The Island of Adventure

Enid Blyton's best-known series is the Famous Five but, as much as I love the Five, if we had to say what's her best series, this would probably be it. The idea is rather similar to the Famous Five (a group of children having thrilling adventures), but the danger here seems more real, the situations grittier and a bit more "realistic" (as far as a group of children getting into so many amazing adventures can be realistic), the bad guys scarier.

The introduction of the characters is a real pleasure. The two pairs of siblings do not know each other yet, and the book opens with Kiki the parrot, Jack's pet, scaring Philip as he hears a mysterious voice when there's no one around, scolding him for the most absurd things. From there, the show more children become friends and come up with a daring scheme to try to spend the holidays together.

Let's talk a bit about Kiki. She plays the same role as Timmy in the Famous Five series: beloved pet who is part of the group, as much as the children. She's not as efficient as Timmy the dog at protecting the children, but she has her moments. Also, she has a comedic vein that Timmy lacks. Kiki is a riot in all senses of the word, always rudely scolding people in the most absurd manner, particularly stuffy adults, and making all sorts of noises and imitations. I was surprised to find out that some readers do not like her, finding her a bit overbearing, but I love her. Her cheekiness adds welcome comic relief to a world where children were not allowed to be cheeky or disrespectful to adults. With a parrot, though, what can you do?

The settings and the adventure are described in a most vivid manner, Blyton at top form, and the presence of an competent adult as ally allows for the dangerous moments to be believable. In the Famous Five, the children are mostly on their own, and while that's thrilling, it comes at the cost of making it a bit more difficult to suspend disbelief, with adult criminals routinely defeated by a group of children.

In this book, Blyton also has an ambiguous character, Bill Smugs, and you spend a lot of the book wondering whether he is a good guy or a bad guy (reading this for the first time I got it wrong!).

The ebook I have is the "modern" edition, edited to remove political incorrectness. Therefore Jo-Jo, the sinister black servant, is no longer black, his name is now Joe and he doesn't roll his eyes. Even though I agree that having a black character rolling his eyes is a no-no nowadays (racial stereotyping and all that), this political correctness business is still a bit absurd. The rest of the bad guys are white and way more stupid than Jo-Jo. Racism is very real and despicable, but this is not it. However, it's not like the changes make much difference, apart from some slight atmospheric element. If this is the price to be paid to avoid hearing from the PC police, then it's worth paying as far as I am concerned. show less

The first in a series of eight books detailing the adventures of a group of children and their avian companion, The Island of Adventure (first published in 1944) introduces young readers to Philip and Dinah Mannering, Jack and Lucy-Ann Trent, and Kiki the parrot. When Jack and Lucy-Ann come to stay with Philip and Dinah at Craggy-Tops - their aunt and uncle's home on the rugged Cornwall coast - the four children are soon caught up in an exciting mystery involving the nearby Isle of Gloom. Who is responsible for the strange lights that Jack sees one night, first from a ship along the coast, and then on the cliffs near Craggy-Tops? Who's been on the Isle of Gloom, despite its reputed inaccessibility, and what have they been doing in the show more old abandoned copper mines there? And what does it all have to do with Bill Smugs, the children's new friend...?

Begun last year, after I learned that the author - whose books are largely unknown in the United States - is the sixth-most popular author in the world, my "Enid Blyton Project" has thus far included the fifteen-volume Five Find-Outers and Dog series, a few of the Noddy books, and the first installment of The Famous Five series. But The Island of Adventure is without a doubt the most enjoyable Blyton I have read thus far. An exciting plot, and engaging characters, make me wish I had access to the next seven in the Adventure Series. I'm finally beginning to get an inkling as to why Blyton, whose writing is mostly mediocre, is so beloved. She keeps the reader wanting more. show less

I found the entire Adventure series by Enid Blyton online and have spent the last few days reading them. They brought back memories from my childhood! I had missed two in my first go at them so that was nice and they held up pretty well. Of course there is racism and sexism so I would recommend reading them with your children so you can point that stuff out but when you are self-isolating sometimes you need childhood memories to pep you up!

One dimensional, formulaic, simplistic, class-conscious, yadda yadda yadda. That's what most reviewers say about Enid Blyton's books, but if you take them as they are, that is as childish fantasies, they're terrific. Secret passages, tunnels under the sea, castles, hidden rooms, every daydream a ten-year-old might think of will be in one of Ms. Blyton's books. This book, the first in the "Adventure" series, is appropriate for slightly older readers, coming in as it does at over 150 pages, and we are introduced to Jack, Diana, Philip, and Lucy-Ann, not to mention the parrot Kiki. What will happen on the ancient cliffs of Cornwall?

Four children and a parrot want to explore an offshore island in the hope of finding a Great Auk.

Good fun, if not as gripping as I remembered from my childhood. Apparently this was the modernised/bowdlerised version, though I don't remember the original well enough to be able to tell.

Why��don't I note the source of books? I have intended to read Blyton for some time, but what prompted me to place a hold on this book at this time was reading (where?) that its cast included a cockatiel. The cockatiel is sadly neglected in literature. So I opened it up, the book having been hauled up from the cellar for my pleasure and the library binding solid red like Seven-Day-Magic and anticipation high.

The illustration on the first page indicated that the bird was a cockatoo, which was a disappointment to me but not a let-down by the author. The author let me down on the third page when the omniscient narrator describes the bird as a beautiful parrot, scarlet and gray, with a crest. There is one cockatoo, the palm, that is show more crested and black and crimson, but it is not commonly kept as a pet (too rare) and not well known to boot, and another, the galah, that is pink and grey and only punily crested. I've never heard of a cockatoo as good a talker as Kiki. Blyton probably intended an African Grey, which is scarlet and grey and the best mimic of all parrots but doesn't have a crest. So whoever led me on about a cockatiel was wrong, and then the author was wrong about parrots, and rant rant rant.

Meanwhile, the adventure story about the falling-down old house Craggy-Tops (the next occupant might be Cassandra Mortmain), boats (very Swallows and Amazons), fanciful parrots (very Peter Duck*) mining (very Pigeon Post*), and barely-present adults was great. And the bit about a tame beetle didn't bother me, and I was able to ignore the pesky back-of-my-mind certainty that the run-off from a copper mine would stain rocks verdigris-green like the Statue of Liberty, not rust-red (because maybe Blyton was right about that). But hot damn, the way Blyton wrote about Jo-Jo the handyman, the way the children speak to him! They seem to disdain him (for being black and a servant) more than the adults do (very Big Six*).

* Swallows and Amazons��was the first of a series. Go read them all. show less

Super cute children's story, full of adventure :-)
It's the 1940s version of Scooby-Doo ... "If it wasn't for you meddling kids..." which just makes it even more awesome :-)

Adrianne