Enchanted Woods and Faraway Trees
June 6, 2006 at 5:56 PM
by Ashleigh
When I was growing up Enid Blyton's* Enchanted Wood with its Faraway Tree, Jo, Fanny and Bessie**, Moonface, Silky the Fairy, the Saucepan Man, Mr Watzisname, Dame Washalot and the Angry Pixie were pure escapism for me. I had a copy of the Enchanted Wood that my mom bought me and the other two books I borrowed from the library.
I re-read The Enchanted Wood about a hundred times, and I'm sad to say, had a horrible habit of tearing strips off the sides of the pages and chewing on them while I was reading. There was virtually no margin left on any of those pages when I was finished with that book.
I read a lot of other Enid Blyton books, the Famous Five, Secret Seven, Wishing Chair, Amelia Jane (which I didn't like), plus the 'Adventures'. My mom also picked out Cherry Ames and Nancy Drew books for me when I was a little older. Not forgetting the classics like Black Beauty, Lorna Doone, Treasure Island, Just William, CS Lewish and Rudyard Kipling's books. I could go on and on.
I can remember the library in Chinhoyi***, the town I grew up in, and the dusty quality of the light. There always seemed to be a slanting yellowish light in there, probably because I always visited in the late afternoon.
There were these old ladies who volunteered to run the library who were pretty scary, even though I'm sure they couldn't possibly have been so in life outside the library. We had to be silent in the library unless it was to ask the librarians a question - what a contrast to libraries now with their computer terminals and noisy patrons!
When I was about seven my gran let me ride my bike to the library and I was there almost every day with my bag full of books. I could only take five at a time.
I read all the books in the children's section before I was ten. Then there wasn't anything else left for me to read so I was allowed to read Mills and Boon and Harlequin romances, Agatha Christie and Miss Read. After that they gave up and I could just read books out of the adult section.
These memories all rushed back at me this week after Sebastian finished reading the 3 in 1 edition containing The Enchanted Wood, The Magic Faraway Tree and The Folk of the Faraway Tree. He was so engrossed in reading that he was laughing out loud at some bits in the book and kept rushing to me to tell me what was happening in whatever Land happened to be at the top of the tree in that chapter. He's finished now, all 583 pages, and its time for me to buy him something new from Amazon. I'm thinking more Faraway Tree stories or parhaps the Famous Five might just hit the spot. He has lots and lots of other books but this one really kept him occupied.
* You can find a comprehensive list of Enid Blyton's books here.
** Renamed in the recent edition to Joe, Frannie and Beth.
*** While I was looking for a link to my home town I found this wonderful link that describes diving in the Chinhoyi Caves. The water really is that cobalt blue colour. Very beautiful.
Comments
I'm not familiar with Enid Blyton books, but I spent many days riding my bicycle to the library and loading up on books. I don't read as much these days, in fact, not much at all. But we now have books on cds and I can stitch and "read" at the same time. :D
Oh Ashley- I just about fell of my chair. I so recognise the bit about tearing the strips off the book pages and chewing them- with me it was the corners! I too was and am an "eater" of books. I just don't actually eat them any more. I have never read any Enid Blyton books- they are translated into German and my kids have quite a few , but I never met them untill I moved to Europe. But I did chew my way through "the Bobsey twins", 'Nancy Drew", "All of a kind Family" ,The Greeen Gable books and Louisa May Allcott , to name a few favorites. I still have complete sets of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Narnia books (oops, two sets of these),and Madeline L'engle and E.L Konigsberg, That I regularly pull out and reread. Your post brought back so many memories.
I am guilty of dog-earing my books, but I've never EATEN them, LOL!! I loved (and still do actually) to read a lot as a kid, and remember the Book Mobile that used to come through my neighborhood once a week. After I'd read all the Nancy Drews they kept stocked, the nice people switched them out for fresh ones. Eventually I'd read all the ones the library had, but those were fun times.
It's exciting to have our children discover joy in reading, isn't it :)
Rachael, how strange that we are both 'book eaters' :) I have to clarify that my mom threatened to crucify me if I ever did that to library books and I was too scared of the old librarians to even consider it.
It was almost a reflexive habit for me. If I think about it now I can almost taste the paper. Want to know what was even more disgusting? I used to make little balls out of it and throw them at the ceiling where they stayed for ages until my gran noticed them ;)
With the reading habits of Seb we're planning a trip to the UK purely to visit charity shops and scour them for kids books!
Karen, you are so lucky to have your childhood books still! I wish I had mine.
Von, I just can't get into books on cd! I should try.
Deb, Nancy Drew was so fun for me - such a different world to the one I was in. I loved those books! Do you remember what the ones were with the palomino horses? I can't remember which series it was but it was similar to Nancy Drew.
The first 'proper' book I read was Dr Doolittle when I was 6 or so. I was never an avid reader but did enjoy the Enid Blyton staples etc. DH on the other had devoured the library like you did nad was given a special adults card at about 9 years old so he could read Ian Fleming etc.
Quinn gets to take a book from the school library each week, and up to now has conformed with cute classicis like 'I wish that I had Duck feet.' This week his bag was rather heavy and he procalimed 'you are going to think I am CRAZY!' as he produced a huge volume called 'Classic Boys Stories' with everything from Winnie-the-Pooh, to Cahrlei and The Chocolate Factory to Tom Sawyer etc. he can't read it as fluently as his easy grade
one readers, but he is not too bad with it. It won't be long now!
Reading is a fantasic way to escacpe and learn.
I also wanted to mention that we get excellent book here really cheaply at Bargain Books and Paper Weightds as well as at school fetes.
I can walk out of the Waldorf School fete book room with as many books as I can carry for about R20! Awesome!
See if you can get friends in the UK to look for 2nd hand books and send them over to you?
I am just dying to buy one of our kids the whole Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys series!
I just loved reading this. :)
I also enjoyed this post, Ash - there seem to be so many Blogger ladies who grew up with Enid Blyton books and still love them. I still have all six Malory Towers books and still enjoy them. I had to leave most of my childhood books behind when I first left home, as I just couldn't find space for them all in my first apartment, and I have kicked myself ever since. I have managed to buy a few of them again since then - a few weeks ago I found "The Naughtiest Girl In The School"! One of my favorites; I could really relate to Elizabeth - lol!
Well I also just love the-FarawayTree stories. I was brought up with them, and have been reading them several times. In fact I like the books so much, that I have made a dedication to them, by gathering infomation, pictures, facts and much more on www.the-farawaytree.com website.
Currently I have over 30 farawaytree books, and my collection is growing from week to week
I LOVED Enid Blyton books as a child! I read the Faraway Tree books, the school stories (Malory Towers and St. Clare's), Famous Five, Secret Seven, the Adventures, the Five Find-outers mystery series...I could go on and on!
I've recently rescued my collection from my dad's loft - just browsing through the piles brought back some great memories. I'm glad they can still be enjoyed by the current generation too.
June 6, 2006 6:04 PM