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The Famous Five #4-6

Famous Five Library 4-6

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Famous Five Collection 2

496 pages, Hardcover

First published February 5, 2015

267 people are currently reading
344 people want to read

About the author

Enid Blyton

5,141 books6,257 followers
See 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

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5 stars
743 (68%)
4 stars
233 (21%)
3 stars
77 (7%)
2 stars
23 (2%)
1 star
16 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Profile Image for Summer Matthias Herondale.
78 reviews4 followers
November 6, 2023
Another wonderful venture back to my childhood! Especially with Five Go To Smugglers Top! I first got that book at a second hand store way back in 2006 :)
Profile Image for Gabslau.
7 reviews4 followers
August 28, 2021
Always finding myself rereading it again if i got stuck in several books. This time, down with the Adventure on the Kirrin Island! Suddenly feels like 7 years old again!
Profile Image for Sapna.
46 reviews7 followers
January 15, 2020
As usual 5 stars for Enid Blyton.

This is a collection of books 4-6.

1. Five Go To Smuggler's Top.
The Famous Five (including Timothy the Dog) go to stay with George's mum and dad in Kirrin Cottage. One night due to a really severe rainstorm a tree falls on the roof of Kirrin Cottage and the girls narrowly escaped death, had it not been for Julian raising the alarm it would have been far worse. However, the house is badly damaged. So the Famous Five go to stay with a friend of not only Uncle Quentin who is interested in his scientific work (Mr Lenoir) but someone from Julian and Dick's school (nickname Sooty). The name of the house is Smuggler's Top and is built near the marshes which are dangerous. One problem is Mr Lenoir doesn't like dogs so George and the others (including Sooty and his sister Marybelle) sneak him in and hide him in one of the many hiding places in the strange castle. The castle also has entrances to a maze of underground catacombs which helped the smugglers in days gone by. The town has a modern day smuggler called Mr Barling. Later on we read that the butler, Block, who claims to be deaf is not and is hand-in-glove with Mr Barling. Their main problem is the scientific work of Uncle Quentin and that they want to stop it. Later they kidnap Uncle Quentin and Sooty (who was in the wrong place at the wrong time) and try to end his brilliant scientific work. All's well that end's well as the Famous Five save the day.

2. Five Go Off in a Caravan.
The five, after seeing a circus procession, decide to rent out two caravans and spend the summer holidays travelling in caravans and stopping near a circus camp. They make a nice friend called Nobby who looks after dogs and Pongo the chimpanzee but it's the horses he loves. They also come into contact with not-so-nice Uncle Dan and Lou the Acrobat. They set up their caravans near Merran Lake but are forced to move but still the nasty two of Dan and Lou are not happy and ask them to move again! What is the reason behind this strange behaviour?? Obviously, the Famous Five will solve this mystery and save the day in this fun adventure.

3. Five on Kirrin Island Again.
George is livid! Her and her cousins and Timmy the Dog are to stay at Kirrin Cottage for the Easter holidays but her father and famous scientist, Uncle Quentin, has set up a tower for important research work on her island (gifted to her by her mother), Kirrin Island. Uncle Quentin calls them urgently to the island one day saying he suspects someone to be on the island except for him and asks that Timmy the Dog stay with him for protection. George is distressed as she cannot bear to be parted from her beloved dog but agrees. She makes her father promise to signal from his tower twice a day to ensure they know everything is fine on the island. Meanwhile, Dick suspects some new strangers who have come to stay near the coastguard's cottage but after learning the older man is a journalist and the child is his ward he relaxes, thinking journalists are always snooping around. We find out later on Dick was right to suspect those two! One day, George doesn't see Timmy when the signal is sent, so secretly takes her boat to the island to find out where her beloved dog is!! The big secret is where is Uncle Quentin living on the island. George manages to find out and the finale of the great adventure is carried out mostly by Timmy. Famous Five save the day!
Profile Image for Liz Dawson.
45 reviews11 followers
April 28, 2020
Revisiting my childhood! I was a bit wary about rereading this in case I thought they were awful or terribly dated. In fact, though they are somewhat dated I still really enjoyed them - nothing like a bit of nostalgia!
41 reviews
November 30, 2020
Best book in the world

This is the best book in the world should read and who ever thinks that it's the worst book doesn't know what he/she is taking about. There were 3 books and Five To The Smugglers Top was my favourite. (Plus I am 8 years and my name is Rishi).
Profile Image for Alexandra.
Author 4 books7 followers
April 14, 2019
Immer noch schön zu lesen!
Profile Image for Ichika27.
84 reviews1 follower
March 8, 2023
It took me a while to finish the whole thing but it was fun to read! All of the stories felt the same as their first halves where they're setting up the adventure is more slice-of-life so it was kind of slow and kind of boring. Once the antagoinists and the mysteries have been introduced properly in the set up though, it gets exciting and in the end, hard to stop reading. I totally enjoyed reading this entire book.
Profile Image for Ike.
Author 2 books3 followers
March 30, 2021
Reading these to my kids because I loved them when I was a kid... They get better in the later collections as the author gained more experience. The early stories can be a little repetitive at times. I find that they really pick up from collection 4!
Profile Image for Paul .
56 reviews
February 20, 2023
The adventures continue for the children (and Timmy of course), with caravan adventures near a circus, an old house full of hidden doors and secret tunnels, and Uncle Quentin takes over Kirrin Island for his experiments, much to the annoyance of George, who considers it her own personal island.
Enid Blyton's tales of the famous five sound similar, but each story is completely unique and great fun to read. I only read one of the Famous Five books as a child, so I am making up for lost time and reading them now in my fifties.
The language is of course very dated now, but that does not detract from the great story telling.
1 review
October 27, 2015
I choose this book because it looks interesting with 3 adventures. My favorite character is Julian(the oldest of the kids). The setting of the story is at Kirrin Cottage and Castawy or Smugglers Top. The mystery of Mr and Mrs Sticks, the tower and the circus of Dan and Lou were solved and everyone is safe. The main characters are children of 11, 12 and 13. I would recommend this book because mystery is great and interesting.
Profile Image for Bethany.
212 reviews
October 16, 2023
Again the treatment of the girls infuriated me. I am fully aware this was written in a time with different gender roles but I couldn’t get past how angry it made me
14 reviews
Read
March 4, 2023
The dog is soooooooo cute I love the dog. I like that Enid wrote it in a Old fashioned sort of writing style.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews

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