Being trapped behind those gates and the brutish villains in this book gave quite a creepy feeling of anxiety when read under the bedclothes. In this tale the Five are banished to the wilds because forgetful Uncle Quentin has to go to a conference over the holidays and for some reason Aunt Fanny has to go with him. And to top it all the cook is ill! In between all the eating and sleeping, our protagonists also solve some 'mysteries' that are either unbelievable or totally clear from the beginning. In chapter one everyone feels to me like they’re acting like caricatures of themselves. It’s as though they’ve all read the earlier books and are playing up their tropes deliberately. I cannot stop worrying about Aggie. You know, for all the cosiness and lettuce, the dark undercurrents in these books are seriously dark. Every second kid the Five encounter is being beaten, and Aggie’s trapped in some sort of evil domestic servitude.

Before an all-out brawl breaks out Mr. Perton arrives to instruct Aggie to prepare a decent meal because Rooky and ‘one or two others’ are coming. After he’s gone Anne offers to do the washing up, and Julian says they’ll all help. Hunchy sneers at their “smarmy ways,” but they ignore him. [ Dove: This exchange really bothers me, because I worry that Aggie’s going to get hit for Julian’s rudeness – he often sasses people without considering the consequences for others. If an abuser feels their power has been undermined, they will find someone less powerful to take it out on.] [ Necromommycon:Yes, you’re exactly right. The whole thing makes my stomach knot up with tension.]

It’s weird how utterly satisfying I find that scene. Also, Julian is really truly Richard’s hero at this point (and I suppose so is Timmy), and I can’t even criticize it. The only way this scene could be any more brilliant is if the dog and the boy were one werewolf-y creature, that did both the stern talking to AND the biting. [ Wing: YES PLEASE.]

Five Get into Trouble is the eighth novel in The Famous Five series by Enid Blyton. It was first published in 1949. By now (book 8 in the series) the beginnings of the books are settling into a formula. These books are formulaic by design, but we are all right with it. We want more of a good thing, and we know we are in the hands of a master storyteller. So, standard Famous Five book beginning: Uncle Quentin, forgetting the children were coming, made another commitment and has to leave with Aunt Fanny. Joanna the cook is ill (of course). What a problem! Fortunately the children suggest a solution: they want to go on a cycling holiday. I'm very happy with the idea the children come up with this time. That's bound to be fun! I love it when they go on their own! No,’ said Aggie. ‘No phone, no gas, no electricity, no water laid on, no nothing. Only just secrets and signs and comings and goings and threats and…’ The scene with the police Inspector strolling in and being all familiar and chummy with the convicts, while Mr. Perton suavely smokes a cigarette and lies his head off, was very Georgette Heyer. I can picture it perfectly, right down to the double-breasted suits and the polished wing-tips. I mean, he’s not wrong; she’s actually done this stuff in other books. But everything about that speech makes me want to punch him in the nose. [ Dove: We’re about sixty years too late, but we need to start an Anne Kirrin fan club.]The story ends with Richard's parents inviting the children to their home. Richard's father says his son acted very foolishly, and Julian agrees but then says that he redeemed himself by his bravery and determination during the escape. Everything ends well! It's true that I already heard of the importance of food in children's books. As you can read on this blog: "In Blyton’s books, eating food is the central focal point that brings children together. This in turn ingrains the value of having a bond with family and friends." Julian takes most of the credit for this adventure because he is the one sneaking around, listening in to the conversations that are going on, and finding out the secrets that the crooks are trying to keep hidden so that when the police arrive everything is brought out into the open. It is even suggested (though remember that the Five never actually grow up) that Julian, and possibly the others, will no doubt join the police force when they have finished school. This, though, is probably a no brainer because one does not go around catching as many crooks as these children do and not be brought to the attention of the powers that be. Now, clearly the Five are too young to survive in George's house without a cook, so the obvious solution is to send them on a cycling tour with Timmy running free alongside, where not only will they have to dodge cars etc, and find fields to camp in, and swim in random unknown lakes, and deal with tramps ... but still have to cook for themselves! Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2020-12-09 23:42:20 Boxid IA40001820 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier

I did sporfle a bit at Julian being “white and furious” though. I know Blyton just means he was pale, but it makes him sound on the brink of grabbing a tiki torch and attending a dodgy protest. [ Dove: She does use that phrase a lot. People go pink, then red, then white, depending on their level of irritation to fury on the Blyton scale.] A few years ago I reread the first few books and was disappointed. Thus I gave 2* to the first installments. And that’s Book Eight. I must give credit to Blyton for offering up a storyline that is significantly different than the ones so far. We haven’t had a kidnapping or the Five trapped by criminals before. If Blyton pulls her punches and does not cause the Five to suffer too much that is understandable given the age of her target audience.According to the Index Translationum, Blyton was the fifth most popular author in the world in 2007, coming after Lenin but ahead of Shakespeare. But Richard is thrilled and possibly aroused, so it all ends on a happy note, I guess. Final Thoughts Apart from Richard Kent, the big hero of the book is Julian. He is the one who continually confronts the bad guys (with Timmy's help!) and finds the secret passages and everything.

Also, I keep thinking of Aggie as a sort of Darkest Timeline Anne. Keep doing all the cooking and making beds out of “soft” sand and rushes, and this is how you’ll end up, Anne. I’m serious. So they get to have hot baths and are given clean clothes (George gets shorts, which are apparently “boys’ clothes,” because the adult Kents don’t know she’s a girl.)

Then the police gets to Owl's Dene. The bad guys try to play it cool, but to their dismay Julian thwarts them by telling the police every little bit of the criminals' devious plot, since the children had found all the relevant clues during the adventure. Richard showed that he did indeed possess valour, spunk and courage at the end of the adventure and this experience he shared with The Famous Five no doubt shaped him into a much better chap than he otherwise would have been.