Short Stories by Enid Blyton

Discuss Blyton's magazines, short stories and poetry here.
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Rob Houghton
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Short Stories by Enid Blyton

Post by Rob Houghton »

Wondered what everyones favorite SHORT story of E.B's might be. People dont really discuss her short stories very often, but many of them are little classics of thier own. Though all of them have their charm, there are a few that stand out for me.

the short story I consider to be up there near the top is the story I mentioned in one of the past 'journals', written for 'Time and Tide' magazine and appearing in 'The Yellow Story Book'. Its called 'The Two Runaways' and is one of the most touching and effective short stories Enid ever wrote.

Read it and see!
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Re: Short Stories by Enid Blyton

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

The Enid Blyton story that has stayed with me most over the years is "Father Time and His Pattern Book" from Sunshine Book (Dean & Son Ltd.) Old Father Time appears to a boy on New Year's Eve and shows him the "cloths" that have been woven by his family and friends over the past year. Each cloth is a mixture of beautiful and ugly threads and patterns, reflecting the behaviour of the person to whom it belongs. An intriguing idea, I think. I could never read this story without wondering what my own cloth would be like, and whether all the arguments I had with my sister would show up on it!

I remember, too, being terrified by "The Packet of Sweets" from Everyday Stories (Purnell Sunshine Library), in which children eat a packet of pills, mistaking them for sweets. And I love all those stories where someone does a kindness, or a bad deed, and their behaviour has a knock-on effect, going round from person to person and coming back in the end to the person who started it all off! There is something so satisfying about these "circular" stories. The example I remember best is "It Came Back to Him in the End" from Fireside Tales (Purnell Sunshine Library), but there are several more similar stories.

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favourite short stories

Post by booklover »

The short stories were many and varied, always with a sound message. Some favourites are the following:

1. "Bufo's One Legged Stool" in Book of Fairies (Dean & Son). The King and Queen of Fairyland announce a prize for the thing that makes the world a better place. All the fairy-folk bring along various ornate but useless things. Poor Bufo the Toad breaks everything he tries to make. Rather than go to see the King and Queen empty-handed, he takes along his one-legged stool that he sits on in his house. The King and Queen think the stool is very practical and functional and give him the prize. They then grow the stools by magic in the woods to be used for fairy dances - which is why they're called toadstools to this day.

2. "The Lost Golden Ball" also in Book of Fairies. An ugly gnome goes looking for the Prince of Dreamland's lost golden ball on Hampstead Heath and finds a lost child instead. Coincidentally the lost child has the missing golden ball. As a reward, the gnome asks to be given the job of always finding lost children on the heath.

3. "The Very Fat Conker" in Storytime Book (Dean and Son): The children have conker fights with chestnuts. When a boy finds a huge chestnut he beats the boy who has had the best conker in the past. In temper the loser hurls the conker into the school garden where it's lost. Two years later the children find it's grown into a chestnut tree.

4. There's another story where a boy is doing errands to make money. A man asks him to clean a number of empty flower pots stacked on top of each other. The boy doesn't do the job properly, only cleaning the top few. Then he goes to the man to tell him he's done the job, and wants to be paid. The man then shows the boy that the money was in the bottom pot - where the boy would have found it if he had done the job properly. (I don't know the name of this story or which book it's in.)
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Post by booklover »

Have now read the short story suggested by Anita - Father Time and His Pattern Book. Thank you Anita for the recommendation as I had not heard of the story before. :D

This is a wonderful story, for children and adults alike. As Anita states, it really gets you thinking about your life. Definitely top 10, probably higher.
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Favourite Short Stories - Tales of Long Ago

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Glad you enjoyed the story, booklover! I'm a great fan of Enid Blyton's short stories and I'm familiar with the ones suggested by you and Robert - all wonderful tales (like you, I'm afraid I can't remember in which book the flowerpot story appears.)

Another childhood favourite was Tales of Long Ago (Dean & Son Ltd. edition), in which Blyton re-tells Greek myths and tales of the Arabian Nights. I must have read some of the stories in that book as many as twenty times between the ages of 5 and 9. "Proserpina and the King of the Underworld" was a great story, as well as "The King with the Golden Touch" (the story of Midas), "Pandora and the Whispering Box" and "The Fisherman and the King of the Black Isles." Blyton uses a beautiful, lyrical style throughout that book. I have several volumes of myths and legends, but Enid Blyton's Tales of Long Ago is the best.

Anyone else got any favourite short stories?

Anita
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Post by Rob Houghton »

Thought I'd add a few more of my favourite short stories to the list.

as a child one of my favourites was 'The King of the Castle' in 'Tales after Tea'. There was something very satisfying about that boastful boy being stranded on top of his castle. Interestingly, a very similar thing happens to Amelia Jane when the toys all get taken to the seaside.

Another story I liked a lot came from the Dean version of 'Round the Clock Stories' (one of the first EB books I actually owned - most until then being 'hand-me-downs from my sister!) This was 'The Boy Who Pulled Tales' , where the boy in question actually grew a tail to find out what it was like to have it pulled!

Most of the stories I liked were those which showed naughty children being punished. I didnt for one moment suspect that Enid might have been 'preaching' in any way. To me, all of the children got what they deserved! I also liked 'The Little Singing Kettle' in the same book.

Finally (though I could name hundreds!) There was a story at the back of the Dean version of 'Tales of Toyland' (a much loved early book of mine also) called 'Do Hurry Up, Dinah!' which I loved, in which the girl of the title goes to Tortoise-town and learns how to become quicker!

This book also has another 'classic' EB short story, 'We Don't Want to go to Bed', with which surely every child can identify with! I know I certainly did!
tik

Short stories

Post by tik »

Yes, your view of the short stories is quite valid. I found many of them attractive because they balanced the wrong-doings with retribution as you mentioned and one needs only to glance inside the "Naughty Children" books for examples.

I also liked many for their portrayal of siblings and associates with whom one identifies. The older sister who bosses you around or the brother/ "other person" who is cleverer than you and who could be so annoying or perhaps it was was the bully. "Bad-tempered Bessie" (Tales after Supper) is a good example and that particular book has a really good selection of tales. I remember reading them over and over ..... Jimmy's cricket bat, The big bad dog, Oh! What a big story, The surprising goldfish (a tragic happening which ended happily in a very quaint manner). They all have a consistent quality and represent Enid Blyton during her best years.

"The little boy who played alone" was a story that I liked very much as well because there was the child- next-door element .... in this case a little girl who in Alec's imagination was a real fairy. "No quarrelling today" is a rather extreme example of the rivalry that can exist between brothers and sisters and the reader easily recognises the message in the account of Ned and Alice who had not yet learnt the art of giving and taking in a proportionate sense. Billy Bob (Billy Bob has an adventure) and Belinda were already troopers having been stars in earlier works, and the naked elf (Chinky and the Poppy) shared Chinky's name only and not his gender unless the original was female (no, I've just checked - Chinky of "Wishing Chair" fame is definitely a male pixie).
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Post by Mrs Chuckles »

I don't know what the story was called and if anyone can enlighten me, I would be most obliged! However, it was a story of a little girl who was due to go on a school trip the next day. She got home from school the night before and her Mum told her she should mend the tyre in her bike, sew on the button on her dress, change her shoelaces etc. The girl ignored all this preferring to read and play. The next morning, she got up to go on the trip. She put on her dress but the button was missing so she had to sew it on making her late. She thought she'd ride her bike to school because she was so late but of course, the tyre was flat. So she decided to run to school but her shoelaces were broken and she tripped over them. She missed the school trip.

I suppose it was an instance of the sage proverb "don't put off till tomorrow what you should do today" and it always springs to mind when I try to avoid jobs! Amazing how such short stories can be a big influence on you!
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Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Hi Mrs Chuckles, and welcome,

The story you're looking for is called "Whatever Next!" I'm familiar with it from Sunshine Book (Dean & Son Ltd) but I've just checked the Book-Listing and it also appeared in Enid Blyton's Gay Street Book and in Sunny Stories. It was a hole in her pocket that the girl (Eileen) had to sew. The Dean & Son copy contains some great pictures of Eileen sprawling on her bed, reading, and tearing down the stairs with her hair untidy, her dress crumpled and her buttons and laces undone.

Anita
Last edited by Anita Bensoussane on 01 Sep 2006, 14:17, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Mrs Chuckles »

Thank you for that. I think I will try and find it because obviously, I has made quite an impression!
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Post by carrie_uk »

Mine has to be the Quarrelsome Brownies. Mum and Dad used to have to read it to us over and over again!

Can't find the book that we had though, it was called the gift book

Carrie
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Re: Your fav EB short story

Post by sixret »

Short Stories are always refreshing.

We can have a bit of excitement at a time and continue our works,then if we want to have a rest and read light stories again after we've done stressful works,we can always go back to the short stories.

EB had written a vast number of short stories and it is natural if the plot being repetitive.

So far,I have read many short stories by EB but only some that have stayed in my mind.

I can remember,maybe vaguely any short sories that have Amelia Jane,Mr.Twiddle,Mr.Meddle.

I have all 72 award short stories books,so that I can have short stories for a longer period.It takes years to finish all of it as I decide not to read all of them at one go. :wink:
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Re: Your fav EB short story

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

It's great to see this thread being revived, Sixret. A number of my best-loved Enid Blyton stories seem to come from Sunshine Book - yet another favourite story from that book is "Ring the Bell and Run Away," in which two children are suitably punished for ringing people's doorbells and then running away so that the householder comes to the door for nothing. All the stories in that volume have charming illustrations.

Nice that you've listed some of the short-story folk as your favourite characters. I've loved Twiddle and Meddle since I was a tiny tot, and the Saucepan Man is a wonderful creation too.

Anita
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Re: Your fav EB short story

Post by sixret »

Hi Anita,

It's just that currently,my main interest is short stories whether children short stories(EB) or mystery short stories.I'm so into it now.

I've just finished reading Run-About's Holiday(short stories adventure) with the main characters of Robin,Betty and the brownie named Run-About.These stories are about the adventures they have gone through and all the nice things they have done to others.

Run-About is a nice magical brownie who stays with the children in their house.

One particular story in this book is about three of them rescue a princess and bring her home to her big castle.

Usually,I alternate reading between short short stories with a novel.

What's your way of reading short stories.Do you finish them in one go or one at a time or alternate with novel? :D
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Re: Your fav EB short story

Post by Kate Mary »

I'm pleased to see this thread active again. My favourite short story is 'Think hard, Boatman', from "The Eighth Holiday Book". I like many of the stories in this book as it was one I had in childhood. I am also very fond of "The Adventures of Pip" with the lovely Raymond Sheppard illustrations.

Kate
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