Continuing now with the remaining half of the books. Part one can be found here.

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Five Have a Wonderful Time

Again, this could literally apply to all 21 books – probably why it is one of the titles I always mix up.

You might say Hang on, George didn’t have a wonderful time when she was kidnapped two books earlier or the same about Dick three books earlier, but all Five get locked in a tower in this one and left overnight! Despite the various dangers and tough times the Five face they always have a wonderful time on their adventures.

This doesn’t give you the tiniest clue about what the book contains – but I imagine that all children needed to see was that it was a Famous Five book and that was enough to sell it to them. I wonder, though, if faced with half a dozen Fives at a bookshop or library, which titled would get picked up first? I’m betting titles like Smuggler’s Top or Treasure Island would be looked at before something as vague as Wonderful Time.

Five Go to Faynights might have been better – it’s less vague and Faynights is an interesting, attractive-sounding place.

⭐

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Five Go Down to the Sea

I think that this one is reasonably descriptive. They do spent a lot of time by the sea at Kirrin, of course, but they don’t really go down there. They do go to the coast for Demon’s Rocks, but not for bathing/beaches.

My only issue is that they barely spend any time by the sea! Compared to most Kirrin adventures where their bathing suits are barely off (Adventuring Again notwithstanding for obvious reasons), in Sea they go to the beach and swim exactly one time.

Tremannon Farm is not even that close to the sea! They have to walk a long way to Yan’s Grandad’s hut to even see the Sea.

So it’s descriptive but to me, it feels like it doesn’t really accurately tell you what the book is going to be about.

Five Go to Tremannon Farm would have worked (and Finniston Farm hadn’t been written yet, so it wasn’t a case of not wanting two Farm titles) or Five and the Wrecker’s Way would have been a really appealing title.

⭐⭐

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Five Go to Mystery Moor

Finally, another good one! A title can only convey so much, but while we don’t know what or where Mystery Moor is I know it’s something that sounds intriguing.

 

It’s better than Five Stay at the Stables or Five Sleep in a Quarry! But we could have had Five Get Lost in the Mist!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Five Have Plenty of Fun

At the risk of sounding repetitive this could also apply to all the books. I also get muddled on this one quite often. One good way to try to remember it is to say Five have Plenny of Fun, like Berta would.

What else could we call it, though? Five and the Mistaken Identity (sounds a bit Hardy Boys, and could also apply to Get Into Trouble.), Five Meet Berta, er, Leslie, er, Jane, Five Lose George (Again)? Nothing is jumping out at me – so suggestions, please!

⭐

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Five on a Secret Trail

I don’t have any issues identifying this title, though it’s not that descriptive now I think about it. The Five actually follow a lot of secret trails. But it does tell us that they go hunting for something and Secret Trail sounds mysterious and intriguing.

Other possible titles could be Five and the Mad Boy! or Five and the Stone Slab (of a Particular Size). 

⭐⭐⭐

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Five Go to Billycock Hill

It’s nice and clear which book this is from the title. I’m not sure, however, how appealing this title is.

Even in the late fifties when this was published a Billycock hat (which I’ve literally just discovered is a nickname for a bowler hat, even though having Googled it before I had thought how much it looked like a bowler hat!) was a hundred years old and about twenty years out of style (unless you were a city gent, apparently). How many 7-10 year olds in 1957 knew what a Billycock hat was?

I suppose it is an interesting sounding name for a hill which might spark an interest in the book itself.

As the farm and caves are also Billycocks there’s no use switching to either of them for a title. The only other option is something like Five and the Missing Pilots which gives away perhaps a bit too much, or Five and the Run(ned) Away Pigling?

⭐⭐⭐

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Five Get Into a Fix

While in reality this is another thesaurus-ed version of Five Get Into Trouble I don’t actually have any trouble identifying the book. I’m not sure why the Fix title sticks in my head but as soon as I read it I can see Eileen Soper’s Five frolicking in the snow.

In terms of appeal and descriptiveness this should really be a one star book. But as I kind of like the title I have to give it more.

Instead I suppose we could have had Five Go to Magga Glen? Or Five Go Ski-ing (hyphenated like it is in the books), though that sounds silly with the picture of them tobogganing on the cover. Perhaps Eileen Soper would have drawn them skiing, of course, had the title been different. Five Go Tobogganing is a bit of a mouthful.

In making my own version of the cover I noticed for the first time that the title letter have snow on them! How many times have I looked at it and not noticed that? I tried to replicate it the best I could in my version.

⭐⭐

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Five On Finniston Farm

Surely an easy title for any reader to identify – unless they think of Tremannon Farm and get confused. While the Five must visit dozens of farms in the books – they have to get their food somewhere! – few are named, and they only stay at two.

While many of us love Blyton’s other farm stories (Willow Farm, Cherry Tree Farm, Buttercup Farm, Mistletoe Farm and so on) they are generally adventurous in a different way to the Famous Five. The fact that this is Five On makes it attractive to fans of the Famous Five, and tells us that this will be more than learning about nature and dealing with poachers. I also think that Finniston is a suitably interesting name for a farm and therefore book title.

 

What other options could we have had? The castle is not even ruined, it’s plain gone so it’s no good putting that in the title.

Five and the Obnoxious Americans? Blyton never really make it in the United States but probably not a great idea to alienate them from the title alone!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Five Go to Demon’s Rocks

This is a thrilling title, I think. It makes it very clear which book in the series it is, and Demon’s Rocks sounds mysterious and dangerous. It might have been nice to squeeze Lighthouse into the title, but the lighthouse is on the cover and so it isn’t really needed.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Five Have a Mystery to Solve

Our last extremely vague title. The Five manage to straddle the adventure/mystery genre quite successfully. Although they are not solving a crime/disappearance/strange happening in every book in the organised clue-hunting way that the Five Find-Outers or Secret Seven do, they are often trying to find out what’s going on. This means that they more or less solve a mystery in every book.

In short, this title doesn’t identify which book it is, nor does it tell us anything specific about what to expect from this book.

Five On/Go to Whispering Island would have been much better, even if it does give away the fact that they end up on the island when they didn’t plan to.

⭐

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Five Are Together Again

Whilst this is fairly vague – the Five are together, again, in every book but the first! – I think as this is the last book in the series the Together Again sounds quite poignant. It’s not really a reunion, though it is a year on since the previous book, but just the Five having one last (somewhat feeble) hurrah.

Alternatives might have been Five Go to Big Hollow, Five Camp in a Field, Five and the Circus?

⭐⭐

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There we are – my opinions on all the titles along with alternative titles of varying quality. Let me know your thoughts and if you have any better ideas, and I’ll compile a final list of titles in another post.