Page 15 of 31
Re: The Adventure Series!
Posted: 09 Jan 2018, 02:23
by stardust
Daisy wrote:I'm not sure, without checking, that it was more a threat to hit poor Horace, although I know when he had told Bill that Lucy-Ann was the worst, she was highly indignant as she said she was the only one who had said she couldn't.
The children treat Lucian in a kind of bullying way - in fact I know someone who won't read Ship again, because he is so incensed with their attitude. Again, I don't think they physically attack him.
Thank you, I was worried my edition was heavily edited! I agree that they are too harsh on Lucian, he's a bit of a wimp but he's not a bad guy. Also in "Ship", Lucy-Ann didn't know what a labyrinth was, at 11-12, that also seems a bit drippy to me..
Re: The Adventure Series!
Posted: 09 Jan 2018, 06:48
by Darrell71
stardust wrote: Also in "Ship", Lucy-Ann didn't know what a labyrinth was, at 11-12, that also seems a bit drippy to me..
Terrible vocab for an English child of her age.
Re: The Adventure Series!
Posted: 09 Jan 2018, 09:41
by Courtenay
I'd guess it's just Enid's regular device of having the youngest child in the story not know an unusual word and ask what it means, which allows Enid to explain it (via one of the older characters) for the benefit of any younger readers who might also not know that word. She does it a lot with Bets in the Find-Outers books — with words like detectives, clues ("glues"
), inspector, insurance, anonymous, alibi, and so on.
Re: The Adventure Series!
Posted: 09 Jan 2018, 10:23
by sixret
I agree with you, Courtenay.
Re: The Adventure Series!
Posted: 09 Jan 2018, 11:37
by Moonraker
Darrell71 wrote:stardust wrote: Also in "Ship", Lucy-Ann didn't know what a labyrinth was, at 11-12, that also seems a bit drippy to me..
Terrible vocab for an English child of her age.
I bit like writing 'vocab' for vocabulary!
Re: The Adventure Series!
Posted: 09 Jan 2018, 17:26
by Wolfgang
I think I learned from "Ship" what an archipelago is.
Re: The Adventure Series!
Posted: 09 Jan 2018, 17:50
by Rob Houghton
I think I did, too - although it still sounds like a musical term to me!
Re: The Adventure Series!
Posted: 09 Jan 2018, 18:58
by John Pickup
I don't think it odd that Lucy-Ann didn't know what a labyrinth was. I only knew because I read Enid Blyton books, she obviously didn't.
Re: The Adventure Series!
Posted: 09 Jan 2018, 19:01
by Rob Houghton
Yes - I don't think I would have known what a labyrinth was, either, as a child. Its easy for younger members to forget that even back 15 years we didn't have access to information via the internet, and so we weren't so well-informed as people might be these days. As children we really only knew as much as our parents or teachers (or Enid Blyton!) told us.
Re: The Adventure Series!
Posted: 09 Jan 2018, 19:39
by pete9012S
Her grasp of biblical and historical knowledge in The River Of Adventure is noteworthy.
Re: The Adventure Series!
Posted: 10 Feb 2018, 19:21
by Chrissie777
Wolfgang wrote:I think I learned from "Ship" what an archipelago is.
And I learned from "Valley of Adventure" how to distinguish stalagmites and stalactites.
Re: The Adventure Series!
Posted: 10 Feb 2018, 19:22
by Chrissie777
Also the term "lagoon" in "Sea of Adventure" was a first for me thanks to the book.
Re: The Adventure Series!
Posted: 10 Feb 2018, 19:52
by John Pickup
All the so-called experts who said that Enid had a limited vocabulary and all of us on here learnt many new words by reading her books in childhood.
Re: The Adventure Series!
Posted: 10 Feb 2018, 20:08
by Rob Houghton
Completely agree! I'm guessing though that those critics probably only read a few Famous Fives (or maybe even Noddy) and were basing their 'findings' on just those!
Re: The Adventure Series!
Posted: 10 Feb 2018, 20:52
by Chrissie777
John Pickup wrote:All the so-called experts who said that Enid had a limited vocabulary and all of us on here learnt many new words by reading her books in childhood.
You are right, John!
Plus she made me read much more books by other authors even though I have to admit that other children's books authors couldn't write as gripping as she did. But that's just my humble opinion.