Last time I covered the first three books. They’re short and simple books so there wasn’t as much to say as there was with the Famous Five or Adventure Series books etc.

The Seaside Family

Brodie was surprised – and a little jealous to find that their summer holidays were two months long.

This was the book where I started to make him read bits, starting from where Benjy goes into the sea to rescue his ball. Just a small paragraph, one per chapter to start with, then one from each double page later.

I think he sort of wanted the sea to come right up to the caravans, just to find out what would happen. Would they float away like the children wondered?

He laughed like anything at Daddy shouting at the seagull Hey you big fellow, that’s my toe, not a bit of bread!

I made some changes in this book – not having Mummy tell them that only Daddy could make a decision about where to go on holiday, and the fire not belonging only to Mummy (again).

I left the bit where Benjy is scornful about boys making the beds as it’s – according to him – girl’s work, because Ann treats him so scathingly in her response.

I also toned down the religious elements because there are a lot. Benjy is sad about his mother and doesn’t think that God listens to him and Ann preaches away like mad. The worst part is that they pray for Benjy’s mother to get well again and she does, miraculously, and of course this is presented as proof that the prayers worked.

The Buttercup Farm Family

I had to check we hadn’t already read this one, as I never remember the order of the series and always get confused about them spending time on the farm in the first book. I forget that they visit Buttercup Farm twice in the series, basically.

We’d already read The Sheep-Pig (and watched Babe, which Brodie liked but not as much as I [still] like it) before reading this so he knew all about sheep-dogs already, but the chickens raising ducklings was new to him and he found it very funny.

For this one, Brodie hung on every word and did not see the inevitable coming. Ann wants a lamb and is told no, but then she gets one all the same. Then Mike wants a dog but is told no, and yet he also gets one soon after (which is never mentioned in the last book, I just have to point out!).

The Queen Elizabeth Family

This last one obviously made little impression on either of us, as when trying to decide the next book to read he kept asking for the “last campervan one” and I kept trying to put him off as I think it’s fairly boring and too similar to The Pole Star Family – then I checked and WE’D ALREADY READ IT.

Surprising things were going to happen to Mike, Belinda and Ann!

He at least saw through the faux suspense there, as the title, the cover, and everything tells you that the book is about them taking a trip on the ship (and not just visiting it briefly) and announced that they’d be going on the ship properly.

He was amused by them not knowing about hamburgers and thinking hot dogs were made of dogs, because of course he’s grown up with all sorts of American foodstuffs being really common.

Some changes I made included in the short passage about the children being surprised to see so many black people – just a couple of word choice changes really. I touched on segregation and discrimination as all the black people mentioned are in low-paid service jobs.

I also changed he to they when talking about the boat passengers, because obviously a lot of them were women.

I also, yet again, toned down the religious passages as Ann (why is it always Ann who’s so pious?) preaches away to the reader about trusting in God to makes sure the ship doesn’t sink.

As a side note, I’m sure I attempted some vaguely American accents while reading this, but they were rubbish.