The Island of Adventure - some thoughts

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Lucky Star
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Re: The Island of Adventure - some thoughts

Post by Lucky Star »

Coincidentally I too have just read The Island of Adventure. I have never read the PC version but to me Jo-Jo is brilliantly drawn as the master criminal using common stereotypical behaviour to deflect suspicion from himself. That in itself turns the so called "racism" on it's head as it merely serves to show how silly the stereotype is that a clever man can use it against the very people who would supposedly believe in it. I have no desire to read about white Joe. Each to their own and I get why the update was made, it just annoys me that we are not allowed to mention that a black man might also be a master criminal. I'll stick to my originals.

The opening of the book is indeed wonderful but in my Thames Publishing Co. edition the effect of Philip's wonder and fright at who might be speaking to him is somewhat spoiled by the fact the the page is topped with a half page illustration showing him looking in amazement at the parrot! We don't discover it's Kiki in the text until the bottom of the next page (overleaf) but the surprise is pretty much null and voided by the picture. I just checked and it's the same in the Armada paperback edition. Couldn't an editor have noticed this and moved the illustration to at least the next page or so?

Anyway it's a terrific story, full of an atmosphere and maturity that instantly says that this series is going to be quite different from the likes of the Famous Five or Secret Seven. We feel an almost instant warmth towards the four main characters and by the end of the book we actually care about them as opposed to just dismissing them as merely fictional. There's a quote from Dinah that I love, it reminds me of a poem Enid wrote along the same lines. The kids are debating telling Bill that they have evaded their promise to him (not quite broken it) and gone to the island. Dinah is aginst it, feeling that Bill wouldn't see it their way. She says;

"Well you know what grown ups are. They don't think the same as we do. I expect when we grow up we shall think like them - but let's hope we remember what it was like to think in the way that children do, and understand the boys and girls who are growing up when we're men and women."

There immediately follows a massive fight between Dinah and Philip as he scorns her remark but to me it's a sign that Enid is intending to make her readers think and understand a little more about life than they might do in reading her other books.

Of course I am now hooked again on the series and will continue to Castle and doubtless the others as well over the next couple of weeks. :lol:
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Re: The Island of Adventure - some thoughts

Post by Rob Houghton »

Lucky Star wrote:The opening of the book is indeed wonderful but in my Thames Publishing Co. edition the effect of Philip's wonder and fright at who might be speaking to him is somewhat spoiled by the fact the the page is topped with a half page illustration showing him looking in amazement at the parrot! We don't discover it's Kiki in the text until the bottom of the next page (overleaf) but the surprise is pretty much null and voided by the picture. I just checked and it's the same in the Armada paperback edition. Couldn't an editor have noticed this and moved the illustration to at least the next page or so?
It's the same in the 'first edition' versions by Macmillan too! The picture of Philip looking at Kiki in the branches of a tree decorates the chapter heading. 8)

I agree about Jo-Jo - I would hate to read a version where he is white! The whole point, as has already been said, is that Jo-Jo is presumed stupid and not at all capable of being a criminal mastermind, because he's acting in a stereotypical way to throw everyone off the scent. In reality, he's cleverer and more cunning than any of the white characters (at least until he gets caught!). It dumbs the story down quite a bit if the publishers make Jo-Jo white - and it also smacks a little of racism - suggesting that only white people should be depicted as criminals, and also that a black man would never be as clever as a white man!
Last edited by Rob Houghton on 06 Feb 2017, 17:14, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: The Island of Adventure - some thoughts

Post by Lucky Star »

Rob Houghton wrote:
Lucky Star wrote:The opening of the book is indeed wonderful but in my Thames Publishing Co. edition the effect of Philip's wonder and fright at who might be speaking to him is somewhat spoiled by the fact the the page is topped with a half page illustration showing him looking in amazement at the parrot! We don't discover it's Kiki in the text until the bottom of the next page (overleaf) but the surprise is pretty much null and voided by the picture. I just checked and it's the same in the Armada paperback edition. Couldn't an editor have noticed this and moved the illustration to at least the next page or so?
It's the same in the 'first edition' versions by Macmillan too! The picture of Philip looking at Kiki in the branches of a tree decorates the chapter heading. 8)
Dear me that means that almost no child up until the 80s managed to be surprised by the revelation that the speaker was a parrot! :roll:
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Re: The Island of Adventure - some thoughts

Post by Rob Houghton »

I think this is what put me off reading this book aged about 12 - as I had the paperback version, which also had the illustration of Philip and Kiki at the top of the first chapter. I can remember reading it and feeling quite cross, thinking 'It's a parrot, thicko!' or words to that effect! :lol: I must admit I never got much further than those two or three first pages before I gave up. I never read the book all the way through until I had a Macmillan hardback in about 2002.
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
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I'll warm me with your echoes
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Re: The Island of Adventure - some thoughts

Post by db105 »

Lucky Star wrote: The opening of the book is indeed wonderful but in my Thames Publishing Co. edition the effect of Philip's wonder and fright at who might be speaking to him is somewhat spoiled by the fact the the page is topped with a half page illustration showing him looking in amazement at the parrot! We don't discover it's Kiki in the text until the bottom of the next page (overleaf) but the surprise is pretty much null and voided by the picture.
As Kiki would say: "What a pity!"

The modern ebook edition I bought from Amazon has no illustrations whatsoever. Unfortunately, unlike my childhood Famous Five collection, I no longer have the Adventure books that I read as a child (in Spanish), so I don't know if there was such an illustration. In any case, I was not spoiled, because I remember being enchanted by that introduction. I had never met a fictional pet like Kiki!

One thing I had half forgotten is how heated Philip and Dinah's fights were, and both of them were equally guilty, in my opinion. Dinah completely overreacted, and Philip never missed a chance to wind her up. At least they could go back to being friends just as quickly. That relationship rang true. It often was like that for my sister and me, although as adults we have a good relationship.
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Re: The Island of Adventure - some thoughts

Post by Moonraker »

Many Blyton's are spoiled by badly placed illustrations giving the game away. One of my pet hates.
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Re: The Island of Adventure - some thoughts

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

In this case, literally a pet hate! :wink:
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Re: The Island of Adventure - some thoughts

Post by Rob Houghton »

Moonraker wrote:Many Blyton's are spoiled by badly placed illustrations giving the game away. One of my pet hates.
especially the find outer books, which usually show 'who dun it' :?
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: The Island of Adventure - some thoughts

Post by Courtenay »

Or Noddy Has an Adventure, which gives away both the identity of the criminal, and the ingenious disguises used by Noddy and Big-Ears to catch him, on the cover!! :P
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Re: The Island of Adventure - some thoughts

Post by Wolfgang »

That seems to have the conclusion that no illustrations is the best option ;-).
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Re: The Island of Adventure - some thoughts

Post by Darrell71 »

I love illustrations, but I agree, it's totally maddening when they give some suspense away. I feel similarly about chapter names, when one chapter ends in suspense and you turn the page and voila! you know what's gonna happen next. :x
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Re: The Island of Adventure - some thoughts

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

It's funny, but when I'm caught up in a story I don't even notice the chapter titles. My eyes go straight to the main body of text, eager to read on. Sometimes I barely notice the illustrations either - unless they're extremely eye-catching. Anything that would interrupt the reading of the story is automatically ignored by my brain!
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Re: The Island of Adventure - some thoughts

Post by sixret »

I totally agree with Anita! Only recently, I pay more attention to illustrations.
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Re: The Island of Adventure - some thoughts

Post by Darrell71 »

Most of my editions don't have illustrations anyway, and I often don't notice chapter heading either. But when I do, and it's a spoiler :evil: :evil: :evil:
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Re: The Island of Adventure - some thoughts

Post by db105 »

Yes, I hate it when a chapter ends with the main characters kept prisoners in a room and then the title of the next chapter is "Escape through the secret passage". Come on, editors! :D
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