Enid Blyton is the famous writer who wrote fabulous children books like Noddy, Famous Five etc.
The Story.Joe, Beth and Frannie move to the country when their father gets a new job. Exploring their new area they discover an enchanted wood right on their doorstep. The wood is home to wonderful, Magical characters such as elves and talking rabbits.
In the wood they find the faraway tree, so called because at the top, through the clouds the children discover lots of different faraway lands. The lands change on a regular basis, so the children never know which land they will find. There is the land of Nursery Rhymes, where many well know Nursery Rhyme characters live, the land of do-as you please and the land of giants. Each land provides the children with an exciting adventure.
The children meet and befriend the folk who live in the faraway tree who share their adventures. There is silky the lovely fairy. Moon-face and saucepan-man, who makes the children laugh as he constantly miss-hears what is said. Saucepan –man curiously has a selection of pots and pans tied to his clothing. Then there is a talking red squirrel, dame washalot, who regularly throws her washing water down the tree and the angry pixie, who is to be avoided!
The folk of the faraway tree follows on from the enchanted wood and the faraway tree, although it can be read alone. At the start of the folk of the faraway tree we meet Connie, the children’s spoilt cousin who has come to stay. Connie is included in the adventures and adds another dimension to the story. Initially Connie is impossible to live with and upsets all the other characters. There is a chapter entitled Connie gets into trouble, but you will have to read to find out more…!
This book is pure magic! Each chapter has an exciting heading and my son couldn’t wait to find out what would happen next! Just as when I was a child I loved the magical characters but as an adult can appreciate the skill of Enid Blyton to have created this fantasy.
The descriptions of all the characters is excellent. Each chapter is fairly short, making this an ideal book to read at bedtime.
In the Book, the children come across all the familiar characters which most of us know from previous stories and these include brownies, pixies, fairies, and witches with a fair sprinkling of rabbits and squirrels. Squirrels are climbers whereas rabbits are burrowers but the latter have no problem with the scaling of the tree because there’s plenty of magic about to allow this slight deviation from the normal.
The book is all about the Magic Land which creates a wave of Interest in the children which makes them to read the book and hence the Vocabulary of the children improves.
I would highly recommend this book along with the other in the series I have mentioned. It is wonderful to encourage your Child’s imagination!