Enid Blyton died in 1968 but remains one of the best-known and best-loved writers of children's stories. She is consistently voted a children's favourite in author polls. She has over 600 children's books to her credit, including the Famous Five series, the Secret Seven series, the Naughtiest Girl series 'all Hodder' and the Malory Towers and St Clare's series 'both available from Hodder on audio'.
Gr 2-5-Originally published in 1942, this title is from the British children's mystery series The Famous Five, written by Enid Blyton. Despite a good dramatic reading by actress Jan Francis, the story is quite dated and contains sex-role and cultural stereotypes that would make even the most politically incorrect cringe. Sensitive, fearful, pouty Anne sticks close to tomboy George (short for Georgina) while the boys, Julian and Dick, take the lead in initiating most of the action in the story, which includes teasing the girls. The only appealing character is George's dog, Timmy, the fifth of the Famous Five, but even he seems to think that girls are silly and boring and sneaks off at night to explore an abandoned railroad yard with the boys. More evidence that this is a relic from bygone days is the hard-to-believe premise that children would be allowed to go off on a practically unsupervised camping trip with a forgetful, eccentric schoolmaster. The whoops and scalpings of a game of "Red Indians" further doom this offering. Skip this anachronism and choose something worthwhile from the growing body of genuine children's literature in audiobook format.-Mary Ellen Aureli, Lewiston Porter Elementary School, Youngstown, NY Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
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