Enid Blyton - what's been edited out/changed??

I wonder if Mr Pinkwhistle books still exist?

As a child i was an avid reader of Enid Blyton. The famous five, the secret seven, the Five findouters, with Frederick Algernon Trotsville, AKA "Fatty"
I can confirm that I didnt grow up to a racist sexist homophobic fat shamer 😆

Also, as with Dame Slap, other references to corporal punishment have been removed, and incidents such as Darrell slapping Gwen in MT made non physical.

Though why the Darrell and Gwen slapping was changed I really don't know, as it wasn't condoned at all in the original and Darrell herself was deeply ashamed of it once she'd calmed down.

I'm as woke as you get and I hate revising past texts. How the hell do you learn from history if you erase it? I'd rather have conversations with my kids about the things in there, how the past was different and some of the horrible things people said and did so they know the weight behind them.

Plus changing Dick and Fanny or updating to Pamela or decimal currency is dumbing down. Let kids giggle if they find it funny, let them see unfamilar names, let them ask what the hell a shilling is!

Yes you do have a point, there are probably different categories of offense. Racist names/terms can get in the bin, but changing details like how a woman is sterotyped as a homemaker shouldn't, as that serves as a historical text and I want my daughters to understand how women were represented in the past.

Really? I read Famous Five in the 1950s, and the name then was definitely Timmy.

Are you sure this hasn't somehow been conflated with Dambusters film, which did feature a dog with that name?

Well, that's three bad words so no wonder! 😱

I fully agree with removing racial slurs from children's books, simply because if they read them independently they may lack the context to be aware that those words are highly, highly offensive.

It would be awful for the victim if a child innocently used such a word and caused deep hurt and offence, and awful for a well-intentioned child to be led into causing distress and anger.

I don't agree with removing harmlessly dated things such as pre-decimal currency and old-fashioned names and concepts.

I'm as woke as you get and I hate revising past texts. How the hell do you learn from history if you erase it? I'd rather have conversations with my kids about the things in there, how the past was different and some of the horrible things people said and did so they know the weight behind them.

Plus changing Dick and Fanny or updating to Pamela or decimal currency is dumbing down. Let kids giggle if they find it funny, let them see unfamilar names, let them ask what the hell a shilling is!

I remember reading my original version of the Secret Garden to my daughter. That took a lot of changing as I read!

Lashings of ginger beer

I'm as woke as you get and I hate revising past texts. How the hell do you learn from history if you erase it? I'd rather have conversations with my kids about the things in there, how the past was different and some of the horrible things people said and did so they know the weight behind them.

Plus changing Dick and Fanny or updating to Pamela or decimal currency is dumbing down. Let kids giggle if they find it funny, let them see unfamilar names, let them ask what the hell a shilling is!

I don't think anything should be changed in children's classic stories.
A warning that some words, acts and expressions used when the book was written would be considered racist or improper today should be enough.

We had a lot of old story books, hand-me-downs and such, and I used to change them on the fly as I was reading. Mostly the racist and fat-shaming stuff, but also the scene in Richard Scarry where Farmer Alfalfa, being the breadwinner, buys Mrs Alfafa a pair of earrings as a reward "for looking after the house and children so well". She is delighted - not least because the earrings are in the shape of mini egg-beaters. Know your place, wives!

Creating narratives and characters which child audiences can identify with is really important in encouraging readers, particularly reluctant readers, to engage with reading. If changing names and currency and small parts of narrative encourages more children to identify better with what they’re reading and want to continue to read, that’s a good achievement. Enid Blyton wanted her books to encourage children to read, to imagine, and to be inspired, and I don’t think she’d be upset that her books were able to continue to do that generations on.

The UK’s demographic is also very different now to what it was when the books were written for an almost universally white audience: for white children today, some things in the books might just be politically incorrect; for children of other racial backgrounds, it’s devastating to read derogatory things about people like you. Publishers do have a duty to amend future publications to acknowledge that.