As I’ve mentioned a few times, I’ve started reading the Famous Five to Brodie. Initially, I wasn’t certain if it would be a success or not. He has often protested about starting or continuing a chapter books, wanting to read a favourite picture book instead. Though when we do read Roald Dahl or Dick King-Smith he hangs on every word and asks for just one more chapter.

I decided to put myself out there, prepared for rejection of my beloved Famous Five books and suggested we read Five on a Treasure Island. I told him what the book was about, he had a look at the dust jacket and, after thinking about it, said yes. And we’ve never looked back. We started it on the 1st of August, a few days before he turned six, and we finished it on the 17th of August. We are now on Five Go Off to Camp, meaning I’m reading through these books the fastest I have done for over ten years.

The reading experience

Reading something out loud is always different to reading in your head. Even though I’ve read the Famous Fives many times over, including times where I’ve read them more carefully for reviewing or logging the updates, I am still noticing new things when reading out loud.

Some of the quaint, old-fashioned language is more obvious when I have to say it out loud, and I’m not sure how convincing I sound saying things like Oh I say! in my Dundonian accent.

I’m having fun, though. The books are so familiar to me that I find them really easy to read. I’ve far from memorised them, but it’s so easy to read as I know what’s coming. I generally know who’s speaking so I can pick the right voice, and what tone they’ll be saying it in. I’m no voice actor but I do try to make each of the Five sound a little different from each other, and I have fun doing George’s rants and Julian’s bossiness. I also try to make the other characters stand out – the baddies might talk gruffly or smoothly, and I’ve developed a (probably terrible) all-purpose Cornish-ish accent for Joan/na, Alf/James and other Kirrin locals.

The other side, though, is getting feedback from an actual child. I make a lot of comments, nitpicks, and so on when I review the books so it’s fascinating to get reactions from someone under twelve in real-time.

Obviously Brodie doesn’t represent all children, but he is Blyton’s target audience, albeit some seventy years later. I’m glad to say that so far, he is proof that you don’t need to update Blyton’s books to make them relevant to today’s children. He has hung on every word of the books – not just the exciting bits, but the every-day bits too. He’s laughed at the funny parts, gasped at the dramatic moments and turned wide-eyed to me, desperate to know what’s going to happen. He has begged and begged for just one more chapter, and when that fails, he begs for just another page, just to know what happens. He also interrupts with questions, wanting to know what a word means, or why someone is doing something. Or he just has to tell me what he thinks is going to happen next.

I used to make tea while he had stories with his dad, though sometimes we’d swap, I did more bedtimes while we were reading Roald Dahl, but we often alternated. I now do every bedtime story (unless I’m working) because he wants the Famous Five every night.

When we finish a book, he asks how many more are left in the series. The next evening he scales the back of the sofa to find the next book.

Brodie’s comments on Five On a Treasure Island

Starting with Five Go Adventuring Again I have been sending Stef a message after each bedtime reading session and telling her what he’s said. Unfortunately I didn’t think of that for the first book so here’s what I can remember about what he said while reading it.

The first thing that I remember is that he was slightly upset and concerned that Julian, Dick and Anne’s parents weren’t staying when they dropped them off at Kirrin. He definitely wouldn’t have wanted to be left with people he didn’t know, but then he is a lot younger than the Five. He got over it pretty quickly, anyway, and I’m sure he will soon come to understand that fictional parents have to be got rid of in order for adventures to occur.

I then checked his thoughts on George’s attitude to girls things vs boys things, and we had a chat about historical expectations of boys and men vs girls and women. He was appalled to learn that in the past girls often weren’t educated at all.

A few times he interrupted me with a gasp and wide eyes to say “She won’t answer if you call her Georgina!”

It was interesting to hear his predictions about the story – I often pause for just a moment at certain parts of the story to see if he’ll say anything.

He guessed it was the wreck being flung about in the sea during the storm. I was kind of impressed by that but I may have given away a clue to that when I tried to describe the book to him before we started reading it. (He called the wreck a pirate ship all the way through which was funny).

To balance it out, he was certain that the entrance to the dungeon would be in the stone room, and that the ingots would be on the ship.

His rating for this book was: Two thumbs up and “I love the Famous Five!”

His favourite character was George, and his favourite part of the book was “All of it.”