So my niece's school book newsletter reccommends any Enid Bltyon Famous Five book.............

[DrNortherner]

as reading material. How odd. I thought they were outlawed in schools nowadays?

Awww - they're great! bit un-PC granted, but great fun and a reminder to today's kids that children used to GO OUT ON THEIR OWN !!

Quite old fashioned but my two boys just love them. Gets them reading - what's the problem? I loved them at their age too and they were old fashioned even then. We read much more into them as adults than they do as children and are quite aware that it's a story and thus endless liberties are taken. Would rather they read these than a lot of other things out there.

I loved them and am happy for my kids to read them.

What ho! Super dooper fun!

They gave audio versions away with the Daily Telegraph a while ago so we have them in the car - the Dss love them.

My dds 15,13 nearly and 9 love the books. That's great to see they are being recommended

My ds1 loved them and now ds2 has started on them. A great chapter book series - really feels like they're reading a "grown up" book.

not really pc these days but who cares - if children like them and it gets them reading hooray !

Oh, I loved them as a child and intend to give them to my dc- whilst drinking lashings of ginger beer of course.

My son is nearly 7 and loves his Famous Five. We have also started buying the Secret Seven and loads of Roald Dahl books.

I wasn't a great lover of the Famous Five though I did read quite a few of them. The Adventurous Four and the Adventurous Four Again are very good.

Also the Malcolm Saville Lone Pine and Buckingham books.

Surely not just Enid Blyton though - surely as one of a number of authors on a list?
I think she is a dreadful writer so would never encourage a child to read her books...but...she is a proven lure to the reluctant reader. And thankfully the days of adults refusing to let children read enjoyable books because they disapprove of the writer's classist, racist views in RL are over
And as others say - children can understand that things were different when older books were written, and there is an awful lot of more modern dreck out there still eg those effing Fairy books and Goosebumps...

I really enjoyed them ,and the Dc hve listende to the free cdsmentioned above, but they think they are too samey to grip their attention, and tbh I supose it is a bit obvious what the outcome will be. Now have a whole shelf that i saved in eager anticipation of my own Dc reading them ( some of which my mother read as a girl...), so will be off to the Oxfam shop, when i can bear to let them go...

agree, Blyton is not what I would recommend to my DC, but IO loved them as a child and read them by the yard. DS has read some, and listened to soem of the free audiobooks too.

Ah you see MrsGuy, I was denied access by my parents and actually also the library in my youth, so I can be brutally objective about Enid and have no wonderful childhood memories to pass on/share

I used to love St Clare's etc. Pure escapism

DS1 brought one home from school when in Y4 (he's now 19) went in and said to teacher, there must be some mistake, surely, she aggreed, BUT, in the meantime I told him I'd give him 50p for any instance he coud find of the boys preparing food or drink, needless to say there were none. I must say I read loads of them and it 'didn't do me any harm' but then i was a teenager in the 70s and managed to re-educate myself! Probably harmless if you take the trouble to point out what ludicrous views you find in them, but really, there are so many better books can't imagine anyone familiar with kids books actually reccommending them.

I read Malory Towers and St Clares as a teenager mercy, and smuggled them in from the Oxfam Shop

My DD1 loves Malory Towers and they have become her comfort books that she rereads whenever she is feeling a bit under the weather. I do not mind, except when she creates difficulties for herself by believing she is Darrell, the loyal but hotheaded heroine who always has to confront others when she finds evidence of wrongdoing...