Standing At The Doorway To An Amazing World

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Recently Jack (6 years of age) has discovered the wonders of longer "novel" type books and is enthralled in the nightly readings of Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree stories. We have ploughed through the various crazy lands of The Magic Faraway Tree and are working through the adventures held within The Folk Of The Faraway Tree ... and I've just noticed that the first in the series is actually The Enchanted Wood which I think we skipped over, ach whatever, Jack managed to watch Star Wars quite successfully in this order: I, II, III, IV, VI, V :-)

Now that we have passed on from the plastic bath books, large cardboard page books, pop-up books (although do we ever truly loose the wonder of pop-up books?), large format picture books (of which Mo Willems and Julia Donaldson are the best) and onto smaller scale books I am delighted that the Jack stands in the doorway to other worlds. He's gonna love it.

Back to Enid Blyton ... I have just discovered that:
  • Her full name was Enid Mary Blyton Pollock Darrell Waters
  • She is the sixth most translated author worldwide
  • There are 21 Famous Five novels and 15 Secret Seven
  • The BBC are currently making a film of her lifestory starring Helen Bonham Carter
  • Blyton's books have sold more than 600 million copies
  • More than a million Famous Five books are sold worldwide each year
  • Her books have been translated into more than 90 different languages
  • The Magic Faraway Tree was voted no. 66 in the BBC's Big Read
  • In the 2008 Costa Book Awards, Enid Blyton was voted the best-loved author, ahead of Roald Dahl, JK Rowling and Shakespeare
  • 753 titles credited to her over a 45 year career with an average of 16 titles published per year
Amazing!

And so, if you have young 'uns coming up to the age of novels you're in for a treat (buy the Faraway stories at Amazon or simply read more from the Enid Blyton Society). And if you're immersed in the worlds with your son or daughter already I hope this has reminded you of that time when they stood in the doorway and you knew just what an amazing time they're about to have.


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