The Faraway Tree - Enid Blyton

If you haven`t read The Enchanted Wood please read my review of it first (Enchanting Work) as this is the follow up to it!

BACKGROUND

As you may now know, this series of books is about three children who have moved from the busy town to the quiet country with their mother and father because of fathers work. It is set sometime in the 1950s. They live in a small cottage and nearby is a wood that is called The Enchanted Wood. The wood has a very magical feel about it and all the animals can talk. Even the trees talk. wisha, wisha, wisha they say, unless you put both arms around them and hold your left ear to one! In the middle of the wood stands the tallest tree in the world....The Faraway Tree.The children had made friends with the inhabitants of the tree. There were pixies and fairies a man who wore saucepans, a lady who never stops washing and a curious gent with a big round head who live at the top of the tree and had a slide that run from the top of the tree to the bottom called the slippery slip. See characters below for further details.
Also at the top of the tree there was a ladder that led through a purple hole in the clouds into a magic land. This land moved on every so often and a new one replaced it. However if you was in the land when it moved from the faraway tree you would be taken along with it and trapped, which happened to the children more than once but of course they always found a way out

THE CHARACTERS

JO. The big brother who always looked after his two little sisters and Connie. Always helpes out in the garden.
BESSIE & FANNY. The younger sisters who always did as Jo said and helped their mother about the house.
MOTHER. Didn`t come into the book much but did understand the childrens strange friends and the talking animals! Very friendly lady.
COUSIN DICK. A michievous lad who came to stay with the children whilst his mother recovered from illness.
SILKY. A beautiful fairy named because of her silky golden hair. The maker of pop biscuits which went pop in your mouth when eaten!!
DAME WASHALOT. We don`t see much of her but she is always washing and pouring her dirty water down the tree, soaking people who are on their way up unless they crouch beneath a branch!
MR WATZISNAME. Forgot his name and is nearly always asleep snoring loudly.
SAUCEPAN MAN. Lives with Watzisname as he left his land in the first book and it had moved on before he could get back. A strange man who was covered in kettles and saucepans and was always mishearing things. Very funny..."bunny?" he says!
ANGRY PIXIE. Doesn`t like people peeping in his window as he lives in the bottom house and usually throws whatever he has in his hands at people who peep, including poor Dick. Friendly with the main characters though.
THE RED SQUIRREL. Like all animals in the wood he can talk. He is employed by Moonface to collect the cushions at the bottom of the Slippery Slip.

LANDS AT THE TOP OF THE TREE

THE LAND OF TOPSY TURVEY a land where everything is upside down. the houses stand on their chimneys, the trees have their roots in the air and stand on their branches, even the people walk on their hands with their legs in the air. Most perculiar!
THE LAND OF SPELLS is exactly that. A land with a million spells including growing spells, spells to make a crooked nose straight, spell to grow blue daffodils and even a spell to make a cat sing. Very funny land!
THE LAND OF DREAMS again is exactly that. Everything is a dream. There is even a sandman to make everyone sleep. An ice cream man who sells whistles, money had changed into marbles, swimming pools filled with tears! Strange but dream like!
THE LAND OF DO AS YOU PLEASE is a lovely land where you can do exactly what you want. I want to go on a merry go round one said and in front of them was a merry go round with real animals! I want to ride an elephant and again the elephants arrived ready for them to ride!
THE LAND OF TOYS was a giant toyshop and all the inhabitants where toys. Even the soldiers lived in a toy fort!
THE LAND OF GOODIES was a land full of sweets and cakes and anything for a party.
THE LAND OF THE OLD WOMAN was a small land with a big shoe that a lot of naughty children lived in. The old woman was exactly as in the book a grumpy lady who was to put the children in line!
THE LAND OF MAGIC MEDICINES was very similar to the land of spells only everything was to make people better from their illnesses and pains!
THE LAND OF TEMPERS was a horid land where everybody was in a bad mood, shouting and slapping. Not for me!
THE LAND OF PRESENTS was great for kind people as you can get presents to give to your friends.

These books always finish with a nice land and this was no exception. A great book for the kids and very imaginitive as Enid Blyton was!
Enid Blyton was probably the most successful British children's writer of the twentieth century, she was born in London on 11th August 1897 and she died in 1968
Enid`s books have received much literary criticism, indeed the attitudes displayed in many of the books can be considered as sexist and outdated. At the end of the fifties many librarians refused to stock books by Enid Blyton on the grounds that children would not read the great works of literature, this had the result that Enid Blyton sold even more books. As as child I loved her books and never noticed any political incorrectness!
Recommended to all of you with kids