Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: literature

This topic has 11 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 13 years ago by my3boys.

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)

Author
Posts
October 29, 2011 at 8:20 pm
Jenna
Member
I came across this author when I was looking for something else the other day, and I must admit that I had never heard of her before. She has an extensive collection; several fantasy and many adventure series. Does anyone know anything about her writing? I am looking for more adventure stories at about a 3rd/4th grade reading level. Trying to pry my daughter (gently of course :)) away from the Boxcar series!
October 29, 2011 at 11:35 pm
RobinP
Participant
She wrote TONS upon TONS of books!!! Jan Bloom lists them (several pages worth) in her 2nd volume of Who Should We Then Read. I’ve not read any of them buy have some in my lending library. I think they’re “good”, not “great” books that help fill that need for fiction for children of that level.
October 29, 2011 at 11:39 pm
Jenna
Member
Thanks Robin! Yes, I was astounded that she had written so many books (I think she is the 7th best selling author of all time!!), and I had never even heard of her. The adventure series is something that I think would appeal to my daughter.
October 30, 2011 at 1:07 am
missingtheshire
Member
I grew up with Enid Blyton in England, I loved her books, and I grew up reading The Famous Five and The Secret Seven and when i was really small I enjoyed Noddy and Bigears on TV and in book form. She had a questionable life, but wrote smashing books, nothing special but nice for the genre and for the age I agree with Robin on that – but not everything has to be Shakespeare after all – I still have a lot of them. Linda
October 30, 2011 at 4:34 pm
Jenna
Member
Thank you, Linda! Sounds like it is definitely worth a try :).
October 30, 2011 at 8:42 pm
missingtheshire
Member
One word of warning which you may or may not come across – which was a character in some of her early children’s stories and that was a gollywog, which would not be pc today – to be honest I grew up with those things and did not become a racist, but I know that today such a doll would be unacceptable. It was just a dolly but looked like a minstrel I guess, and it only shows up in a few books – not books like The Famous Five or The Secret Seven. Just wanted to give people a heads up. These books were written in a time when these things were just not thought about and sensitivities were different, especially in England where we did not have the same race issues as here in the US. Linda
November 1, 2011 at 3:48 pm
Kirstykbart
Member
We enjoy some of Enid Blyton, although we’ve never got into the famous five /secret seven stories. No idea why, maybe my 2 will get to them soon though. It might not be so helpful to those not in the UK, but she does some rather fab nature stories, we’ve just read Rambles with Zacky the Gipsy which had loads of nice descriptions of uk mammals and we’ve just got the Nature Lovers book which has an ongoing story on walks throughout the year, we’ll start that in January 🙂
November 1, 2011 at 4:48 pm
missingtheshire
Member
Kirsty, I have most of her nature stories they really are super….I have not seen that here, though it could be available. I got most of mine growing up in the UK and when we lived there and the girls were younger. Thanks for mentioning them, I had forgotten to mention them. Linda
November 1, 2011 at 5:33 pm
Kirstykbart
Member
This is the Rambles with Zacky book which is also confusingly Nature Lover’s book 1. The nature lover’s book is a new book, but reprinted and I think it has some parts of other older books in it. The story has Uncle Merry in it I think? Which I am sure I’ve seen somewhere else. The first book I got that interested me in her nature books was her Book of the Year which has loads of little stories, poems and even songs related to each month.
I’d be interested in any others you could recommend though missingtheshire 🙂
November 1, 2011 at 6:44 pm
Christine Kaiser
Participant
Ohhh I LOVE Enid Blyton! In my generation kids in Europe grow up with her. I think I have almost all collections boxed up in my garage, preserves for my little ones to enjoy on day:). My all time favorites are the Adventure and St. Clare’s series:) I still have all my St. Clare, Malory Towers and Famous Five audio cassetttes.
November 1, 2011 at 7:09 pm
missingtheshire
Member
Ha, thanks for reminding me of Malory Towers and St Claire’s I have them somewhere in the house, I had forgotten. Malory Towers was my favourite, set in the Cornish countryside where we spent many holidays when I was young, cannot believe I forgot it. Kirsty, I have some of The Nature Readers that she put out in the 50s and some in the 40s and The Nature Lover’s Book. The Nature Readers I used to love….we used to have them all, but some got washed away in the hurricane:((( Linda
April 13, 2012 at 5:00 am
my3boys
Participant
How about Tales of Ancient Greece, by Enid Blyton??