Back in November, I did a feature I called “Share Your Nostalgia.” I asked some of my blogger friends to write up a piece that focused on their favorite toy from childhood. The response was positive and it was suggested to do another round. So this time around, I asked for them to tell us about their Favorite Childhood Book.
Their book could be something that was read to them by their parents or grandparents. It could also be a book that was read to them in school at story time. I also suggested that their book might be one that they read to their own children. I wanted each of them to have as much freedom as necessary.
My next guest blogger for this topic is yet another musical buddy. If you want to know anything about records that reached the top of the charts in the UK, Stewart is your guy! I always enjoy looking at how a song does in the UK versus the US. Many songs that go #1 there, barely make Top Ten here and vice versa. At any rate, his site is a great one to check out: The UK Number Ones Blog
Maybe Stewart’s favorite book was big in both the UK and the US? We’ll find out right now!
The Famous Five
Thanks again to Keith for allowing me to take part in this series! I’m a huge reader, and writer, and have been since a young age. And so, choosing one title from my childhood was a tough ask… Therefore I’m cheating and choosing a whole series. A series that most British kids of a certain age probably know quite well.
The Famous Five is a series of adventure novels published between 1942 and 1963. They were written by Enid Blyton (more on her later) and feature, you guessed it, five main characters, who get up to all manner of excitement during their long summer holidays from boarding school. Three siblings: Julien, the oldest and the leader. Dick, the cheeky one. Anne, the younger, more babyish one. And Georgina AKA ‘George’, their tomboy cousin (more on her later, too). Plus, we mustn’t forget the fifth member, Timmy the Dog.
The books all have cutesy titles like ‘Five Run Away Together’, and ‘Five Have a Wonderful Time’. Even for the time they were written, the stories are old-fashioned, and nostalgic for an England where it’s always sunny, and where children can roam the countryside on their bikes, with hampers full of cucumber sandwiches and ginger beer, stopping smugglers and spies along the way. For the time and place that I read them, Scotland, in the mid-nineties, they might as well have been set on another planet. But then that’s the appeal of a good children’s book, or any book really, isn’t it? One that transports you somewhere fantastical.
Nowadays, The Famous Five are more famous as a parody of a very old-fashioned style of children’s writing. Post Harry Potter, kids’ books are much more mature, known as Young Adult, or have titles like ‘The Day My Bum Went Psycho!’ And I’m not sure I could read The Famous Five now and not be disappointed by how simplistic they are. Not to mention how some of the attitudes and language presented might not be acceptable nowadays…
The author, Enid Blyton, may have been wildly prolific (she also wrote the Noddy series, Malory Towers, the Secret Seven, among many other titles) but she drew contemporary criticism for the repetitive nature of her writing. Then, from the ‘60s onwards, she started receiving criticism for the often racist and misogynist language she used. Perhaps Blyton’s attitudes are unsurprising, given that she was born in 1897. Still, I’m not going to excuse them. I will argue though, that despite devouring the books at a very impressionable age, I didn’t grow up to adopt any of her views, or use any of her outdated language. I somehow knew it was a relic from a different time and place. Kids are not stupid. Exposure to ‘bad’ language, and ideas, at a young age can be a good thing, something that those who advocate for old books to be revised and censored to fit in with modern sensibilities tend to forget.
Anyway, I don’t want to turn this into a rant. This is a nostalgia series, and I have a lot of nostalgia for The Famous Five. I remember reading them in tents on camping holidays. I remember recreating their adventures with friends (I was always Dick). I remember having confusing crushes on both Anne and Julien. I remember being intrigued by the idea of George(ina) wanting to be a boy.
In fact, any modern criticism of Enid Blyton must also take into account the fact that she invented a female character who, in the 1940s, wanted to wear boys’ clothes, cut her hair short, and be addressed as ‘master’ rather than ‘miss’. All of which feels very ahead of its time!
The books are still, I believe, in print. I work in a school, and our library has a set of Famous Fives (though I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a child reading them…) Hopefully, though, somewhere, a modern day Gen-Alpha is enjoying these twee and predictable stories four kids and a dog, saving the day one adventure at a time.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 