George and Timmy disappear! (The Famous Five: Five Fall into Adventure - Enid Blyton)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	The Famous Five: Five Fall into Adventure - Enid Blyton
Date:	07/07/08 (40 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great read for kids

Disadvantages: Nothing really

Five Fall Into Adventure is the 9th book in the series of 21 books from Enid Blyton featuring the Famous Five. The books are considered some of the best children's literature ever, and I am of the same opinion having loved these as a child and as an adult.

The Famous Five are Julian, Dick and Anne Kirrin, their cousin George (Georgina) and her dog Timmy. Five Fall Into Adventure sees the Famous Five meeting a recurring character in Jo, a ragamuffin girl, on the beach and George gets jealous when Timmy fawns over her. Later on, Anne is scared by a face at the window and George and Timmy are captured. The Five, reduced to 3, are aided by Jo as they take a trip into the forest to find George and Timmy, and the search takes them to a remote cove and something or someone called Red Tower.

The plot is a well worked one from Blyton, and it involves a bit of change in comparison to her previous Famous Five novels. The disappearance of George and Timmy means more concentration on the three siblings of the group. The inclusion of ragamuffin girl Jo fills the 'George role' of a grumpy girl who wishes she was a boy, and things seem even more weird in the text as Anne is left out of some of it. The villains seem a little more dangerous than in previous books, and perhaps this is an indication of the fact that, as the children age, they are more likely to come across more serious villains. Blyton's descriptions seems to be more menacing, and the plot a little more adventurous. The book is 188 pages long, around the norm for a Famous Five book.

The book was first publishedin 1950. I have a 1986 publication, which cost £1.95 at the time. You can get a copy of Five Fall Into Adventure from amazon.co.uk for £3.49.

Summary: Five Fall Into Adventure - No.9