The Put-Em-Rights are a secret band of do-gooders. Sally, Amanda, Micky, Podge, Yolande and Bobby are all eager to solve everyone's problems. But it's not always easy trying to help without getting into lots of trouble...They also find there are some things about themselves which need putting right too!
Enid Mary Blyton (1897–1968) was an English author of children's books.
Born in South London, Blyton was the eldest of three children, and showed an early interest in music and reading. She was educated at St. Christopher's School, Beckenham, and - having decided not to pursue her music - at Ipswich High School, where she trained as a kindergarten teacher. She taught for five years before her 1924 marriage to editor Hugh Pollock, with whom she had two daughters. This marriage ended in divorce, and Blyton remarried in 1943, to surgeon Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters. She died in 1968, one year after her second husband.
Blyton was a prolific author of children's books, who penned an estimated 800 books over about 40 years. Her stories were often either children's adventure and mystery stories, or fantasies involving magic. Notable series include: The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, The Five Find-Outers, Noddy, The Wishing Chair, Mallory Towers, and St. Clare's.
According to the Index Translationum, Blyton was the fifth most popular author in the world in 2007, coming after Lenin but ahead of Shakespeare.
This book is recommended for students of Grade 5 and I found (while teaching) this story has more depth than one may see at the first glance. It is not just another adventurous tale by Blyton but a story with a message to its young audience.
It teaches children to take responsibility for their actions, the need of helping the underprivileged people, the faults of discriminations, how to be active and useful to their community, the need of confronting their fears and much more. Each of the characters under goes a development of how they behave and think. So I'd say this is a more serious novel can be enjoyed by mostly children, and, why not, us adults as well.
The most serious children book so far by Enid Blyton. I like this quote though: "... the more money and possessions and power we have, the more responsible and thoughtful we should be."
The Tramping Preacher inspires six children to start their own club helping people. But will bossy Sally, irresponsible Podge, shy Yolande, stingy Mickey, lazy Amanda and Bobby, convinced he is better than the village children, really do any good?
This book is absolutely fascinating in its portrayal of class: the children of the local schoolteacher, vicar, doctor and big house are a friendship group quite separate from the village and village children, and Blyton thinks that Bobby, a nicely spoken child whose family has come down in the world, should know his place and stick with the villagers and stay away from the nice posh kids. Meanwhile the nice posh children think they have a mission to educate and improve adult villagers: Blyton shows the villagers comically resisting change with pithy wit, but that is because the children go about it the wrong way, and ultimately the idea that they should be working to improve those adults’ lives is vindicated. Most of the village characters could come straight out of a 1950s British film, but the children, each given an identifiable character trait (Podge is easy going - good - but irresponsible - bad) are very much along the same lines as Blyton’s Six Cousins or family stand-alone stories. Perhaps the best read today is the story of lazy Amanda who has to deal with a stroppy working class teenager who refuses to be lectured to, and ends with a friendship on equal terms. Bossy Sally and Bobby, who commits the ultimate crime of not knowing his place, fare worst in this morality tale, which tries to give postwar British children a conservative idea of goodness: ‘know your place, help people in small ways, but never change the system’.
I feel I could claim that this is the first Enid Blyton book I have read. It is possible that I did have one read to me as a child but if I had then I have no memory of it.
I admit that I had some preconceptions of Blyton's works. That they would be the very definition of twee while also patronising a reader. I didn't fell either of those things were true of this story. Maybe the parodies of Blyton are more exaggerated than I thought they might be.
What is true and was something I expected was that the plot here is leisurely. It takes its time to get anywhere. The theme of learning about yourself by helping others isn't particularly original but it is done admirably here. All the main characters had enough to make them stand out without ever being superbly interesting.
I feel this book does have some relevance in modern society which means I can recommend it to the modern child (or for an adult to read to one.) It doesn't feel completely dated despite the decades that have passed since publication. I just feel that it also lacked excitement and possibly wouldn't keep the interest of said modern child.
This is one of Enid Blyton’s stand alone books for older children, with a bit of a religious tint. The children are inspired by a travelling preacher to do good, and they undertake to fix people in the village. Along the way, they learn about their own failings and work to address them. It’s a pleasant, easy read, and I found one element that really spoilt the story, and that’s the classist remarks at the end where Bobby decides to stay “with his own kind”.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
An utterly beautiful book. Its been a while since I read this last - about 20 years or so- and it was a joy to rediscover the characters with their warts and all. I remember being hugely influenced by this book, on how I should be and how not. A bunch of children are motivated to solve the problems of their local folk and by the end, understand their own failings and start trying to work on them. It's such a deep book, and so much to learn even for adults.
I remember having this book as a young girl (thirty-plus years ago) and it didn't make much of an impact on me, not one of my favourite Blyton "stand alone" books. I downloaded it as a Kindle ebook, and enjoyed it more. Standard Blyton fare but readable!
It follows a group of children who for a club and try to do some good in the world. Its a good kids tale about kids embracing responsibility, persevering through ups and downs and maturing through the process.