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The Faraway Tree #2-3
The Magic Faraway Tree & The Folk of the Faraway Tree
The Magic Faraway Tree
Jo, Bessie and Fanny take their cousin Rick on an adventure he'll never forget to the magic Faraway Tree, where he meets Moon-Face, Silky the fairy and Saucepan Man, and visits all the different lands at the top of the Faraway Tree. Like the Land of Spells, the crazy Land of Topsy-Turvy, and the land of Do-As-You-Please, where the children ride a runaway train!
The Folk of the Faraway Tree
Jo, Bessie and Fanny have a visit from snooty friend Connie. Connie won't believe in the Faraway Tree and the magical people who live there - Moon-face, Silky the fairy and Saucepan Man. There's only one way to prove her wrong - together the children climb the tree, and visit some of the lands at the top of it, like the Land of Secrets and the Land of Treats. And after a few adventures, Connie learns to be a nicer person altogether!
Jo, Bessie and Fanny take their cousin Rick on an adventure he'll never forget to the magic Faraway Tree, where he meets Moon-Face, Silky the fairy and Saucepan Man, and visits all the different lands at the top of the Faraway Tree. Like the Land of Spells, the crazy Land of Topsy-Turvy, and the land of Do-As-You-Please, where the children ride a runaway train!
The Folk of the Faraway Tree
Jo, Bessie and Fanny have a visit from snooty friend Connie. Connie won't believe in the Faraway Tree and the magical people who live there - Moon-face, Silky the fairy and Saucepan Man. There's only one way to prove her wrong - together the children climb the tree, and visit some of the lands at the top of it, like the Land of Secrets and the Land of Treats. And after a few adventures, Connie learns to be a nicer person altogether!
- GenresChildrens
368 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2001
3 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
About the author
Enid Blyton
5,215 books6,352 followersSee also:
Ένιντ Μπλάιτον (Greek)
Enida Blaitona (Latvian)
Энид Блайтон (Russian)
Inid Blajton (Serbian)
Інід Блайтон (Ukrainian)
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.
See also her pen name Mary Pollock
Ένιντ Μπλάιτον (Greek)
Enida Blaitona (Latvian)
Энид Блайтон (Russian)
Inid Blajton (Serbian)
Інід Блайтон (Ukrainian)
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.
See also her pen name Mary Pollock
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 4, 2012
At age 49 years just the thought of this book fills me with childhood wonderment and a chance to imagine and escape.
November 11, 2020
Several thoughts. First, I do not understand why Enid Blyton is so unknown in the United States while she was so popular in Europe. Obviously, she had a huge output and created amazing classics, but in the United States, we never heard of her. I did not grow up with these books, but my husband-of-European-origin bought them eagerly as my son became old enough to listen to them. And having watched the Five Friends series with him on my husband's advice, I was excited to read some Enid Blyton books.
Although I was positively disposed to these books, I have to say with a little bit of sadness that I did not love them the way many of the raters on GoodReads did and do. I can understand all the rave reviews of people who read these books in their childhood. And I want to rave about them. But I'm only giving these books three stars because I found them a little too... unrealistic, far-fetched, and sometimes even annoying.
I know, I know, you will say that the nature of magic is unrealistic and far-fetched! And children are naturally at times "daft." But as just one example: the idea of a man who goes around with saucepans tied to himself at all times is just... weird. And if he really is selling them, does he not sometimes end up denuded of his pans by virtue of plying his craft? And has he a great reserve of saucepans somewhere to restock when he sells one off? None of these details was touched on, which might be fine for a five-year-old, but then again, I think it would not be a bad thing for a five-year-old to also get this veneer of realism. I mean, I think it is possible to create characters that are bizarre, surprising, and magical but to also create them in a three-dimensional way that allows more realistically for their state of being. And it is possible to do this even for magical stories aimed at very young children.
I did not find Saucepan man's weirdness funny or endearing -- I found it actually kind of disturbing -- and while I was careful to keep opinions like this to myself, I never got the impression that my son, who ranged in age from 5-7 while we read through these books, was endeared either. He has just gotten into drawing, and is eagerly drawing pictures of the characters in his favorite podcast, but has shown no interest in reviving the characters in the Magic Faraway Tree books.
I think it is possible to have magic that is not at the same time weird or discomfiting, so I am only giving these books 3 stars. Saucepan man is just one example. There were dozens of details where I wanted to suspend my disbelief and just feel warm and magical but instead I felt mildly annoyed. The worlds at the top of the tree, for example, changing on a roughly weekly basis, were so bizarre and improbable that they too often left me struggling to feel enchanted. The Land of Take What you Want? I mean, I see the appeal, but, at the risk of sounding really curmudgeonly, I cannot love it as a concept to read to my child.
Anyway, the real deciding factor is the reaction my son had. We read the three books of the Magic Faraway Tree series over the course of him being 5-7, and they did not entirely hold his attention. I think there were things he liked, but nothing that grabbed him with the intensity that adult writers who recall reading this in their childhoods in the 1960s or 70s or even 80s experienced. Maybe it has to do with Netflicks or podcasts making his standards different for what is magical and what is surprising.
I think we'll hold onto these books and read them to his kids someday, because they are a classic, and there is a lot in them that reinforces good socialization, manners, how to behave among friends and how NOT to behave among friends. And ideally, I want the Land of Presents and the Land of Magic Spells to be as enchanting to the next generation of little people as they were to kids 50 years ago. So we will try again with the next generation, but I cannot give them a resounding 4- or 5-star rating, though it makes me sad to say that.
Although I was positively disposed to these books, I have to say with a little bit of sadness that I did not love them the way many of the raters on GoodReads did and do. I can understand all the rave reviews of people who read these books in their childhood. And I want to rave about them. But I'm only giving these books three stars because I found them a little too... unrealistic, far-fetched, and sometimes even annoying.
I know, I know, you will say that the nature of magic is unrealistic and far-fetched! And children are naturally at times "daft." But as just one example: the idea of a man who goes around with saucepans tied to himself at all times is just... weird. And if he really is selling them, does he not sometimes end up denuded of his pans by virtue of plying his craft? And has he a great reserve of saucepans somewhere to restock when he sells one off? None of these details was touched on, which might be fine for a five-year-old, but then again, I think it would not be a bad thing for a five-year-old to also get this veneer of realism. I mean, I think it is possible to create characters that are bizarre, surprising, and magical but to also create them in a three-dimensional way that allows more realistically for their state of being. And it is possible to do this even for magical stories aimed at very young children.
I did not find Saucepan man's weirdness funny or endearing -- I found it actually kind of disturbing -- and while I was careful to keep opinions like this to myself, I never got the impression that my son, who ranged in age from 5-7 while we read through these books, was endeared either. He has just gotten into drawing, and is eagerly drawing pictures of the characters in his favorite podcast, but has shown no interest in reviving the characters in the Magic Faraway Tree books.
I think it is possible to have magic that is not at the same time weird or discomfiting, so I am only giving these books 3 stars. Saucepan man is just one example. There were dozens of details where I wanted to suspend my disbelief and just feel warm and magical but instead I felt mildly annoyed. The worlds at the top of the tree, for example, changing on a roughly weekly basis, were so bizarre and improbable that they too often left me struggling to feel enchanted. The Land of Take What you Want? I mean, I see the appeal, but, at the risk of sounding really curmudgeonly, I cannot love it as a concept to read to my child.
Anyway, the real deciding factor is the reaction my son had. We read the three books of the Magic Faraway Tree series over the course of him being 5-7, and they did not entirely hold his attention. I think there were things he liked, but nothing that grabbed him with the intensity that adult writers who recall reading this in their childhoods in the 1960s or 70s or even 80s experienced. Maybe it has to do with Netflicks or podcasts making his standards different for what is magical and what is surprising.
I think we'll hold onto these books and read them to his kids someday, because they are a classic, and there is a lot in them that reinforces good socialization, manners, how to behave among friends and how NOT to behave among friends. And ideally, I want the Land of Presents and the Land of Magic Spells to be as enchanting to the next generation of little people as they were to kids 50 years ago. So we will try again with the next generation, but I cannot give them a resounding 4- or 5-star rating, though it makes me sad to say that.
January 14, 2024
I am reading The Magic Faraway series after finding out that they have been banned or changed as they were offensive or rather politically incorrect. So far, I have read The Enchanted Forest and now the The Magic Faraway Tree, neither do I find offensive in any way. In fact, I am swept away with the wonderful story of such a magical world. How wonderful to read about a place where children have to help their parents with simple chores after which they are allowed to go out to play and find themselves on terribly exciting adventures. Oh, the freedom, the independence, the fun of discovering those different worlds and having to deal with all sorts of people/creatures. Would it not be nice for children of today to enjoy such innocent fun? I am a great believer that it would.
March 6, 2022
If a tree such as the magic faraway tree existed, I would live in it.
This book just brings back childhood. I still reread this series whenever I want to get away from the adulthood.
This book just brings back childhood. I still reread this series whenever I want to get away from the adulthood.
June 9, 2024
I didn’t think I like this book but I really enjoyed this book at the end I did start to get a big bored but i enjoyed reading this book
May 11, 2015
One of the highlights of my younger childhood years. I remember thinking I could climb the tree at the bottom of the garden and be whisked away to other lands. Sadly it never happened, however the stories of Moonface and his pals will remain as a firm favourite for children of all ages.
April 16, 2015
I really like the series and the author.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews