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3.91 AVERAGE

adventurous funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
adventurous lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

read this purely because i missed the 5 so much and...wasn’t disappointed at all! the books are MUCH shorter than i remember and the mystery much quicker to solve but they’ll always have a place in my heart (no rating because well. you can’t rate 4 kids and a dog by any rating scale around)

I read all the FF books when I was a lot younger. Not giving this a lower rating for being a bad book but because I seem to keep getting the "modernized" versions which have been edited by "senstitivity readers".
Yeah- thanks I will take my FF as it was written thanks. I certainly don't recall any of the children wearing jeans when I read the novels. This was meant to be 1930s Britain: people .... didn't wear jeans in 1930s Britain. It just wasn't a thing.

Do they think that modern kids won't be interested in these stories unless the children dress, speak and act like modern children? OK so the speech might not have been changed too much- but that is just one of several modernizations and I don't think they're needed. I don't like my books adulterated or changed to cater to to subjective tasts of the "modern age. Thanks.
adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Fascinating experience, reading this with my son.

I was never given a Blyton as a child, the first time I read one was as an adult studying children's literature, so I have no nostalgic feelings towards the author or her books. My son is 9 and this was on his '100 Book Bucket List', so was fairly happy to read it. I had the interesting experience of seeing this through his eyes while also filtering it through my own discerning and critical faculties.

For him, this was a rather engrossing listen, involving three siblings staying with their cousin, a tomboy (or something) who shows them her island and castle where treasure may be hidden. And there's food, a dog, a dungeon and some bad guys. What's not to like when you're nine?

Plot-wise, it has everything a young reader can ask for. Even the idea of a girl who wants to be a boy is quite a current theme. He did make mention of the dated language, though I was relieved the multiple mentions of Aunt Fanny (and Dick) seemed to sneak in under his radar.

My own thoughts on the author haven't changed. She knew how to catch the attention of the reader with plot. But they really are of their time, the attitudes and language have dated terribly. Exposition is clunky, to read parts aloud is actually quite tricky, the formation of sentences isn't always smooth, there is unnecessary repetition and terribly poor word choice, often simplistic in the extreme.

Lots of sexism in the way genders are treated (though George is a unique case, being both girl and 'boy', and it's really Julian (the eldest) and George who both say and do the most.

Saying all that, I probably would have loved this particular adventure as a child, am only picking it apart as an adult. I'd rather encourage my boy towards Swallows and Amazons though, or Kensuke's Kingdom, if he shows a liking for books about boats and seas.

Of its time, and glad I've shared this with him. One can see why it has been so popular for so long.

Despite the language differences, this will still be a popular series with readers aged 8-11.
adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
medium-paced
funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous mysterious fast-paced