As always I’m way behind on these posts, so I thought I’d combine some of the Family books into one post in an attempt to catch up. They are all quite short books, to be fair!

We read them in order, of course, starting with The Caravan Family in November/December of 2024.

Then we took a break while we read other things – finishing Enid Blyton’s Christmas Tales and continuing Charlie and the Christmas Factory as it was the right time of year, then we returned to the Secret Series for Mountain and Killimooin, but finished Five Have a Puzzling Time before we did Moon Castle.

Then we read The Saucy Jane Family, The Pole Star Family and The Seaside Family back to back from March 2025 to April 2025.

Having then taken a break to read The Secret Seven, we finished off with The Buttercup Farm Family and The Queen Elizabeth Family between May and June 2025.

The Caravan Family

First up – Brodie keeps calling the book (and the series) the Campervan Family (or ‘that series where they have a campervan’). I really don’t know why but I can’t get him to remember that it’s caravan.

While they were searching for a home Brodie pointed out that they’d find a caravan, because the title of the book was The Caravan Family. Then when they found the two old caravans he said ‘there’s the caravans they’re going to live in.’

He figured out it was the cows ‘attacking’ the caravan at night – as we had already read Five Go Off in a Caravan where the same thing happens.

He loved everyone hunting for the lost Ann and discovering that she was asleep in one of the caravans the whole time, and he also announced he wanted to take a holiday in a caravan, and could we put one behind the car.

I made a few little changes while reading – they say gay about fifty times regarding the caravans and their accessories, and so this was mostly bright or colourful instead. Daddy also makes a lot of decisions – including buying the caravans – all by himself which became Mummy and Daddy. Likewise while Mummy did all the cooking I didn’t feel the need for it to be Mummy’s fire or Mummy’s kettle, so I said their instead.

As these are Lutterworth Press books – Lutterworth published good ‘moral’ stories – there are quite a few references to prayers and god granting things. Too much to just omit but I tried to tone it down a bit. There’s just something about the capital H in he/him for god that rubs me up the wrong way.

The Saucy Jane Family

Brodie immediately abandoned his fervent wish for a caravan holiday and wanted to know if we could take a holiday on a boat instead. He was less thrilled by the idea of being tied up as he couldn’t swim when we read this (he can just about swim now, though).

He was horrified by Ann falling in, and very anxious until she was safe, and that it would happen again. “She’ll have to learn to swim!”

He has seen locks in real life (Neptune’s Staircase) and in videos but we looked them up again to help him understand how they work, and we talked about tunnels where the people on board push the boat through with their arms or legs.

As an aside – the version I skimmed to refresh my memory this week mentioned them being glad to be going back to their caravans for winter, with its games and books and television. Of course this was wireless in the original. Just where did the editors think that they were plugging their TV in, in their wooden, horse-drawn caravans?

The Pole Star Family

In what is becoming a pattern, Brodie decided he’d much rather take a cruise than go off in a caravan or houseboat once we started reading this book.

We had a chat about whooping cough as the children come down with it – we had already done this when reading Five Get Into a Fix, but he had forgotten.

He was slightly worried about the sea getting in the portholes as the cabins are below water level, and said he would definitely roll out of bed when the children wonder about that. (He had a habit of falling out of bed one night on every holiday we’ve taken but thankfully he seems to have grown out of it now!)

He was worried for the boys swimming under the ship – and said it was very dangerous.

I had to do some editing – or in some cases skipping bits entirely – when they visit French Morocco as they make such a big deal about it being dirty and smelly and how gross the locals are – ‘why don’t they do better’ and all that.

All in all he really enjoyed the first three books, always asking for the next one.