Magic Faraway Tree Set (4 book set)

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Alexander Antscherl, editorial director at Enid Blyton Entertainment, said: “The book has got some nods to gender equality between girls and boys, which you didn’t always see in the original books. I have a newer version, so names have been changed from Jo, Bess and Fanny to Joe, Beth and Frannie. I have mixed feelings about the update. I understand why some people would object to Fanny in particular. It's the loss of Bessie that I find saddest as it was updated because Bess/Bessie has fallen out of fashion. While I like the name Beth too, I don't see the issue with an old-fashioned children's book maintaining an older style of name.

The Enchanted Wood Series is very close to my heart. This was most definitely the first novel I read when I was about 7 or 8, and I was completely mesmerized by Joe, Bessie and Fannie and their adventures in the enchanted woods so much that I just COULD no keep this book down. Enid Blyton turns out (according to Wikipedia) to be a rather strange woman and not somebody who one would expect to the a very successful author of children's books. However, the views of Wikipedia, and some of those who wrote about her, do tend to be somewhat tainted. This does not mean that Blyton was necessarily a person of high moral standing. It appears that she had two marriages, and at one stage, allegedly, was quite promiscuous. It also appeared that after her divorce she pretty much took her ex-husband to the cleaners. However, much of this was written by one of her daughters who did seem to have a chip on her shoulder. n as the Faraway Tree. The woods are called the Enchanted Woods. The Faraway Tree is home to several different characters, Silky the Elf, Moon Face, the Angry Pixie, Dame Washalot, Saucepan Man, Watzisname and a few others. The Faraway Tree is so tall it reaches into the clouds and up in these clouds a new land swings by (like a rotating turntable of lands) every couple of days. These lands can either be fantastic like the land of Take-What-You-Want or horrible like the land of Slaps. Running for a total of four books, these were some of Blyton’s most enduring creations, one’s which stand the test of time to this very day. In the past there has been a television adaptation, with ten minute episodes of mini-adventures being aired in 1997. Plans to adapt it for the big-screen, though, are currently underway, as the director Sam Mendes has acquired the rights through his production company ‘Neal Street Productions’, with the intention of creating a major live-action film of the novels.

The mechanics of the Faraway Tree are a mystery. It seems incredibly easy to climb and in all the rushing about nobody every seems in danger of falling off. The branches appear to be twenty feet wide and flat... There's a ladder up into the clouds at the top of it and this leads to ever-changing magic lands that swing into position one after the next. Entire passages of the original have been rewritten to remove references to fighting. For instance, when the tree is taken over by Goblins in The Enchanted Wood, the Goblins were originally fought off, with descriptions of Mr. Watzisname 'pummelling them as if he were beating carpets' and the Saucepan Man throwing his saucepans at them. These have been replaced with cursory references to 'chasing'. Voices: Roy Hudd, Richard Pearce, Kate Harbour, John Baddeley, Jimmy Hibbert, Janet James and David Holt. They unlatched the gate and stood in the lane. they could see the trees in the wood, and hear them talking their strange tree-talk: ‘Wish-wisha-wisha-wisha!’ In the story, there is a reference to Moonface asking Silky the fairy to help around the home. Mia tells him that he has sexist expectations of Silky, and explains why he should not say that.”

I've had to dig out the original creased, coverless versions of these books that I had as a child so my own kids can get the proper story. Five stars for those; two stars for the neutered rewrite. This is probably the best Blyton I've read so far. I thought it quite good in pre-reading, and when it came time to include the kids, they were absolutely enthralled - Blyton really did know her audience. She was fairly shameless about incorporating things that they would like - a visit to the Land of Birthdays, where the characters had the Most Fun Party Ever, was the capstone. This was written in 1939 but I think it's still a fun read for kids of today. This edition was printed in the early nineties and does still contain elements which I think have been removed now. Obviously Golliwogs have been removed, however I read a few years ago that Dame Slap was considered problematic so not sure if she is still about. Slapping is a big storyline, so not sure what they replaced her with! The lands at the top are sometimes extremely unpleasant – for example, the Land of Dame Slap (altered to Dame Snap in revised editions), an aggressive school teacher; and sometimes fantastically enjoyable - notably the Land of Birthdays, the Land of Goodies, the Land of Take-What-You-Want, and the Land of Do-As-You-Please.

Some' don't now appreciate the way the brother, Jo [not Joe], who was also apparently the oldest of the three children, seemed always to be in charge of his two sisters. Being the oldest, why wouldn’t he be more responsible for his two sister’s well-being. Is this why she's now marked as a sexist? The first title of the main trilogy, The Enchanted Wood, was published in 1939, although the Faraway Tree and Moon-Face had already made a brief appearance in 1936 in The Yellow Fairy Book. A picture-strip book, Up the Faraway Tree, was published in 1951. Over the years, the Faraway Tree stories have been illustrated by various artists including Dorothy M. Wheeler (first editions), Rene Cloke, Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone, and Georgina Hargreaves. [1] The Enchanted Wood [ edit ] First edition, 1939 First edition, 1943 First edition, 1946 Likewise, the characters who inhabit the enchanted wood and the faraway tree were a bit hit and miss for me. Moon-face – a bit weird. Silky – lovely! Mister Whatzisname and Dame Washalot – one note wonders. The Red Squirrel – cute. The Old Sacepan Man – annoying! As for the three children – I never developed different voices for them with my read aloud as I did with the characters of Winnie-the-Pooh because quite frankly they all spoke exactly the same way and had near identical characters. They’re all idealised clone-kids, (good, kind, considerate, hardworking, respectful, etc). Considering how many of these identikit kids Blyton uses in her stories , she must have had a production line churning them out… Famous Five + Secret Seven + Faraway Tree Three = the Fiction Factory Fifteen?