Out of interest I checked the dates and we read these three Famous Fives between November 29 and January 9.

Five Get Into Trouble

Naturally Brodie demanded the next Famous Five the night after we finished the last one. I said it’s called “Five Get Into… what?” And he actually guessed Trouble.

The endpapers caught his attention (they don’t always) and he thought the Bentley coming out the gates was a prison or maybe a king’s house.

He was excited when Dick was kidnapped and said The adventure’s starting – and not in a nice way! He likes it when the adventure starts quite early!

He was puzzled by the man changing his clothes and couldn’t come up with any theories. I asked him what he thought the screeching thing was that touched George’s head was, and he said A PARROT! (close!). I gave him a nudge and asked him what the name of the place was and he remembered Owl’s Dene and changed his answer to an owl.

He thought that the Five would find a secret passage to escape Owl’s Dene. Specifically one that was built using the war to shelter people.

His guess was that the hidden snorer was a ghost who could go through walls (isn’t that all ghosts?) but with some prompting (What are the Five good at finding) he said secret passages, so he was almost there. It was very funny though when Julian finally finds the hidden opening and the book asks something like “what was on the other side?” And Brodie says, scornfully, the snorer of course!

I tried to get him to be able to say KMF 102 but he kept forgetting one or other part of it. He did however say “It’s the black Bentley!” any time I said KMF 102. His idea for escape would be to get in the car and drive it at the gates to smash through them.

He thought sparklers were fireworks (I mean totally reasonable!)

His favourite book is now all of them but after a minute thinking said but not the first one. That’s not my favourite anymore. His favourite character was all of them.

A few things he found really funny in this book were Julian telling Timmy he was too heavy because he was full of sandwiches (this made him laugh, and laugh, and laugh, for about three page) and Richard getting his hair all sooty.

Not connected directly to this book, but occurring while we were reading it, was him running round the house shouting I’m a red Indian… (thanks Jock!) and telling his Gran that his favourite books are the Famous Five. He then gave us all roles. He was Julian as always, I was George, Gran was Anne, Grandad was Dick. We were waiting to see who was Timmy but Auntie Kirsty got Aunt Fanny and Ewan was Uncle Quentin.

Five Fall Into Adventure

We went straight into the next book again. Again I asked him to guess the rest of the title. Five Fall Into… Trouble!

He immediately argued that the cook was Joanna and not Joan! Funny how he can’t remember what he did at school earlier but he can remember the name of a minor character from an earlier book (he didn’t notice the Alf/James switch, though.)

He thought that a) the Five having a lazy day is wasting their holiday b) Julian would be lazy and not lock up properly and c) that Julian could beat Jo at spitting damson stones. He also thinks he could beat her though… and now his new favourite word is ragamuffin.

He guessed that the robbers had taken George, but I had to supply the word kidnapped.

When Julian, Dick and Anne are looking for George in the woods and get lost, then Julian hears what he thinks is an animal moving around in the night, Brodie shouted out It’s a moose!! It was Jo.

He couldn’t pick a favourite character this time round – not even all of them. He couldn’t pick a favourite book as he loves them all, but this one wasn’t quite as good as the others. It was less of an adventure. His favourite part was Jo climbing the tower.

Things he thought were hilarious was Anne having to spit sand out of her mouth after Timmy’s digging and Joan’s dream about policeman eating her chocolate cake.

Again, unrelated to the book specifically but at one point he did say Daddy, I’ve just had a SMASHING idea!!

Five on a Hike Together

When Anne talks to Julian about their plans he said Yess!! Now they’re going to go off and they’ll have an adventure!

He thought that the man who only says ar might be a pirate, and the jangling bells were probably cow bells. Because you know, some cows do wear bells. Dick’s weird experience in the night was just a dream.

The next night he changed his mind and thought that Dick hadn’t dreamed it (before he found the bit of paper). I asked him what he thought Saucy Jane might be and he didn’t know. What was the last bit? Maggie? (Pointing to his nose ). No matter how many times I explained it means that Maggie was told about it he then kept saying that Nose must be Maggie’s last name.

One night I was doing some blogging and had to stop for the next chapters of Hike. Brodie asked me what I was doing so I was trying to explain my blog to him. Why don’t you write stories? I said we did some but it was mostly book reviews. That’s boring. So I told him I had been writing about him and his thoughts on the Famous Five like his favourite characters. Julian and Dick he said straight away. And George. But not Anne. She’s not as brave. I talked about how she’s possibly the bravest, doing things even though she’s scared. In the end he said she was all right but the other three and the dog are my favourite. Put that on your website, Mummy.

We were at the final three chapters when he asked how many were still left. But how can we get an adventure in just three chapters? he asked.

He was totally captivated by the jewellery they find  and how beautiful it must have been. So sparkly! He couldn’t quite understand why they had to take it to the police instead of keeping it for themselves. He also felt rather sorry for Dick and Maggie because a broken ankle and being stuck in the marsh can’t have been nice.

Things he found particularly funny were George calling Timmy clumsy and threatening to push him in the lake, Dick’s four sandwiches at once (thankfully he hasn’t tried that himself) and the phrase this is boiling up to be a big adventure.

On the way to school one morning while reading this, he was telling me about his Famous Five dream. In it he was Julian, diving down in the lake. When he came back up, the other Dick and the woman banged their boat into me. He was all right, but red all over, so they went back to the house, found the phone (it was only burnt a little bit on one corner) and called the doctor.

I also showed him pictures of the TV series casts around this time and he was not at all impressed with the actors from either TV series as they don’t look anything like he imagines. Toddy was the worst apparently.