When I recall my school days, I instantly count my blessings, for my schooling commenced in the first decade of this millennium without the looming threat of the deadly Coronavirus or lockdowns.
Young children today are being forced to stay off their school grounds and classrooms, locked up in their houses with leisure but no play. It is often unfathomable by adults what these kids are being robbed of! While online classes try to meet the gaps in education, the onus falls on the parents to fill all others.
However, this unprecedented scenario is a blessing in disguise. It’s an immense opportunity for children to learn and grow, strengthen their family values, and explore new habits that will stay with them for a lifetime. And what could be better than getting into the habit of reading books?
Enid Blyton is one of the most prolific children’s writers of all time. Her books have been among the best-sellers, selling over 600 million copies, translated into several languages. The Adventures of the Wishing Chair was her first published full-length storybook, and The Enchanted Wood followed closely, which led to the emergence of the much-loved series- Faraway Tree.
She is most popular for her adventure stories, such as The Famous Five series, Secret Seven books, and many others. Here are some must-read series by the creator of Noddy, which will give these lockdown-stricken kids the lost flavors of childhood.
1. The Naughtiest Girl series
A total of four books, the series is an utter delight to read and especially close to the heart of kids who are often admonished for being naughty. The naughty protagonist of the series is a young trouble-maker, Elizabeth Allen. Her governess, dejected at finding her incorrigible, has resigned from the position. Seeing her growing up spoilt and misbehaved, her parents decide to send her to a boarding school. This does not sit well with Elizabeth, and she plans to be so naughty that she gets expelled and is subsequently sent back home. At Whyteleafe, when she is welcomed with ‘I am sure you will do well here…’ to which she replies- ‘I shan’t!’
Once school starts, however, she is slowly stripped off of her rude, unfriendly, and impolite behavior. At first, obeying all the school rules prove a bit of a challenge, but she makes friends who eventually help her settle in. The naughtiest girl emerges as the class monitor in the third book, imparting a special message that ‘naughty’ does not necessarily mean bad. Rather, always in the case of young girls and boys, a little naughtiness and mischief mask inquisitive curiosity and wholesome goodness.
This series simulates school life in the minds of children who are now being deprived of it. The meetings, the games, and Blyton’s comical take on the characters and all their school activities at the co-ed Whyteleafe will be images they carry with them into adulthood.
2. St. Clare’s series
Six books by Blyton (three more by Pamela Cox)- together paint life in the lively and sensible school- St. Clare’s, which the “stuck-up” O’Sullivan twins attend. We meet a plethora of characters, some incredibly talented, while others not so much, and yet others, the mischief-makers. As young readers attend St. Clare’s with these characters and make friends with them, they also encounter the first form mistress who fail to keep order and the headmistress who keeps reminding her pupils, ‘Do your best for us and St. Clare’s will be able to do its best for you!’
Midnight feasts, harmless tricks, and madcap plans, fussing over sports matches balanced with the difficulties in course works, exams, and other challenges culminate into fulfilling school terms which come to a sanguine close at the end of each book. As the school days in St. Clare’s are never dull for the girls, the books offer not a single dull moment to the readers!
3. Mallory Towers series
Yet another selection from Blyton’s school series, Mallory Towers, comprises six books that take readers through six forms in a different boarding school, along with the bad-tempered girl Darrell Rivers. The school is like a castle with four towers situated on a cliff, the sort of school we have all come to love since Harry Potter (though Blyton’s series predates Rowling’s by five decades!) The Headmistress, Miss Grayling, believes that girls are successful only if they are dependable, loving, and prove to be women useful to society.
Lucidly written, especially for children, the books are often oversimplified in their portrayal of the good and bad binary. Time and again, we see that honesty, and sincere reproach, and other such deeds help remove the stigma of past mistakes and misbehaviors in Mallory Towers. Though Darrell wants to be a “success”, according to Miss Grayling’s definition, she is initially far from what is required. Changes take place in her attitude over the books, and in the final one, she emerges as the Head girl and is announced as a ‘success’.
Blyton strings together some fascinating pupils, intriguing mistresses, school curriculums, and school buildings and weaves a subtle romanticism surrounding boarding schools. This was necessary at her time to coax young girls into being a part of institutional teaching.
4. The Circus series
Moving away from Blyton’s classrooms, we come straight to the Circus and live in it with this series! This tale is of a young boy who gets to live an unusual life after a curious turn of events when his father is offered a job at Mr.Galliano’s Circus. The schoolboy, who had only wishfully looked at circuses and visited their camping grounds, but could not afford a ticket, was now a party member. Owing to his extraordinary skills with animals, he impresses everyone around, including Mr. Galliano, who gives him a free ticket, and his much-coveted dream comes true.
In the series, we encounter several adventures from a life in a circus and Jimmy’s friend Lotta and dog Lucky. While in the first book, we see Jimmy getting acclimatized to his new surroundings, in the subsequent two books, the excitement centers around new acts such as the tigers, the talking parrots, and the seals. The cacophony of a pulsating circus, and the rhythmic ups and downs of living in one, are recorded in vibrant hues and will flare up a child’s imagination.
5. Famous Five series
Blyton’s popularity was sealed with the birth of this series in 1942, comprising twenty-one full-length books and several short stories.
I remember receiving my first copy of Five on a Treasure Island, in my third standard; it changed everything. From then on, I found myself adventuring on islands and coves, on hilltops or lighthouses, with Julian, Dick, Anne, their cousin Georgina (who prefers to go by the name George), and Timothy, their four-legged friend. Their holidays they spend biking, hiking, camping, with packets of sandwiches and flasks of ginger-beer, till they eventually walked into some adventure or other, invariably, in each book.
Though written during the War, the books deliberately don’t mention it. Instead, it creates for children a happy niche, where food is plentiful, adventures are many, and their determination always wins the day. The pandemic has opened up a need for such safe-heavens for children, a little time or space where they can take their minds off the present crisis.
Another interesting point to be noted here is that Blyton’s girls go on adventures rather than sit quietly at home (as was expected from girls of her time). Even in the school series, they are often seen stomping about in the lacrosse fields, instead of going about their schoolwork in silence. Georgina is gladly allowed to be George in Blyton’s pages, while Roberta of St. Clare’s goes by the name Bobby. Blyton does not cower under the established standards, nor does she make her girls conform to prevalent gender norms. They are free to choose their identity and reject names given to them as they like, for, in the world where Blyton’s children live, strict gender roles were subverted.
6. Secret Seven series
Another of Blyton’s adventurous masterpieces, this series invites young readers to The Secret Seven Society, a club that meets in the shed marked with ‘S.S.’, which requires a secret password to enter. Proudly displaying their badges- ‘a button with S.S. on’, Peter, Janet, Jack, Colin, George, Pam, and Barbara, accompanied by the spaniel Scamper, search for peculiar occurrences around them, to set things right. But they go mystery-hunting only during their vacations, as they believe, nothing interesting happens during the school term!
Tree-houses, secret clubs, keeping watch or exploring and hunting for clues, using gadgets like the telescope, young minds will be rapt throughout this fifteen-title-series. Children are often drawn to creating secret clubs of their own, inspired by the stories!
7. The Adventure series
In this series, Blyton’s adventures go a notch higher than they did in the Famous Five. The plots are a lot more diverse and complex- involving airplanes, helicopters, motorboats, cruise ships, and the like. Jack, Philip, Dinah and Lucky-Ann and Jack’s talking parrot Kiki, whose mischievous antics become a source of humor, take the readers along, as they set out to deal with forgers, traitors, mad scientists, even Nazis, in exotic locations such as- Greece, Middle East, and Austria. It is a comparatively shorter series of eight titles. The Adventure Series is most suitable for children beginning to be weaned from Blyton and treading into more diverse literature.
While growing up, I was gobbling up a Blyton book by the week! Now, the mere sight of them on my shelf takes me to a familiar world, untarnished by the worries of adulthood.
It is true that certain values, and moral lessons that Blyton emphasizes, are from another time and lack significance today. However, that does not make reading Blyton an unnecessary or outdated practice. Some critics also charge Blyton for being unfavorably biased in her treatment of foreign characters, sometimes even problematic for racial undertones and tone-deaf to several social problems. However, it is necessary to keep in mind the time and circumstances under which the works were written and produced and her target audience.
Reading Blyton’s books will also help children to be more socially adept. All stories promote team spirit, the need to be unselfish and helpful- ensuring that young readers start to look at themselves as a part of the great cosmos and all beings in it.