I’m being a little bit pre-emptive, here. There is not, to my knowledge any drama going on yet, but I’m sure that there will be soon. Though, as with Jacqueline Wilson Vs Enid Blyton, what really happened was Blyton fans went a bit mad, just like they did against English Heritage.

Jacqueline Wilson’s ‘crime’ was to write her own Faraway Tree story set in the modern day, while English Heritage dared to update their Enid Blyton page (admittedly not very well) to mention accusations of racism and sexism.

And now Stephen King’s about to find himself facing down the Blyton fans as apparently he has plans to rewrite the Famous Five to make them more scary.

The Fearsome Five?

So what plans does Stephen King have for our beloved Famous Five? Well, in an interview he said;

I enjoyed the Five books I read as a kid, they were exciting but I always thought they could be scarier.

I mean the Five were always afraid that the sea would burst into the underground tunnels they were in and drown them, but what if there was a bigger threat out there? I started imagining George, pluckily rowing over to Kirrin Island and coming face-to-face, or should that be face-to-tentacle, with a malevolent giant squid.

Then I started thinking about all those bad guys the Five came up against. Mr Roland, Block and Tiger Dan. I mean, what if Tiger Dan was actually part-tiger? What if Block really was deaf, but he could read minds? That really would take the Five down a vey different path. A much scarier path.

Stephen King – children’s author?

This isn’t as far-fetched as it might sound. I mean, we all know Stephen King for his many often gruesome horror books, such as Carrie, Misery, Pet Sematary, It, The Shining and many, many more.

But he has also written a children’s book – under an assumed name. Charlie the Choo Choo, a slightly darker tale for children was published under the pen name Beryl Evans. It is actually a tiny part of his Dark Tower series, but it works as a stand-alone for children.

There are also some other novels, mostly stand-alone parts of the Dark Tower series that older children may enjoy, as recommended here.

Most Blyton continuations have been pretty poor but I do love a reimagination of an old classic, so I will reserve judgement until I’ve had a chance to read this. What about you? Would you read a scary Famous Five book?