Famous Five: 4: Five Go To Smuggler's Top: 70th Anniversary Edition: Book 4 (Famous Five 70th Anniversary)

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Timmy has caused many problems for his mistress in the past and yet another springs up: She's not allowed to have him at Smuggler's Top because Mr Lenoir despises dogs but that doesn't put George off. Typically, she decides to take him anyway but with the firm resolve that Timmy will be kept hidden from Mr Lenoir's view. OK, not really... BUT HE COULD HAVE BEEN is my point. It turns out that this chap is extremely grumpy and lives at the top of an island (which I'm pretty sure is a thinly disguised St. Michael's Mount, complete with a causeway and everything) that turns out to be honeycombed with secret smugglers' tunnels. Guess who's still using the smugglers' tunnels? That's right: smugglers. Who could have possibly seen that coming?! This entry in the Famous Five series is really quite dark. The book starts with the top floor of George's house being completely destroyed by storm damage. George's parents, feeling that the house is a dangerous place for George and the rest of the gang (who were staying with George at the time of the storm) to be around (fair enough) decide to send the kids to stay with a complete stranger who George's father has received a letter from concerning his scientific research. This guy turns out to be a drooling psychopath who swiftly murders the four children and their little dog too!

Having established that her books have exciting story lines it has to be said that they are very restricted in the vocabulary they use. This is probably partly why kids love them of course! And there's absolutely no harm in reading this type of easy book with lots of repetition for pleasure, as an extra outside school. But there is a plethora of other options - books which are not contentious in this way, where the attitudes shown are far less questionable and socially damaging. I enjoyed this book mainly for the atmosphere created by Enid Blyton. It was also filled with many interesting and dubious characters right from the cold Mr.Lenoir to the slightly eccentric smuggler, Mr.Barling. As a child, I kept second-guessing the motives of the supposed anatagonists. Villagers come to gawk at the great tree lying across the roof of Kirrin Cottage. The children must spend the hols somewhere else!The central lesson of this book is that if you see a light out in the dark, then someone is up to no good. Generally smuggling. But Mr Lenoir, though outwardly polite, is even more short-tempered than Uncle Quentin. And he hates dogs. So the rule from the outset is that Timmy will not be allowed to go with them to Smuggler's Top. Well! It wouldn't be a Famous Five book without Timmy, so George naturally arranges to smuggle him into the big old rambling house, if Sooty will help. And of course Sooty, after a moment's hesitation, kindly agrees to hide Timmy away in the tunnels that run alongside and beneath the house—tunnels, he says, that were once used by smugglers! I think only the accumulation of new words in French prevented me from giving the book one star. For a middle grade book, the vocab is different from its original. Transferring from English -pound - to French - franc - the book seemed to have gained in currency. The language employed is more than the dry utilitarianism of the original.

Wow, I can’t believe it took us a month to read this book. If Dante had been in school we wouldn’t have watched TV or movies so late in the evening and run out of time for bedtime reading. So, I switched to a new tactic: reading to him at breakfast and/or lunch. The Kirrin children plus dog are required to abandon Kirrin Cottage because a tree falls on the roof and messes up their bedrooms so they're are sent to Smuggler's Top on Castaway Hill whilst repairs are carried out. To obtain a reasonable image of their venue take a look at a picture of St. Michael's Mount in the Cornwall area or its counterpart in France — better still, hunt out the Bill Bartlett print of Rye in Sussex. The resemblance is pretty good. Smuggler's Top is continually shrouded in mist and the surrounding marsh is very threatening to anyone who steps off the tried and true paths so the four children plus dog are entering a fairly alien environment where they will be staying with a scientist friend of George's father — a Mr Lenoir. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2020-09-11 09:02:30 Boxid IA1928310 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier Still, they are highly entertaining and useful cultural history lesson (of a certain set of people). It’s weird reading them out loud with my American accent (but my son won’t even let me try to affect a British one), especially when they use British slang or manner of speaking. But I’m entertained by the dichotomy, even if my son doesn’t notice. P.S. - Bizarrely, this is the only book in the Famous Five series (which is twenty two books long) that doesn't have an unabridged version available on Audible. The book is on Audible, but only in the dreaded abridged format. I mean, seriously, who wants to read an abridged version of a book? I'm kind of disgusted that abridging books is even a thing, to be honest.Who reads Enid Blyton nowadays? I have a feeling that she is read mostly by adults, in a spirit of nostalgia. I doubt very much whether many of today's children choose to read about the Famous Five. Most will have the discernment to read exactly what they choose. Younger children of course will have their books chosen for them by adults. Some of these picture books may well be by Enid Blyton, who will be fondly remembered by their parents. After all, she wrote dozens of books and there are probably some in there which are free of this damaging potential influence. Your children love her? They are enthralled by her magic? Fine. But what I would say is PLEASE read the book yourself before letting your child read it. If it's inappropriate then discuss why. Put it in its historical context - discuss prejudice of all types, class distinctions etc. Five go to smuggler's top" was actually one of the last Five books I read, even though it is number 4 in the series. It was hard to find a copy originally, and I had to make do with a more modern publication than some of the others I own.

urn:lcp:fivegotosmuggler0000blyt_z6y7:epub:bef2bb03-57f3-468d-8169-bb58880c5313 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier fivegotosmuggler0000blyt_z6y7 Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t88h7v87m Invoice 1652 Isbn 9781444908688 The mystery unfolds with many strange happenings and the Five are plunged into adventure yet again!

Dat laatste heeft voor mij in dit verhaal altijd geprimeerd, en het is publiek geheim dat Enid Blyton de moeite heeft genomen om alles zo realistisch mogelijk te maken. Ze heeft zich namelijk gebaseerd op het stadje Rye, dat in het graafschap Kent ligt, vlak aan zee, op een heuvel die vroeger volledig omringd werd door moerassen - en nu nog voor een klein deel eraan grenst (het hele gebied daar, van Rye tot aan de Romney Marshes, was vroeger allemaal verraderlijk gebied). Rye stond ook bekend als smokkelaarsstadje. Ik ben er een paar keer geweest - de laatste keer een jaar of acht geleden, volgens mij - en ondertussen is de mist er allang weggetrokken, maar de situering als heuvel is natuurlijk nog altijd goed te zien. De hele sfeer die Blyton creëert, met mist, grotten en mysterieuze seinen, zit geweldig goed ineen. The wider conflict concerns the local smuggler who uses the marshes, and rather unbelievably ends up kidnapping Uncle Quentin in some implausible plan to thwart the draining by buying then burning his plans, thus stopping ... the swamp ... from being drained? Also, the smuggler is very rich and only smuggles for fun. Blyton was a prolific author of children's books, who penned an estimated 800 books over about 40 years. Her stories were often either children's adventure and mystery stories, or fantasies involving magic. Notable series include: The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, The Five Find-Outers, Noddy, The Wishing Chair, Mallory Towers, and St. Clare's. Despite the nonsensical nature of some of it, I did actually really enjoy this book. It's very exciting and will surely go down very well with children and those who are still children at heart. It's full of moments that will make you go 'What?! No!!! Surely not...'

Both children and adults have no arc in this book. There is just a clumsy collage of scenes that look pathetic to the eye. The smugglers, the hosts, the victims of kidnapping, all of them seem to lug no pulse in them, and no brain activity whatsoever. Given that there seems to be two of the brightest minds in science under that sinister and lugubrious roof, God help us what lesser mortals act like in that murky and brownish grey universe. According to the Index Translationum, Blyton was the fifth most popular author in the world in 2007, coming after Lenin but ahead of Shakespeare. First of all let me say they are great as adventure stories. They describe kids having an active outdoor life - and generally getting mixed up in something exciting. This sounds just like the sort of books we should be encouraging children (who nowadays are potential couch/computer potatoes) to read. And generally I would encourage all types of reading - comics, interactive books, whatever. But since there is such an abundance, do we have to select such inappropriate material?

Now Uncle Quentin, who in book one was writing formulas in his secret books and brewing stuff in test tubes, seems to have morphed into a civil engineer and is collaborating with their new host, Mr Lenoir, to drain the swamp, in a literal rather than Trumpian, sense. But here the solitariness of the book is dull as grain. I have no idea why I am writing so much about a book that I disdain, but sometimes muses have minds of their own. Do not read this book without preparing for it. Do not expect all Famous Five books to be created equal, for some are moreso than others. This book ought not to have seen the light of the day. Smuggler’s Top is an ancient house steeped in mystery. There are hidden passages behind panels, deep pits under ordinary floors that lead into a honeycomb of passages, some known and others where a clueless person could get lost in…forever. The original conflict is over the taking of Timmy. Mr Lenoir hates dogs. This is generally an unfailing indicator of villainy!