[Book] Five go capering ...

into my daughter's heart!

Enid Blyton, where art thou! Growing up in India, Enid Blyton was goddess amongst us 8-12 year olds. We could never ever get enough of her. And with seven-hundred plus books to her credit, we really could never ever get enough of her. I wistfully remember hours and hours of summer vacations spent devouring series after magical series of frolics and adventures and mysteries. Many of my role-models during my formative years were Blyton protagonists. Julian (Famous-Five), Barney (Barney series), Philip and Jack (Adventure series), and of course, the inimitable Frederick Algernon Trotteville, aka, Fatty (Mystery series). I would spend many a holiday attempting getting out of locked doors and writing messages in secret ink, not to mention disguising myself with a variety of nasty rags lying around the house. I don't recollect any of that ever working, but that didn't stop me from trying. And, my favorite bedtime wish was for a mystery to hit the neighborhood streets, so that I could at long last emulate my hero, the absolutely fantastic Fatty.

Fast forward - a whole bunch of years. Now, I have an eight-year old of my own, who actually enjoys reading books as much as myself. And, I do enjoy the books that she has been reading (having read every single one of them, of course). Mary Pope Osborne and the lovely Magic Tree House books, Roald Dahl and his marvellous creations, Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, Johanna Hurwitz, and many many others. But, no Enid Blyton. I searched high and I searched low. Neighborhood libraries, libraries in the county, libraries around the state, libraries out of the state. Nada, zilch, naught - or something very close to it. I would find books from the middle of a series, which (I'm not embarassed to admit) I lapped up eagerly. But, I really wanted her to start reading at the very beginning, where the characters are introduced, story lines are formed, and the magic wand spins its web to pull you into a world that can only be experienced - never explained.

So, now drastic measures had to be invoked. Matters had to be taken into our own little hands. Magic, it seemed, did require a little nudge here and a little shove there. Time was relentlessly attempting to dislodge the beautiful innocence from our daughter's heart and we needed help to postpone the inevitable. And, then occured the event that I had been overtly yearning for, for many a year. Mars and Saturn had finally aligned in the constellation Sagittarius. A family vacation completed the needful and six weeks later, we are the proud possessors of 53 books written by the best children's author of all-time. These include the entire Famous Five series, the entire Mystery series, and the entire Adventure series.

I'm in seventh heaven, and so is my daughter!