Itemize Books Concering Five Have Plenty of Fun (The Famous Five #14)
| Original Title: | Five Have Plenty of Fun |
| ISBN: | 0340796286 (ISBN13: 9780340796283) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | The Famous Five #14, Fünf Freunde Hörspiele #13 |
| Characters: | George Kirrin (Famous Five), Dick Kirrin, Tinker, Julian (Famous Five) |
Enid Blyton
Paperback | Pages: 256 pages Rating: 3.96 | 5811 Users | 110 Reviews
Describe Based On Books Five Have Plenty of Fun (The Famous Five #14)
| Title | : | Five Have Plenty of Fun (The Famous Five #14) |
| Author | : | Enid Blyton |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 256 pages |
| Published | : | October 2001 by Hodder (first published 1955) |
| Categories | : | Childrens. Adventure. Fiction. Mystery |
Commentary In Favor Of Books Five Have Plenty of Fun (The Famous Five #14)
Another generic title, up there with Five Have a Wonderful Time and Five Do Stuff.Blyton returns to several of her favourite obsessions in this the 14th instalment of the series.
Just as in volume #13 we have yet another girl to be dressed as a boy. However, this one objects heatedly to the whole business. Unfortunately she carries it off very well - better than George in fact, leading to yet more girl-as-boy on girl-as-boy friction.
And yes, there is a new dog for Timmy to interact with.
And yes we have Americans! Which gives Blyton a chance to pursue her one woman vendetta against how Americans allegedly say "wonderful". Apparently they miss the "d" in the middle. A crime for which Enid cannot find it in herself to forgive them. She remarks on it in more than one Famous Five books and carries the campaign over into the Malory Towers series too.
She also wheels out her "salad fit for a king" line that was in the last Famous Five book I reviewed and I suspect others too. Oddly, I have yet to notice the "lashings of ginger beer" line that is more famously quoted. It might even be that there is no "lashings of ginger beer" line and the thing is wholly the invention of the 80s TV parody by Comic Strip.
Yet again Uncle Quentin's ever flexible research provides the core motive for the story. Uncle Q is collaborating with an American genius on an invention that will do away with the need for petrol, coal etc an age before global warming was a worry. It's a long way from test tubes in his office in book 1 or the revolutionary plan to drain a swamp (#4 Smuggler's Top).
Anyway rather laughably the unnamed "enemy" want to kidnap the American's daughter to extort the scientific secrets out of him. Uncle Q makes it very clear that were George to be kidnapped he wouldn't for a moment consider telling the baddies any secrets! However, if the girl can be kept safe for 3 weeks then the scientific project will be "launched" and then everything will be fine...
It is not clear *how* "launching" the scientific project will suddenly remove the enemy's interest in the science behind it ... but it will ... so shut up.
So, clearly, rather than police protection or any nonsense like that, the safest place for the potential kidnap victim is with the Famous Five, because ... reasons.
Straining belief the American scientist then calls not only Uncle Q but also Aunt Fanny to go to wherever he is because he thinks there is something wrong with the equations.
Our girl is now left in the charge of four children and the family cook... Uncle Q and Aunt F say they will be back ... in a week. A fucking week!!
It's worth noting that the family cook has quietly changed her name from Joan to Joanna. We know it's the same woman as her cousin has charge of the traveller girl, Jo. Maybe she had her reasons. Maybe the same reasons that caused the friendly fisher boy to change his name from Alf to James, or Julian, Dick, and Anne to change their surname from Kirrin to Bancroft...
Next move: The children see binocular flashes from Kirrin Island and wonder if it might be the kidnappers ... so they ... TAKE THE GIRL TO THE ISLAND. As you can see, our American genius had great instincts for how to keep his daughter safe. Julian decides not to bother the local police (who have been alerted to the kidnap situation) with any of his concerns about the island but instead to take the girl the kidnappers want directly to them on a nicely deserted island.
Anyway, George ends up being kidnapped in a case of mistaken identity. Kidnap owing to mistaken identity has also been used on other occasions in the books (Five Get Into Trouble #8, and a similar situation in Five Fall Into Adventure #9)
Finally by ridiculous coincidence the traveller girl Jo (who appears in at least 2 other books), and to whom the Five palm off their ward, is able to unravel the one word clue George leaves for them and wouldn't you know it, once again those evil carnies are behind it all and after rooting through a caravan at the fair our heroes are able to recover George and hand the baddies to the police.
Which will teach carnival workers a valuable lesson about keeping their noses out of world class science. Or something.
The story kept Celyn entertained, so I give it my default 3*. No wait ... it was such nonsense I am docking a star.
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Rating Based On Books Five Have Plenty of Fun (The Famous Five #14)
Ratings: 3.96 From 5811 Users | 110 ReviewsCriticize Based On Books Five Have Plenty of Fun (The Famous Five #14)
Another generic title, up there with Five Have a Wonderful Time and Five Do Stuff. Blyton returns to several of her favourite obsessions in this the 14th instalment of the series.Just as in volume #13 we have yet another girl to be dressed as a boy. However, this one objects heatedly to the whole business. Unfortunately she carries it off very well - better than George in fact, leading to yet more girl-as-boy on girl-as-boy friction.And yes, there is a new dog for Timmy to interact with.And yesFive Have Plenty of Fun is one of my faves of the Famous Five series.The Five; siblings Julian, Dick and Anne, cousin George / Georgina and her dog Timmy are staying at Kirrin Cottage with George's parents (Quentin and Fanny).Uncle Quentin is working on some secret project with two other scientist (including an American). When kidnap threats are made against the American scientist's daughter (Berta) he decides she is to with the Kirrins as he would hand over info to get back his daughter.So it
*2.5 stars on my Enid Blyton (childhood reread) scale...I know kids' books typically feature incompetent adults but this was just a ridiculous and mostly frustrating read! There are better Famous Fives books out there!
Another generic title, up there with Five Have a Wonderful Time and Five Do Stuff. Blyton returns to several of her favourite obsessions in this the 14th instalment of the series.Just as in volume #13 we have yet another girl to be dressed as a boy. However, this one objects heatedly to the whole business. Unfortunately she carries it off very well - better than George in fact, leading to yet more girl-as-boy on girl-as-boy friction.And yes, there is a new dog for Timmy to interact with.And yes
Wow, these keep getting worse and worse. So far, Blyton only has three plots, kidnappers (yep, got those here), smugglers (hmm, couldn't fit those in to this book), and circus folk (present and reporting for duty). And here we have added an American girl, who just won't pronounce words properly (i.e. like the British), so we better mock her mercilessly. Then we learn that George's father is not just a terrible and neglectful husband, but he is an even worse father ("If my daughter is kidnapped,
A blast from the past for me. Ive had this book since I was 10 (15 years ago) and never finished it so I decided to pick it back up. Enjoyable read!
Not as exciting as some of the others. The 'adventure', if you could call it that was a thing of nothing. It happened and ended in a couple of pages. Most of the book was about them spending the hols on the beach and as usual, what they ate and where. I've realised rereading these that the earlier books were definitely the best. This one could almost have been written by anyone. Was a bit flat for me.
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