Time for a book report!
Name: Annette L.
Date: April 25, 2008
Book Report
- Title of Book(s) The Island of Adventure (1944); The Castle of Adventure (1946); The Valley of Adventure (1947); The Sea of Adventure (1948); The Mountain of Adventure (1949); The Ship of Adventure (1950); The Circus of Adventure (1952) and The River of Adventure (1956).
- Author: Enid Blyton
Setting: Where does this story take place? Each book takes place in a different setting although their home base is England.
Main Characters: Give a brief description of each character. Use words like kind, lonely, helpful, gets into trouble, etc.
Separate these words with commas.
Main Characters are: Brief Description of the Characters:
The Adventure Series by Enid Blyton, a prolific English children's author, is a series of eight children's novels. These books feature the same child characters: Philip, Jack, Dinah, and Lucy-Ann, along with several adult characters. Jack's pet parrot, Kiki, is also a standard feature in each novel, and the bird always comes through with some raucous utterance that amuses everyone or helps the children to evade danger.
The stories show the four children off on their own, discovering and solving mysteries without much adult assistance. Although the publication dates span a decade, Blyton reportedly wrote each of the novels in less than a week.
Summary: Write a summary about the story. Don't retell the whole story.
Plot summaries
The Island of Adventure
During his holiday break, Philip Mannering meets Jack and Lucy-Ann Trent, and together they run off to the coastal estate of Philip's aunt and uncle, Craggy Tops. Soon, the three of them and Dinah, Philip's sister, witness strange happenings centering about the nearby Island of Gloom and two strange characters — the grumpy and unfriendly manservant, Jo Jo (renamed Joe in a later, bowdlerised, version), and the mysterious fellow calling himself Bill Smugs (real name: Bill Cunningham). A trip to the island's abandoned copper mines yields an unexpected surprise as they discover a sinister operation being conducted in the abandoned shafts. The book has been severely criticised on its complete ignorance of geology.
The Castle of Adventure
The children and Mrs. Mannering travel to a lonely mountain cottage, which lies close to an old castle. Curious about the ruin, and eager to watch a family of golden eagles nesting in it, the children explore the place. Jack decides to stay overnight in the castle courtyard, and finds he is not alone. He finds men doing bad things and quickly alerts his close friends who get help.
In 1990 a TV adaptation of The Castle of Adventure was made and became popular with a teenage audience. It is still available, though mostly in VHS form.
The Valley of Adventure
Preparing for a trip by plane with Bill, the four children inadvertently go into the wrong plane, which takes off under frightening circumstances — and find themselves stranded in an isolated valley scarred by war, and at the mercy of sinister men looking for a long-lost treasure.
The Sea of Adventure
Bill takes the foursome on a trip to a Scottish island to help them recover from measles. But amongst the islands, they stumble upon a sinister plot; Bill disappears, and the children are left alone to find out where he is and what is going on.
The Mountain of Adventure
Hoping for a quiet holiday for once, the children, Kiki, Mrs. Mannering and Bill head off for a farm in Wales for some wandering. But on the search for the Vale of Butterflies, the children get lost and find themselves near a mysterious mountain. Ominous rumblings of the ground, a pack of wolves roaming the area, a fugitive, and Philip's disappearance are but a few of the mysteries the children have to unravel about the mountain.
The Ship of Adventure
On a trip to the Mediterranean, Lucy-Ann acquires a ship in a bottle, which proves to be the key to the location of a long-lost treasure. But eager as the children are to find it, they soon have to deal with a sinister adversary who will stop at nothing to get the riches for himself.
The Circus of Adventure
Who is the strange pompous boy Bill has invited to his home for the holidays? The children soon discover that he is a prince, and as such he has enemies. Jack and Kiki find themselves following the others who are kidnapped and taken to a strange country — but they find help in a circus, and with his new friends Jack will soon decide the fate of an entire nation.
The River of Adventure
Recovering from a very bad flu, the four children and their family make a river trip in the Middle East. But not only for an innocent occasion; Bill has received the task to watch a crook named Raya Uma. The children soon find another adventure revolving around a magnificent buried city filled with treasure beyond imagination.
Conclusion: How did the story(ies) end ? Sadly
Did you like the book? Why or Why not? When I was in 5th grade our teacher, Mrs. Day, (who suprisingly enough was also my mother's 5th grade teacher!) read aloud to us after lunch each school day. She was an excellent teacher and we all loved her dearly so we were generally a quiet and attentive group. However, during story reading time we turned to stone, fixated completely on Mrs. Day's and her book. She would finish the daily chapter and we would beg her to read another chapter and we were positively elated on the days (rare as they were) when she would agree to read one more chapter. The only satisfaction in finishing one book was that there was another one from the series on its way!
Sometime in college I started thinking back to those story reading times in Mrs. Day's class. My memory was probably jogged because I was embarking on my own life as a teacher, albeit for third grade rather than fifth, and I know that I wanted my students to feel about me the way I felt about Mrs. Day.
I was absolutely amazed and completely dejected when I realized that I couldn't remember the name of the book series nor the author of the series that Mrs. Day read. How could I have loved a series so much and only remember two things: one of the books took place in a castle and one of the characters in the books was a parrot named Kiki?
The years went by and I would think about those books and sigh and move on because I was sure that the books were doomed to be a wonderful partial memory and that would have to do. Try as I might I could not come up with anymore than a castle and a parrot named Kiki.
One day out of the blue I googled "book with castle and parrot named Kiki" and got back the answer, "The Castle of Adventure by Enid Blyton". OMG!!!!! Of course! Glory Hallelujah! I quickly did a study of Enid Blyton and her adventure books and there they all were!! The entire series of 8 adventures, none of which I could remember other than the castle setting.
I was not about to let this opportunity get away. I found an offering of all 8 books, 3 first editions and the other 5 early printings although not first editions, and the very steep price didn't deter me for a nanosecond. They were worth every penny after my decades long desire for them.
So, on December 18, 2002, the set arrived and I was embracing them as a late birthday and early Christmas present from me to me (often the best gifts, don't you think?). I carefully unwrapped each one and was delighted to find that a few of the books had the original owner's name and address on the flyleaf page and all the addresses were in England! Of course! Enid Blyton is an English author, her first market would be Great Britain.
Next I had a devil of a time deciding if I was going to start reading from book one or just hop right to book two, obviously my favorite if what I remembered was "castle" and "Kiki". Taking the orderly approach, I started with book one, and sat down for a wonderful afternoon of reading.
Wonderful it wasn't. I was broken hearted when I realized that these books are not timeless. They are not classics. The writing as I read it today is very stiff and formal and laborious. Try as I might I could not get caught up in the story and so I sadly put the book back on the shelf at the head of its 7 followers.
The books give me pleasure even in their unread state and I smile every time I look at them. The smile comes from the memory of a magical time in 5th grade when my love for the written word was crystallized. Thank you, Mrs. Day, I am indebted.
Memories can be the foundation of ambition.
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