We have continued to get through the Famous Five books very quickly. We read Plenty of Fun over the last two weeks of February, and then Secret Trail lasted us just 10 days in mid March.

---

Five Have Plenty of Fun

This book he got out one day after lunch so it was ready for bedtime. That night I started reading the title to see what he would come up with.

Five Have… lots of adventures.
Five Have Plenty… of adventure!

He asked why they weren’t off camping or something as usual, and said they haven’t been at Kirrin for a while.

Then he wanted to know if time really does pass more slowly at Kirrin. I said that it just seemed that way, like how time flies when you’re having fun. He said and they do have lots of fun.

I did my best generic American accent (it comes out quite southern) for Elbur so he guessed that’s who was on the phone later. That shows that at least the accent is consistent if not convincing. At least that’s what I tell myself.

He thought that the middle of the night visit was probably a dream because Elbur didn’t come in his big car. He guessed that the girl would be coming to sleep on the camp-bed. Which girl? The American’s son. (He’s generally not good at getting he/she or other gendered terms right so he comes out with a lot of statements like that.)

His solution to Berta coming was for George to go off camping in her tent.

It turns out he was as bad as Uncle Quentin as I gave him the chance to say Berta every time Quentin forgot, but he forgot too. He did remember by the end of the chapter, though. He has started throwing Berta into any conversations about names since then, so it has obviously stuck now!

He pointed out that Berta’s accent is like Bufflo’s but not so much like her father’s. I thought I was doing the same all purpose American accent though. Around this point I said to Stef that Berta has so many lines I’m going to regret starting an accent for her aren’t I?? Spoiler: yes I regretted it!

His opinion was that Timmy wouldn’t like Sally. He had learned from earlier and shouted BERTA every time uncle Quentin forgot. I wondered how well he’d do with Leslie and Jane. As for me my American accent got ropier by the line, dipping well into a deep “southern drawl” unintentionally.

For some inexplicable reason we started the next reading session with him calling me a hearth rug as if it were an insult along the lines of silly billy. He then explained this as like the hearth rug dog from the last book.

The first line of the chapter contains peace reigned, and I spent an eternity trying to explain what reigned meant and how it is not the same as rained or horse’s reins.

I had major trouble doing Joan’s voice as it kept going American, it didn’t help that her first two lines have Ma’am in them. I had to say Oooh arrr combine harvester, (a la the Worzels, who yes, are from Bristol, which is not Cornwall, but for my purposes is close enough) in my head a bunch of times and still couldn’t get her quite right.

He thought that Julian definitely shouldn’t cut Berta’s hair, and that she should go to a hairdresser. He asked me why I kept saying Berta er Leslie and I had to explain that’s what the book says. When Dick said it’s almost as if we are in the middle of an adventure Brodie did not agree.

He did manage to grasp that Berta became Leslie and shouted Leslie every time someone forgot. But he also tried to correct me whenever I said Berta, when that’s what the narration says.

He thought that Anne must have dreamed the light/sounds on the island.

We had another conversation where I tried to explain what a blazer is (he wears a “polar” [polo] shirt, no tie and no blazer for school).

He decided that it was just visitors on the island. Then he thought the men in the motor boat were fishermen. Bad fishermen!

I eventually almost got the hang of switching between “Cornish” and “American.” Almost.

George got kidnapped and he was quite happy! Now the adventure starts! After that he asked me what the book was called and said that’s the wrong title! George got kidnapped! I don’t think that being kidnapped, or having a relative get kidnapped, sounds like a whole lot of fun to be fair. Hence ideas for my renaming of the book.

I loved this gem:

 I know why it’s always George and not Anne or Dick, because George knows all her father’s secrets.

Brodies suggestion as to how George’s trail ended in the clearing was that there was a secret passage there. He thought it might have been George throwing stones at Julian’s window, but I repeated her speaking in my most “Welsh” voice possible and he did guess the gypsy girl. My rant to Stef was as follows: I mean for goodness sake we’ve just got rid of the American accent and now I have to switch between Welsh and Cornish?? Though it actually was slightly easier to do. At the end he asked me if Spiky meant that he had spiky hair.

He knew the note was from Jo because it was dirty from her dirty hands. He got a bit worried when the boys thought George was at the fair. But how can it be a chapter book if they go and rescue George now!? There were only five chapters to go at this point. He suggested that Julian might get captured during the rescue which he was sure would make the story longer.

He was fairly convinced that they’d find George even though the caravans looked empty. When Timmy brought out the dressing gown he gasped – so George WAS there! When Julian looked at the car he immediately said that’s the car that took away George! and explained it left the blue marks on the tree. I said I was surprised he hadn’t asked about the car having wings but he just said for the wing mirrors of course!

Then he was all concerned again because I’d said there were four chapters left then it was done, and he thought I’d said the series would be finished after this book! He was pretty devastated by the thought of no more Famous Fives.

For some reason he thought that George was the one to speak from the back of the car, giving directions to her own kidnapping location (??). But he did guess that it was Jo following them around the garden/house. Of course I had to explain what coal holes were. He got a bit confused with all the rooms/doors during the rescue – and to be fair, I do too, at least trying to remember them afterwards.

He groaned and slapped a hand to his forehead saying he forgot to phone the police! at the end when Julian goes to bed instead.

Me, I  was just quite glad the Cornish/American/Welsh horror was over.

A few random other things:

He thought the phrase higgledy-piggledy was the funniest thing ever and laughed for ages. Also hilarious was Uncle Quentin’s mustard on toast and he laughed more than he’d laughed at anything else in the books so far. Custard and fish was also funny and he was literally begging for more mix-up stories.

I found it funny when he misheard hotfoot (as in hotfoot it) as hot food and was even more confused seeing as he didn’t know the expression.

In the middle of reading this he came home from school with this picture of the Famous Five, but had forgotten what else he had written on the page. I think his plan was to trick me into thinking this came out of one of my books

Another day he was playing the Famous Five, filling a basket with lovely food for camping. He was concerned, though, that he doesn’t have any dog food for Timmy. Just a (toy) tin of cat food.

---

Five On a Secret Trail

Incredibly we did not go straight onto this after finishing Plenty of Fun. We actually read the Island of Adventure instead! I’ll write about that in a separate post.

So, back to the Famous Five again. He said he’d missed them – but he still remembered their names! As well as the Five he said he’d also missed the accents – especially Joan’s (despite the bad Cornish/American accent she had last time), what a shame she barely speaks in this book!

When George was yelling about Timmy being hurt he asked What kind of hurt?, and said She’ll have to tell Aunt Fanny, about running away.

I asked him if he would laugh at Timmy with the collar and he did laugh at the picture and said he would laugh if he was George. (Just recently – so several weeks later – he asked me out of nowhere if I would make him a cardboard collar like Timmy. I have not yet, but next time we get anything delivered in a large box I will make one!)

He was devastated that Julian and Dick may not come to Kirrin. But they can’t have an adventure just the two girls! He was nearly in tears!

He thought the sharp sounds were just a car passing. I think I did an OK quack and cluck which he responded to by oinking. I cannot snort like a horse, however. I also can’t whistle so had to just say pheee in a high-pitched voice. My cat noise was the best, I think.

IT’S JO-JO!! he shouted when George found a face in the bush. (Obviously still had The Island of Adventure on his mind. That would have been an interesting cross-over…)

I asked him if he knew what an archaeologist was – Yesss (so very disdainfully!) someone who digs up bones. At the end of chapter George says she would like to see the boy again, wouldn’t you? And Brodie said yes he would.

When the girls first run into the other boy Brodie immediately said it’s not the same boy! in an it’s-so-obvious kind of voice. I said but they look exactly alike?

Well they must be… cousins or something then!

He thought it was the boy in the cottage at night. The next time they were confused by the two boys he said again that it was a different boy. He was concerned that Timmy’s cardboard collar wouldn’t hold up in the rain, and far less bothered about people being around in the night and peering in windows.

When Timmy runs off madly he asked what nineteen to the dozen meant. I asked him who he thought was coming along the lane and he literally yelled JULIAN AND DICK, YEEESSSSSSS! The chapter ended, and then he begged for just one more word. Which was there.

There we are, we’re here, he guessed. (It was actually There was such excitement at the arrival of the boys that at first nobody could make themselves heard.)

We had to discuss what disobedient meant – me using examples of when he is disobedient to really hammer it home.

He upgraded the boys from cousins to brothers but kept on saying it’s two different boys!! He was really exasperated at the Five for being so slow to catch on. I really thought he’d have fallen for it, at least for a while.

He was quite excited by the red colour illustration in the cottage, but thought the lights outside were snow.

He decided the best explanation for the weird lights were that they were the northern lights. Which to be fair are often blues and greens. He guessed the person was watching them through binoculars before Dick told Anne.

We talked about how Julian misled the fake farm woman without actually telling a lie – he has really picked up on the fact that they’re sticklers for honesty and initially accused Julian of lying.

The Five talk about how they miss Joan’s cooking, like sausages and mash and he said but they brought lots of Joan’s food with them. I had to explain it was cold food. But couldn’t they cook it?

As he’s learning to read I spelled out W A D E R in the way he learns his sounds (wih, ah, dih…) and he said wahder, then we did W A T E R, and he said wahter. I corrected the o sound and he got water. I checked and he knew what blueprints were.

I showed him the picture of “Guy” howling in the camp. It’s Guy – he’s fallen over and hurt himself!…

I TOLD YOU THEY WERE BROTHERS!

It turned out he didn’t know what twins are! I had to explain that, and he said he was just going to keep calling them brothers.

George wonders why water rang a bell.

Water! The spring! The secret passage is by the spring!

He got very excited when George notices the stone slabs around the spring. He had some trouble picturing the spring/slab and kept wondering if the water flowed down into the hole/tunnel and if everyone would get wet.

He was frustrated that they couldn’t open the bag there and then and he had to wait to find out what was in it.

I then had to try to explain a swollen ankle. What does swollen mean. Did it blow up like a balloon? Couldn’t he get a big round shoe to fit over it?

He was SO disappointed that the bag seemed to be empty. He thought that Paul had tricked the others, and I had to explain the phrase double-crossed to him. He seemed to twig before the reveal that there was still something in the bag. And as he pointed out – blueprints are just paper so they’d be very light and the bag would feel empty with them in it.

He actually squealed when the inspector pulls back the lining to reveal something blue. He then wanted to know what the blueprints were for – Kirrin cottage?? – and was disappointed that it’s never properly revealed.

After we finished I did the usual questions and he declared that this one was BOOOOOOOOORING! (He was hanging on every word, desperate for more every night so I’m taking that with a massive pinch of salt.) He did say it wasn’t as adventurous as most of the others which is pretty true. His favourite characters were all of them, including specifically Uncle Quentin, Aunt Fanny, Joan (she only gets about three lines which saved me from the Cornish-ish accent!), the one-eyed dog and the policeman.

Things he found particularly funny were the idea of dogs snoring and Timmy “running” as he is pulled up with the rope.

During this book he said he tried to play Famous Five in the night but It didn’t work out well. He put Rocky (from the Paw Patrol) on his legs to be like Timmy. But when he woke up Rocky was on the floor.

---