This is my 8th Christmas Gift Guide – you can find the previous seven here.

New books

I say ‘new’ in a loose sense. Most of these are not really new, but old stories collected together or retellings of Blyton’s work.

First up – Hodder have new short story collections again. In my personal experience kids quite like these. For adults there may be a certain level of rage at the obvious edits and name changes, however they generally do contain a fair number of otherwise hard-to-find short stories.

Sleepy Time Stories, £7.99 / Animal Adventure Stories currently £6.49, normally £7.99 / Five-Minute Magic Stories currently £6.49, normally £7.99/ Christmas Bedtime Stories currently £6.49, normally £7.99. All at Waterstones.

Last year there were stories for six and seven year olds. This year it’s the turn of the five and eight year olds.

Stories For Five Year Olds / Stories for Eight Year Olds / both £6.99 at Waterstones.

There’s a new lift-the-flap Faraway Tree book as well (more are listed to pre-order, but aren’t out yet). Last year there were two of these. I thought they were very cute.

Where’s Teddy? £7.99 at Waterstones.

Also illustrated by Becky Cameron is Pixie’s New Friend. I’m not sure if this is an original Blyton story as there isn’t one with that title, or if it’s a rewrite or something new written by someone else.

Pixie’s New Friend 7.99 at Waterstones.

There are two new Famous Five Graphic Novels (which are on my list)

Five Go Off in a Caravan / Five Get Into Trouble / both £8.99 at Waterstones

I think I’m going to buy this next one for Brodie – it’s a book of Famous Five puzzles.

Can you help Julian, George, Dick, Anne and Timmy, better known as The Famous Five, solve these puzzling brain teasers? Find secret passageways, make your way through the maze-like tunnels and figure out where the smugglers are hiding with your five favourite adventurers.

These fun five-minute puzzles are sure to keep you entertained for hours. All you need is a pencil, your brain and a thirst for adventure. Crack codes, find clues and solve mysteries, just like The Famous Five!

Five Minute Mystery Puzzles  £7.99 at Waterstones

There are now Enid Blyton ‘Tonies’ for the Toniebox (a screen free audiobook player for children, you buy the ‘Tonies’ which are figures you can play with and when you put them on the box it plays the story.)

First Term at Malory Towers / The Wishing Chair / The Magic Faraway Tree / all £14.99 at Waterstones.

And lastly a slightly odd one, a reprint of Child Whispers. I have seen various Blyton books cheaply published (presumably in countries where copyright has expired) and sold on eBay and Amazon but never in the a big bookshop. The cover of this very much says ‘cheap’ but I’m intrigued nonetheless.

Child Whispers 11.95 at Waterstones.

Things that are not books

As usual, the not-books are bit harder to find. Maybe they’ll be some things to tie in with the Faraway Tree Movie next year, but there has been nothing for the Famous Five or Malory Towers TV series apart from DVDs. I’ve already included the Malory Towers DVDs in a previous guide and I’m not about to suggest anyone spends actual money on the travesties that are the recent Famous Five adaptations.

There are generally lots of prints on Etsy but I thought this Faraway Tree one was a little more unusual.

Faraway Tree Print £8.05 on Etsy.

Then there’s this lovely hand painted watercolour print from The Adventure Series

Watercolour Print £29.99 on Etsy

And a candle (it would be nice if it came in ‘old book smell’ but it does come in vanilla which is about as close as normal candle scents get.)

Candle £12.99 on Etsy

If you really want to splash out why not treat someone to one of these Enid Blyton teapots? If they can cope with them spelling Mal(l)ory wrong, that is.

Enid Blyton Teapot / Enid Blyton Tea and Books Teapot / both £109 on Etsy

Lastly how about these 1950s Noddy pyjamas? Not for the small child in your life but the adult collector who likes all sorts of strange and useless items as long as they say Enid Blyton on them.

Noddy pyjamas £15 on Etsy