The Adventure Series is one of Blyton’s best, and is full of exciting moments but also plenty of funny ones too. Here are my top 10, 11. It was going to be 10, as I said on Monday but as I was writing up descriptions for the moments I had chosen, I thought of another one that I couldn’t leave out!

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11

Pepi is knocked out by a suitcase

The Valley of Adventure

In the middle of some very bad weather Jack is fighting of Pepi in the middle of the valley. He’s at a disadvantage being a teenage boy against a well-built and desperate man, but luck aligns for him and one of the children’s suitcases which has been tied up a tree out of the way is blown out and lands of Pepi’s head. This stuns him enough that Jack is able to tie him to the tree (using the rope he always has tied around his waist, of course) and flee back to the caves. I love this because it’s just such a surprise as you’re wondering how on earth Jack is going to get out of this and them bam! suitcase to the head. Pepi absolutely deserved it as well, being the baddie!

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10

Kiki ‘falling’ off the castle

The Castle of Adventure

This is just a tiny moment but it always makes me laugh. Kiki is wandering about the battlements of the castle while the children are sitting eating, and she suddenly squawks and ‘falls’ off. The funny part is that you as a reader think ‘oh!’ and the children also have a sudden panic, before you and they all sit back down feeling stupid. Because Kiki being a bird, and having wings, was in no danger at all!

She went exploring along the stone coping at the edge of the tower, climbing upside-down now and again.

The children watched her, eating their cake. Suddenly Kiki gave an alarming screech, lost her balance and fell right off the tower! She disappeared below, and the children leapt up in horror. Then they sat down again, smiling and feeling rather foolish – for, of course, as soon as she fell, Kiki spread out her wings and soared into the air!

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9

Bill is the pedlar-man

The Circus of Adventure

After a long and tense adventure already, the children are rather on edge when the two peddlars arrive at the circus and one of them seems rather too interested in Kiki and Lucy-Ann. Worse, even, one of them crawls under the caravan where the boys are sleeping in the night. But just as you think disaster is going to strike, Kiki flies to him and croons Silly-Billy and the peddlar-man pulls off his wig to reveal that it’s just Bill after all. And they are very glad to see him!

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8 

Hiding in the circus

The Circus of Adventure

After the escape from Borken castle, the children have to hide. Jack is already established as the circus-type with his talking parrot, and so Lucy-Ann and Dinah pretend to be from Jabberwocky and talk a load of nonsense. The best parts though are from Gussy and Philip. Having sorted out the escaped bears drama, the best way for him to hide is back in with the bears. The soldiers are completely convinced that any young man who climbs into a cage of bears and quietens them down must be a bona fide circus worker and not an escaped prisoner. And then, Gussy. Well. Poor Gussy with his long hair gets dressed up as Old Ma’s granddaughter, Anna-Maria, complete with a dress and hair-ribbons. His great embarrassment helps, as Old Ma paints him her as awfully sweet and shy, so much so that a soldier hands over a coins and says he has a little girl just the same at home.

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7

The aeroplane seats are the wrong colour

The Valley of Adventure

This is another tiny moment, a culmination of several other ones. The children have boarded what they think is Bill’s plane, and laid low after they heard gunshots. They are growing concerned when neither Bill nor his co-pilot speak to them, and more so when they realise that neither man is actually Bill. And then they notice the seat colours. They are red, and not green. They’re not in Bill’s plane after all, and that’d when they realise that they are in very big trouble indeed.

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6

Philip and the Alsatians

The Mountain of Adventure

Although by this point in the book the children have established that the pack of snarling, howling creatures are dogs and not wolves, this doesn’t greatly diminish the danger. Mier and Erlick have released the pack of Alsatians to capture the children and Bill. Even if that doesn’t involve any biting it is still not a pleasant prospect, so when the dogs head into the stream tunnel and find the hidden group, we naturally fear the worst. But then Philip works his magic and all of a sudden this pack of menacing dogs becomes a big group of doggy friends. They’re so taken with Philip that he is able to set them on their handlers in a nice piece of justice.

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5

Tricking Jo-Jo with the secret passage

The Island of Adventure

Jo-Jo is one of those baddie that we love to hate – and I guess most of us will have marked him as a baddie before we even know he’s involved in illegal dealing over on the Isle of Gloom. He’s a baddie purely down to his nasty attitude and bad treatment of the children. So when the children find a passage that leads to Craggy Tops’ cellars from a cave on the beach, it’s quite fitting that they get Jo-Jo back. They go into the caves in view of Jo-Jo who sits and waits for them, not intending to let them out of his sight. They simply slip up the passage and into the house and are at their own leisure, then. Jo-Jo waits for hours, and then he goes to Aunt Polly to tell her that the children are most likely lost in the caves. Seeing as they’ve had an early lunch then taken a picnic-tea out, Aunt Polly accuses him of lying and of having lazed around all afternoon and come up with the story to cover himself. Jo-Jo’s reaction is priceless when he realises he’s been had, and he just can’t work out how.

Jo-Jo’s mouth dropped open. He simply could not believe his ears. Hadn’t he been on the beach by the caves all the morning?  He would have seen the children as soon as they came out.

“Don’t pretend to be so surprised,” said Aunt Polly sharply. “Just stir yourself and do a few jobs quickly. You will have to do this afternoon all the things you didn’t do this morning.”

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4

 The walking suits of armour

The Castle of Adventure

Down in the secret room of the castle there are half a dozen suits of armour standing on pedestals, which could be quite creepy at the best of times. Now imagine there’s a storm raging overhead, you’re desperately plotting the last bits of your dastardly plan to steal the secrets of a military machine, and the suits of armour suddenly creak and clank their way down to join you. Well that’s exactly what happens, Bill, a few of his men plus Philip are inside the suits, spying on the proceedings and then (a little awkwardly) do their best to apprehend the baddies.

 

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3 

The bears escape

The Circus of Adventure

The circus which Jack is travelling with has several animals including three bears. Fank, their owner and trainer, has been taken ill and the bears are restless. The last time Fank was ill he managed to get out of his bed to sort things out but according to Pedro it nearly killed him. So this time Jack arranges the rescuing of Philip and the others, sure that Philip can help. By this point the bears have broken the sides of their wooden cage, and two have escaped. Little Madam Fifi, the chimp owner, is brave enough to hook a lamp over the broken area to keep the last bear in, but it’s down to Philip and a jar of treacle to tempt the two other bears back inside.

 

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2

The girls’ waterfall antics

The Valley of Adventure

Before Pepi is knocked out by a suitcase, he and Juan follow the boys along the river towards their cave. Meanwhile, Lucy-Ann and Dinah have found a little tunnel leading out of the back of their cave. It goes through a cave of echoes and then comes out on a completely otherwise inaccessible ledge behind the waterfall. From Dinah tries to warn the boys, but just attracts the men’s attention, which is good as it allows the boys to get into the cave without being seen. The men then spend a good long time risking life and limb clambering around the rocks trying to get behind the waterfall, which is completely impossible. Then later, after Otto Engler has arrived, the boys want to go check on him, but Pepi is watching the waterfall area. The girls head behind the waterfall and do an energetic dance, complete with sweater waving, to keep his attention from the boys.

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1

Don’t forget Bill Smugs

The Mountain of Adventure

When a helicopter comes to drop supplies at the top of the mountain, it also takes away Philip who has the king of the mountain’s crazy flying wings on. He’s supposed to jump out to test them. But just as the helicopter leaves, they hear the shout of ‘Don’t forget Bill Smugs’…

The helicopter rose straight up into the air. The pilot leaned forward and shouted something loudly.”Don’t forget Bill Smugs!” he called, and his voice was no longer the same as it had sounded before. It was quite different. It was somebody else’s.

In fact – it was BILL’S VOICE!

So we then know that not only is Philip safe but the others will surely be rescued by Bill too.

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So those are my top 11. There were a few other things I could have chosen, like the children’s capture of Horace Tipperlong in The Sea of Adventure or one of many of Kiki’s clever remarks but 11 is a nice, round(ish) number so let’s leave it there.

What are your favourite moments from the Adventure Series?