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1. The Twins and the Kite
   Story: Specially Written
2. Giants Over the Wall!
   Story: Specially Written
3. How Lucky They Were!
   Story: Specially Written

The first tale in this 'Little Book' is about Johnny's kite. Boys and kites go together whilst girls tend to prefer their dolls so when Johnny pokes his head round the playroom door, there's Jinny with Mary Rose. Johnny wants Jinny to come outside and help fly the kite but his sister has to ask Mary Rose first if she'd like to join them. Mary Rose says she'd love to come so Jinny starts preparing her while Johnny runs outside to launch his kite up into a boisterous wind that happens to have sprung up.

Skyward goes the kite, higher and higher with Johnny holding on to the string for dear life as the wind tugs relentlessly away. Very soon, Jinny walks into the garden wheeling her pram with Mary Rose sitting in it looking very pretty. Naturally Jinny wants to have a go at kite-flying so, after imparting a few instructions, Johnny lets her hold the string, but after his sister has spent a few exhilarating minutes flying the bouncing kite, she thinks Mary Rose would like a go as well.

Johnny tells her "No" because dolls can't fly kites but, despite his protestation, Jinny suddenly loops the kite-string round Mary Rose's wrist. It doesn't take much imagination to guess what happens next ... and it does. Johnny yells in frustration and Mummy comes running out to be greeted by two very unhappy children who are bewailing the loss of their playthings. Jinny is crying because Johnny has blamed her (rightly) but she thinks he's being horrid to her and dishes out as much as she gets - ending up by actually punching her brother.

Mummy says she won't replace the toys seeing the twins are being so horrid to each other - in fact she ends up taking them inside and placing each in a corner until they feel like calming down. The twins are very forlorn and Jinny starts crying as time passes. Later, when she hears her brother giving a little sniff, she begins feeling guilty - after all, being totally honest, it was all her own fault and thinking about it some more, an idea begins to form. She jumps off her stool and runs upstairs to look at the contents of her moneybox.

Johnny is a kindhearted boy and when he'd heard Jinny starting to cry he felt that something must be done and an idea had formed in his mind as well, but true to the chapter's title ('What a Surprise'), Harry puts everything right.

Is that Harry as in 'Harry?'

Yes, indeed it is!

Giants Over The Wall

The Twins' Granny owns a cat called Sukie and it has a very long tail. Like all felines it's prone to sitting on the wall when it's sunny and having a snooze, which is all very well, but unfortunately she has a habit of hanging her tail down the side of the wall rather than curling it round her body. In the general scheme of things this wouldn't matter but being in the wrong place at the wrong time does, and the following is what tends to happen.
School finishes at 4.30pm each day and two of the students who pass by the wall on their way home also have a habit - they tug at Sukie's tail and practically wrench the cat off her perch.

Granny tells Johnny and Jinny about this daily occurrence and the twins think it's very unkind because the cat is so gentle and never puts out her claws to anyone. Granny says it's no use telling the children not to pull Sukie's tail because they wouldn't listen to an old lady like her - that's if she could catch them of course, but they're generally gone by the time she manages to shuffle outside.

Johnny and Jinny like to play in Granny's garden and there's a picture of them both walking on stilts scaring the cook 'almost to death' as they pass by the kitchen window. The cook appears to hit upon a good idea for the twins to scare the tail-pulling children away from the wall when the cat is having a snooze and, putting two and two together, the reader might figure out what happens.

How Lucky They Were

'Going Nutting' means visiting the woods to search for nuts and that's what the twins' mother suggests to them one autumn day so they set off down Hazel Lane and end up under the trees only to find there's nary a nut anywhere. Other pickers must have got there first and distributed them because, as Johnny says, the shops are currently full of hazel nuts.

Standing there in an apparently nutless wood and wondering what to do, the twins spot a squirrel leaping about in the grass. Suddenly it stands still and listens.

Danger!

A dog from the farm appears whereupon the frightened squirrel immediately runs up a nearby tree and leaps onto a bough that suddenly cracks. The creature falls to the ground and Rover jumps on the bundle of fur but the children aren't having any of that and a stentorian "Rover!" comes from Johnny, whereby the dog drops his catch and runs off. The frightened squirrel allows Jinny to pick it up for a cuddle and then, recovering quickly, it leaps out of the girl's arms and heads off deeper into the woods, not seeming to be scared of them at all when the twins follow to see where it's going.

The rest is history.

---

Enid Blyton wrote so many books that she might have found it a difficult to continue thinking up racy titles. Like some of the names she created (for example - 'Bong' the Dragon) EB may have simply grabbed the very first word or words that slipped into her mind. The 'Twins' star in: 'Hello Twins', 'Come Along Twins', 'Here Come The Twins, ''Fun With The Twins', and 'Trouble For The Twins.' 'What a Surprise' is a well-used title in the collection.

I suppose there's no reason why Harry shouldn't intrude once again seeing the twins themselves star in several of the titles.

#2: The cook appears startled when the twins walk past her on their stilts, but she's only pretending to be.

There's a small blooper on P.30 where the cook is actually mixed up with Granny and refers to the cat as her own (it's actually Granny that should be speaking).

The twins' grandma is not pictured at all in the story.

The tail-pulling children consist of a boy called Ben, and his unnamed sister.

Why weren't the twins at school with the other children? Perhaps they didn't like the thought of having to stay there until half past four in the afternoon.

There's a cheery colour picture on P.36 of the twins looking at Granny's cat (illustrated on the facing page) looking very regal - almost 'Princely.'

'Giants over the Wall' brings to mind the plot of 'Betsy-May and the Giant-Boy' (My Enid Blyton Bedside Book), and there's also 'Giants Round the Corner' (Seventh holiday Book).

#3: Rover is an obedient dog and he likes the twins so it's not as if he's a plain nasty animal; in fact, most farm dogs in the Blyton books are fairly decent types.

Johnny's hastily thought up name for the little rodent they helped is 'Mr. Frisky Squirrel.'

Can a pun be manufactured with the changing of one letter? Yes, if you dote on the utterly pathetic: 'Other pickers must have got there first and distributed them because, as Johnny says, the shops are currantly full of hazel nuts.'

"Did you like the twins? If you did, you will want VISITORS IN THE NIGHT, also by Enid Blyton. "Who were the visitors in the night?" you may well ask. Well it all started when Clicky, the clockwork mouse ... but why not find out for yourself. (Advertisement at the booklet's end)

Some books don't acknowledge illustrators for some reason or another and even Eileen Soper is missing from one or two earlier Kirrins, including a first edition! In 'Here Come The Twins' she's there all right - as Eileen A. Soper, and the 'A' is for 'Alice.'