The Enid Blyton Society
Round the Year with Enid Blyton - Winter Book
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Book Details...

First edition: 1934
Publisher: Evans Brothers
Illustrator: Enid Blyton and Kathleen Nixon
Category: Round the Year with Enid Blyton
Genre: Nature
Type: Courses and Encyclopaedias

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Review by Terry Gustafson

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The winter section of Round The Year features on its frontispiece a spider's web spangled with frost. How spiders can negotiate web strands when they're covered with freezing crystals is anyone's guess.

"Dear Boys and Girls, I wish you could come with me and walk over the hills, through the fields, and down by the river, finding a hundred exciting or beautiful things by the way. I should like to take you fishing in the ponds, and fill your jars with snails and tadpoles. I should like to help you to make a fine bird table, or to prepare a splendid aquarium. I should like to give you a garden of your own, and show you how to make it a place of bright colours and sweet scents."

The first chapter explains to us how creatures prepare for the winter months. They can do one of three things - travel to countries that are warm and plenteous such as many birds do, or curl themselves up in a sheltered spot and sleep the season away. The third option is of course to simply stay awake and face the hardships. A toad is photographed sheltering under a large stone and Enid Blyton suggests other places suitable for hibernation such as a drainpipe, hollow tree, woodpile, or perhaps an old nest. Surprisingly, if a goldfish pond surface freezes the inhabitants can survive, and even stranger - it appears that if a newt swims to the surface of a pond and becomes frozen into the ice, it doesn't matter. The creature will simply thaw out when spring arrives and then carry on living! Badgers and squirrels aren't heavy sleepers and of course Enid Blyton tells us once again how the latter hide nuts away for the winter only to forget where they're stored. Hedgehogs and dormice are discussed and we're told to peek inside a barn one winter's day and search out the bats hiding away in a dark corner. Queen wasps might conceal themselves inside the curtains of your house, whilst bees stay snug in their hives. Snails and snakes tuck themselves away, rabbits, foxes and other animals grow thicker fur but as far as our cats and dogs go, they have no worries at all ...

I'm all right, Jack!

Frost and snow come next (Chapter #2) and rightly so. Once the mercury falls to thirty-two the water in our waste pipes can freeze and can cause damage, and if a capped bottle is filled and left outside we might well discover fragments of glass all over the place next morning. This is because water expands as it freezes. Farmers like the frost because it breaks up clods in the field and, no doubt, most of us have seen the lovely fern-patterns it makes on a window-pane during the night. How this happens is explained, as are many other mysteries that winter brings. Page #21 features a barn roof with long icicles hanging from it, and did you know ... frost crystals all have six sides to them. A diagram on page #25 shows what they look like under a magnifying glass, and another gem of knowledge dispensed is that snow can keep the earth warm.

Chapter #3 tells us all we need to know about the snail - such as why it carries a shell round on its back, and the reason it leaves a silvery trail. The snail's weird eyes are also mentioned. Slugs are covered in this chapter as well and at the end we're instructed as to how a 'snailery' is assembled so that more can be learnt about these creatures.

Over the years Enid Blyton has written a lot about birds and how to identify them. Chapter #4 features an oft mentioned subject - that of bird tables. Instructions for making one, plus an attractive picture are included and we're given a comprehensive list of foods to put out for our potential visitors. Britain has a swag of birds and some are mentioned ... greenfinches, bullfinches, hawfinches, chaffinches, sparrows (of course) and there's always a friendly robin or two. Our author has a tit-bell and a peanut feeder in her garden for the birds to enjoy, and there's a photograph of both items. A Pencaitland address is supplied for anyone who's interested in purchasing same - although it's sure to be out of date.

But you never know.

'The Compass.' If you were told to walk out of the school, turn east, and at the crossroads go up a north walkway, would you be able to follow such directions? Enid Blyton states that if there was a weathervane or weathercock in the playground you'd be able to all right, and I suppose she's referring to the fact that if an easterly wind was prevailing, the weathervane would indicate which direction to take. Small hints are given to assist us in finding our way around; for example we know the sun rises in the east and sets in the west so that's a good start, but suppose it was night time. No problem, we're given information on how to locate the North Star which is almost overhead at the North Pole and then it all gets very astronomical when the Great Bear and the Plough are mentioned. However if no clues are visible there's always a compass. Compass needles are magnetic and they always point to the north, so there you are - a valuable item for figuring out your journey's direction. We're also given instructions on making a compass card, and how to use it.

'Our Evergreens' comes next in Chapter #6. We must choose one of these for our Christmas tree seeing the dark-green branches make a fine background for toys and candles. Spruce fir is ideal and it grows to a great height, which makes the trunks ideal for use as telegraph poles and even ships' masts. Before anyone is confused, our Christmas trees are young spruces. Holly, also used at Yuletide for decoration, gets its name from 'holy' as it's been used since ancient times for decorating churches and shrines. Enid Blyton has been to Holmwood, and she tells us that wherever holly grew, its name was adopted by the villages or surrounding countryside. Holmsdale and Holmbury are two other such places. The curious life of mistletoe is mentioned, as is ivy and the laurel bush. Once again the author demonstrates her wide-ranging knowledge of nature by informing us of various other evergreens including the privet that produces tiny white flowers with a coarse strong smell, although we might not be very familiar with these blooms due to privet hedges being clipped so regularly.

I think everyone must have read at one time or another of the odd nesting places that robins occasionally choose for themselves, and Chapter #7 once again comments on this factor. The friendly robin is a popular bird and if you put some crumbs on your windowsill it'll fly down and peck them up; should you forget however, it'll tap at your pane as a reminder. These birds sing with a rich, creamy and quite loud melody nearly all the year round. Snippets of information make this chapter an interesting one, and further on it discusses the tiny wren, a bird which is is quite easy to identify. He's not as friendly as the robin - in fact wrens don't even seem to notice us. In the north he's apparently called by the appropriate name of 'Stumpy,' and it looks as if we'll know when a wren takes up residence in the garden due to its enormously clear and ringing voice. There's one at Old Thatch which nests in the roof. The egg-laying habits of both birds are discussed and there are three photographs - one of which portrays a robin actually standing on someone's hand.

Chapter #8 tells us all about the various imprints animals make with their feet when traversing snow-covered fields. Diagrams are accompanied by explanations from the animals themselves, and an example is that of a squirrel

"I like to sleep most of the winter - but I wake up sometimes to have a feast. Then you may see the marks of my long-toed feet quite clearly in the snow. You probably know that I have small front and big hind feet."

The accompanying picture shows a couple of rabbits racing in the snow, and there's also a photographic example of a frightened hare's tracks. About fifteen animals and birds' footprints are covered and these include cat, dog, moorhen, stoat and rat.

'Twigs And Their Story.' The subject-matter may sound a little boring but Enid Blyton, who has done her homework, tells us all kinds of interesting things relating to twigs and their buds. 'Stomata,' 'bud-scars' and 'bud-scales' might sound a little technical to some of us, but as the information is dispensed by an author who specialises in easy-to-understand language, we're left well informed, as always. Descriptions of twigs are supplied, such as those belonging to the ash, horse-chestnut, lime, and oak amongst other trees - and there's also a diagram plus two photographs that add substance to the information given. There features an interesting account as to why many trees lose their leaves in the autumn, and the 'Things To Do' section suggests drawing different twigs and searching for a few to keep in jars. If you have some clay lying around, why not form a model depicting one of your twigs?

Why not indeed?

Chapter #10. Many of us may not know what tits are, but British boys and girls are bound to have heard of these little birds that frequent many English gardens. Those of us who are familiar with Blytonia will have read many times about the fun of owning a bird table with pieces of cocoanut draped around for the tits to consume. In fact, turning to Page 91, there it is - a full-page picture of three such birds indulging themselves. Tits are the acrobats of birdland and an interesting snippet to record for future reference is that Tit-Mice is the bird's proper family name according to EB! Who would have known that - although it appears Americans would be more familiar with that title. What are the different tits called? Well, there are three mentioned - Great-Tit (or Ox-eye), Blue-Tit (or Tom-Tit), and the tiniest of them all, Coal-Tits. These must be very small birds indeed because the Great-Tit is only about the size of a sparrow. Perhaps it's not so great. Enid Blyton's favourite is the Blue-Tit and she devotes a page to this "excitable and pugnacious little creature." A bird-table full of birds is shown in the accompanying photograph although it doesn't say whether or not they're tits; there's also a picture of four hungry Great-Tit nestlings. The booklet ends with a suggestion that you could try rearing a family of these birds in your own garden by installing a nesting-box, which will enable you to observe the growth of some fluffy yellow baby tits.
#1:

Plenteous! Had to check on that word and sure enough, 'Plenteous' registers as 'Plentiful' (which figures). 'Bounteous,' 'Profuse,' 'Luxuriant,' and so on.

I'd initially thought queen wasps would shelter from winter weather in their nests, but Enid Blyton's right as usual. When the cold moves in, Queenie moves out.

#3:

Although 'Snailery' seems not to be stored in the computer memory banks, it's documented as a bona fide word.

#4.

Pencaitland is in Scotland near Edinburgh.

#6:

Holmwood and Holmbury appear to be in Surrey, and a 'Holmesdale' also registers in that vicinity.

#7:

A few interesting facts were located when looking up the reason for wrens often being referred to as 'Jenny Wren.' It seems that birds were sometimes called after people - so we have the 'Dicky -Bird,' 'Robin,' Martin' and so on ... although it may depend on which part of the country you're in. Most EB fans will remember two characters from 'Family At Red-Roofs' - Jenny Wren and Jackdaw.

'Old Thatch' in Coldmoorholme Lane (Bourne End) is where the author lived at one stage of her life.

#10:

Tits seem to favour the northern countries although Africa has its fair share. The number of different birds existing in Australia alone is truly awesome, but 'Crested Shrike-Tit' seems to be the only example relating to Chapter #10. New Zealand is recorded as having a 'Tom-Tit.'

Of interest to Blytonites, could be the name of a bird found in more southern climes. It's known as the 'Lesser Noddy.'

There's a list of things to do at the end of each chapter.

No illustrator is officially credited but 'K. Nixon' on the diagrams has to indicate Kathleen Nixon.