AIBU - or are the Faraway Tree books utterly insane?

[BaleOfHay]

I've started reading these to DD5 at bedtime and they are making my head hurt. I'm all for a bit of magic (we've just finished the Worst Witch) and I loved Enid Blyton a a child (Famous 5) but the Faraway Tree makes me want to scream and throw it out of the window. Is it just me?

I absolutely loved them when I was a DC.

I enjoyed reading them again. Much better than Thomas the tank engine or the mr men books which were tedious . And as someone above said preferable to David Williams .,

My kids enjoyed them, we have the books and my son used to listen on audible/read himself I liked them as a kid. And no Walliams in this house.

Funny isn't it? I love the Famous Five, Secret Seven, school books and mystery series so not anti Blyton at all. But something about these books means I can't bear them. I think my brain tries to make sense of them, and that's clearly never going to work. DD5 seems to be enjoying them and certainly asks for chapters every night at the moment. Feels like a slog to get through them all!

They're fantasy and a lot of fantasy doesn't make sense in the real world.

My dc loved them, preferably the non-updated versions.

Walliams is not the only alternative option though. I don’t understand why his books are so popular.

They are wonderful for the imagination. I loved rereading to my children.

Do NOT try any of the noddy books. They’re even worse.

The noddy books are the worst case blyton scenario.

My dd really enjoyed them and it was one of EB's series that I didn't need to adapt or omit anything. I didn't do Wishing Chair as think there's a racist name in it and we avoided any of the books with a certain type of offensive toy in.
She's 15 now and still remembers Moonface and the Saucepan Man fondly! It was bonkers though!!

I love them. My kids did too. My 20-year-old daughter wants to go travelling but does not have the time or money. She recently said she wished she could be in the faraway tree and a different country could come to the top every week!

Its become fashionable to slag off Enid Blyton

Faraway Tree was a favourite when I was a child.
But I remember my class teacher being VERY anti-Blyton as it wasn't well-written. This was in the 1960's. Folk have always been snobbish about her books.

YANBU. dull, repetitive and somehow made magical things mundane.

Liked them as a DC but didn’t when read them to my DC, one of my DC was vaguely interested in a nice illustrated version I got, the other dislikes fantasy type stuff.

Don’t think it’s snobbery: the writing can be clunky and bossy. an obvious? sad thread of mothers wanting their DC to be out all day long and ask for nothing.

I loved Blyton as a DC but there are so many better books to choose from now. (And loads of bad ones of course!)

I loved the Faraway Tree and Malory Towers and so did my kids.

I don’t think it’s snobbery either.

There are so many better options out there in the 21st century.

The bossy and hectoring tone. The overt moral messages that are often very old fashioned (and not great). The way the books are plotted. None of that appeals to me at all.

Fair enough if you do like that. But it’s not ‘snobbery’ to dislike it.

I loved them as a kid, but I never understood why they didn't just pop their head up, notice it was a bad land at the top (land of slaps for example) and go straight back down. They always went in!

I loved the faraway tree series, so did my dc, and my much younger nephew and niece.

The Thomas the tank engine series was loved by my boys, but it has to read to the tune of:
Click-uh-te-clack-eh-te-click-uh-te-clack

So:

Tom-us-the-tank-enj-in-came-down-the-track

This makes them easier to read.

I loved them as a child but found the Faraway Tree in particular really difficult to read out loud to my children. One of them loved it and read it to themselves but I gave it up as a read aloud bedtime story. I think it’s the writing style, some of the sentences are ridiculously long you get out of breath!

I loved them as a child! Haven't read them since but I'd probably like them now as well. It was the sense of adventure and magic for me - using your imagination and realising unexpected things lurked behind the ordinary. And maybe why I love adventures now as well (in real life). I can't imagine what would be frustrating or weird about them tbh.. it's not battier than lord of the Rings.

Utterly insane which makes them a brilliant read.

People read too deeply nowadays, just read these for the batshit craziness that they are.

Yes, you dont often see complaints about game of thrones, lord of the rings etc for being 'insane'.

Perhaps people dont understand fantasy in that way

I adored them as a child. Crazy fantasy worlds were what my childish imagination loved. I think my tastes have changed as an adult.

They’re incredible.

see my username (which was not changed for this thread).

I had a memory of her books not being stocked in our local library when I was young and that was seventies early eighties. I wondered if I’d misremembered so just googled and no, they were banned from lots of libraries , she’s apparently the most banned author ever.

this was happening from the 50’s apparently.

I have a pathological hatred of Bob the Builder. Just dont buy books to read to your children that you don't enjoy reading to your children