We have read 2o of the 21 Famous Five books so far. When Brodie asked for the next one at bedtime I said This is the very last one, ever

Immediately he said he wanted to make it last, so could we read something else. I offered the Castle of Adventure and he said yes, we would read all the adventure books and then the last Famous Five as we will

“Save the best until last. Isn’t that what they say, Mummy?”

I just hope he’s not disappointed when we come back to the final Famous Five. I’m quite glad to procrastinate over it as it’s my least favourite one!

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First impressions

Sometimes I can read whole chapters and he hardly says a word, other times I can barely get a few sentences out before he interrupts with comments and questions. This was one of the latter situations.

First he spotted the opening illustration

and said OOH knights. That looks scary, I don’t know if I want to read this now, it looks too scary. He really likes castles and knights at the moment too!

I got as far as reading the first few words – Two girls sat on a window-seat on page one and he looked at the illustration asking Who are they? BULLIES?

I reached paragraph two, and had managed one sentence of Lucy-Ann speaking when he said that she sounded like Anne and that the girls were obviously both based on the same character. He has a point, and I do pretty much give them the same voice. Later he also remarked that Dinah helping Mrs Mannering cut sandwiches was Just like Anne!

He said Philip sounded like a terror of a boy regarding the earwigs under pillows and thought he might come home with a tarantula this time.

Obviously he had forgotten that Jack and Lucy-Ann no longer lived with Uncle Geoffrey as he repeated Once lived with in an extremely questioning way.

When Jack was described as having freckles he added Too many to count! as that’s what’s said about Lucy-Ann and her freckles.

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Spring Cottage

As soon as I mentioned the spring he said That means they have water too. I asked him if thought Spring Cottage sounded like a good place to stay and he said yes very firmly.

He wasn’t impressed with the illustration of the girls at the spring, saying that The ones in the Famous Five are much, much better. He actually wasn’t a fan of the pictures throughout – he found them too dark. Sorry, Stuart Tresilian, the art critic has spoken!

Early on the children discuss not having more adventures.

I think they’ll have more adventures – there wouldn’t be more books if they hadn’t.

This is true of course!

He guessed it was Bill Smugs they were bumping into in town- or at least the man from the last book! He then remembered Bill Smugs! but couldn’t remember his real last name.

When Tassie arrived with Button he looked at the illustration and was puzzled. A cat? Is it a dog?

 

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Kiki

As always he found Kiki hilarious – I try to do my best parrot voice for her of course.

He laughed like anything at Kiki at the station, encouraging the porter to answer her by shouting Yes, yes!

When she starts her Turn to page 6 stuff he said she’s saying school words, but wanted to know why she kept saying to Open your books.

He loved her sniffing/using a hanky trick.

Like the children Brodie was momentarily startled by Kiki falling but he quickly pointed out that she’d fly back up – or at least he hoped she’d manage to fly before she hit the ground!

He blamed her for touching the children’s heads and shoulders in the castle – but really it was the cobwebs.

He found it particularly funny when she got muddled up and would correct her loudly – it’s pop goes the WEASEL!

When the men shot at her in the courtyard he was very upset and worried – convinced, in fact, that she had been hit.

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The Castle

He was confused by the “tunnel” – the narrow space between the cliff and the outer walls – thinking it was inside the castle.

He thought Tassie should jump across from the cliff to the window – obviously he has as much faith her in abilities as she does. I asked him if he would go across the plank into the castle and he said yes, but in real life I’m not sure that he would! A tree branch a few feet off the ground yes, a plank wedged up a cliff, not so likely.

 

According to him the puddle of water just meant that the pump was leaky.

He was sure that Jack was mistaken about the light at night  – it must have been a moon or the stars. Then he turned to me when Lucy-Ann mentioned seeing the light, eyes wide. There WAS a light!

The faint light coming from under the floor of the great hall was in his mind a cellar with a chandelier – you get chandeliers in castles, don’t you.

He was adamant that Philip should just step off the pedestal and attack the two men – he couldn’t see how Philip would be awkward and slow and probably easily pushed over.

He guessed that the plank was gone and that’s why they couldn’t see it – but it begs the question – where DID the men put the plank? They didn’t just knock it to the ground. It’s not in any of the rooms – there’s no mention of any locked rooms or cupboards – it’s not in the hidden room, they don’t find it in the hidden passage… Also makes me wonder why Tassie didn’t bring a plank or a tree branch (or just jump like she initially wanted to) instead of taking the underground tunnel. Also that Button wasn’t soaking and freezing himself which would have given them a clue! (Reading the books aloud really does make you notice new things!)

He didn’t remember that Tassie can’t read – but he groaned like anything when Philip reminded the girls.

After a little prompting he also guessed that it was Bill in the house, and he cheered when it was revealed that it was Bill.

Once Tassie had swapped places with Jack he complained a little that the book was too confusing, and he was very tense, almost too tense during the final chapters. I think he remembered the near-drowning at the end of the first book as he did ask why the children always ended up in such bad situations.

He was concerned that Tassie didn’t know Bill Smugs and wouldn’t trust him like the others did.

Once Bill’s lot get into the secret room he was desperate for the men to step off the pedestals and attack. Then he asked why there was always someone smashing a lamp and I had to explain why a lamp was better than torches.

He was frustrated that Scar-Neck and the other man had got away and would be in another country by now.

He was very upset about the castle being damaged – he was almost in tears about it in fact! He guessed that the castle had fallen in on top of the secret room – still very upset about the castle not being whole any more – and said they’d need to go down the secret passage.

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Questions and explanations

I often get distracted from the book when Brodie asks a question as I go looking up information and/or spend ages trying to explain things.

I had to explain carbolic soap to him, sort of, seeing as I’ve never seen the stuff in real life. I assume it was strong and smelly? I’m actually tempted to buy some now (he really wants me to!) and find out – though I’m not sure how accurate modern stuff is to what the books were talking about. I always imagined it as cream/white – but apparently it’s always dark pink/red!

We had a very long conversation about taking photos with film rather than digital. He’s never questioned it, but I asked him if he knew what they meant. So we talked about the rolls of film making negatives and having to get them developed. Not being able to see what you’d taken, not knowing how it had turned out until they were developed, you could only take so many exposure – 24 or 36 per roll (I vaguely remember) – and then that was it unless you had a spare roll. Then we were on to home developing with chemicals which I know less about.

He knew what a hide was but had to ask me what furnished, a cloud burst and the vagaries of the rock meant. Blyton gets a hard time for her simple writing – vagaries of the rock is not a simple expression!

Something else he asked was why every book had to have someone hiding/sheltering inside a gorse bush. Good question – gorse bushes are not the comfiest places I imagine. I sometimes point out gorse bushes on walks and ask him if he’d like to make a shelter out of it, but somehow he always says no!

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Changes to the text

Obviously I’m reading the original text but I found myself making a few small changes as I read.

I can’t remember exactly what I said, but I changed a little of the way they speak about Tassie and how smelly she is as honestly it sometimes came across as a bit mean and judgemental.

I down-played the foreign-ness of the men – not to make them not foreign but just the assumption that they must be up to no good simply because they’re foreign.

I also said each other or children instead of the girls sometimes when it came to helping / being scared / having to doing the dishes. Not so much that the girls did the dishes, more the expectation that they would do them because they are girls. We’ve had plenty of discussions about how out-dated these attitudes are already, so I don’t see a need to keep repeating the girls-should-do-the-housework statements.

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The End

At the end he was disappointed that he never got to see the police arresting the men. Me saying that Bill and his men ARE the police, kind of surprised him, but they didn’t seem to count!

He wasn’t at all pleased that the men seemed to have been killed, because there should not be people killed in a CHILDREN’S BOOK!

He was still really sad that the castle was ruined even though he loves exploring ruined castles. Honestly, I don’t feel like I’ve expressed just how sad he was – it really upset him! I wasn’t expecting that, I thought he’d find it exciting.

It was very late when we finished the book and so I forgot to ask him about his favourites unfortunately. I suspect his favourite characters would have been (as usual) all of them!