loves E.B. so much to sell away their precious books. I myself would not want to even for a thousand dollars! Really, I’m so regret now I’ve none of the treasures with me as I’ve foolishly given to all my friends and colleagues back a few years ago. Right now, I’m searching high and low in the internet and bookstores but chances now of getting original copies are almost zero or they cost a bomb! So my advice to all E.B lovers, please do not lose your books especially the earlier editions. You can’t get back any of them at all in the whole wide world or you must be very rich to purchase them in pounds!

  21. I still read Enid Blyton books and I’m 42!! With regard to my kids, I read some to my daughter as a child, but she was largely Not Interested. I also think some of the short stories (with moral instruction for children) are a bit dated now. But my son loves the St Clare’s school stories (we have dramatised versions on tape), the Famous Five series and the Enchanted Wood / Wishing Chair sequence. IMO the adventure stories still have the power to thrill, and the fantasy worlds are great for building imagination! So may the works of Enid Blyton long stay in print.

  22. Hi,

    I read all 27 EB posts and am VERY disappointed that Blytons best series (Adventure series) is not mentioned at all. I loved Famous Five, Five Find-Outers, the Barney series, Secret Seven, but compared to the Adventure series they were all not nearly as good
    I never had children. When I moved out from home in 1974, my parents got rid of my precious Blyton collection, so for many years (until 1985) I was forced to search on flea markets and in newspaper ads for the missing books with the Soper illustrations..
    Bertelsmann had just replaced the beautiful Eileen A.Soper illustrations in the FF series and I hated the new illustrations by Wolfgang Hennecke, so it took me literally 9 or 10 years until I found all 23 FF books in German with the right illustrations.
    Got some Five Find-Outers (original version) from the publisher himself. That was way back in the mid eighties. Today they are my most precious books.
    I also bought the complete Adventure series in London at Foyle’s (in hardcover) and as it turned out, the British version had more Stuart Tresilian illustrations than the German Adventure version. They still look like new although I bought them in 1981.

  23. I have always loved ENID BLYTON. I’ve read hundreds of her books in my 42 years and now love reading them with my children. Happy days.
    Wayne, living in an Enid Blyton world.

  24. I have always loved Enid Blyton books. I grew up living in an Enid Blyton world, a world of enchanted woods, fairies and magic and when I grew a bit older I read Malory Towers, St.Clare’s,five find outers,famous five, the secret series and the ones about Snubby and Loony and every other book of Enid Blyton I could lay my hands on. I have read all her books countless times and at 40 I am still reading her books and getting the same pleasure as I used to get when I was a kid.I have given away a lot of books but at this age I still buy Enid Blyton books. I still have my collection of her books and I wiil have them till my dying day. God Bless You Enid Blyton, wherever you are, for giving so much pleasure to so many people for so many years. I love you.

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