When I was a little girl, Enid Blyton was always the first name that came to mind if you mentioned children's authors. However thirty years on, I wondered if the books would still have the same appeal. After all, how many kids these days have a friend called Roger or Bertram and would consider a day out at a nearby island with a jam sandwich and a bottle of ginger ale an adventure ?! Nevertheless, when 9-year-old Sophie discovered The Famous Five books that were kicking about in the loft a couple of years back, she was enchanted ! And it was also a great trip down memory lane for me at bedtimes too as she read a couple of pages to me from my old childhood stories !
So we were all over the moon when we were sent the New Adventures of the Wishing Chair Collection to review. The collection contains three books - The Land of Mythical Creatures, The Island of Surprises and Spellworld. Kids IQ Books list this collection in the age 5+ category and, although 5-year-old Juliette did like listening to the stories, it was mainly big sister Sophie who enjoyed reading them to her sister and brother.
The books use a very large font which would be great for learner readers. I'll definitely sit down and read these to Juliette, asking her to read a few of the easier words, when she's picked up the basics from school (hopefully in the very close future !). They also have lots of black and white illustrations which help to aerate the text and Juliette loves the "glittery fairy dust" on the front covers, as well as the line of little stars at the bottom of each page ! Each book contains 115 pages and, for those of you worried about ethics, the publishers Egmont Press promise to use responsible forestry for their paper supplies, fairness and respect for their workers and stringent safety tests.
The stories themselves are full of unicorns, witches, pixies, ogres and wizards and Juliette was totally enchanted by this fairy-tale cast of characters. In this day and age when kids are constantly confronted with sex and violence on TV and internet, it's lovely to step back to a nostalgic world where the worst thing they'll come across is a mischievous pixie who will get his comeuppance in the end !
star rating : 4.5/5
RRP : £14.97 - but only £7.99 at Kids IQ Books
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i loved enid blyton books when i was little, cant wait till my daughter is a bit older and ready to read them too x
ReplyDeleteSame here ! I'm loving rediscovering all my childhood faves. I've been rediscovering the Choose your own adventure Dungeon & Dragons books with Sophie lately - great fun !
ReplyDeleteim a child who reads enid blyton unfun when in school we have to reading logs every week ¬_¬ lol
ReplyDeleteLOL Oops sorry, I'm one of those nasty teachers making you do the book reports !! ;-)
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