Fairyland Stories

by Enid Blyton

A collection of short stories from Enid Blyton. Contains:

~ The Balloon-Pipe
~ Silly-One and the Jewels
~ The Brownie Biddle's House
~ Now Then, Busy-Body!
~ Little Shaving Brushes
~ Mr. Storm-Around
~ He Bought A Secret
~ The Rub-Away Flannel
~ It's Going To Rain!
~ Billy and the Brownie
~ The Wish That Came True
~ Bicycle Magic
~ Somebody Came to the Door
~ The Tale of Lanky-Panky
~ Slip-Around's Wishing Wand
~ Big Hands and Nobbly

Genres: Childrens

154 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

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

Reviews

[Guguk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kumpulan cerita para jin kurcaci, elf, gnome, goblin, dan manusia.

Ceritanya ndak saling berkaitan, dan isinya nyaris semuanya satu cetakan : ada makhluk yang bandel, lalu kenakalannya itu mendapatkan balasan setimpal.
Untungnya ada juga cerita yang beda, seperti soal permen Doraemon ajaib itu (^^)

Menghibur, tapi sekaligus agak membosankan... (^-^;)> Sebenarnya kalau mood-nya pas, bisa asyik bacanya.
Tapi pas mood gonta-ganti bacaan, ternyata dongeng anak-anak pun bisa dibaca sampai setahun lebih~ (⁄ ⁄>⁄ ▽ ⁄<⁄ ⁄)

[Kylie Abecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing beats the timeless tales of Enid Blyton. Her style is certainly one all of its own. And still as pleasing now as they were when I was a child.

[Sati Marie Frost · Rating 2 out of 5]

Note: After I wrote this review, I googled Enid Blyton and found that she actually died in 1968, so either this was published after her death, or it's a reprint and for some reason they included the printing date but not the original date of publication. I have no idea when this was written, nor why it had such a different feel to Blyton's other (usually charming) short stories.

Something about this collection of stories just didn't mesh quite well with me. I don't know if it's because it was written later in Blyton's career (the publication date says 1971, so she was getting on a bit) or if it's because it was written for a younger audience than most of her story collections, but I found the tales in this book fairly forgettable. Indeed, I'm sure I read the book many times as a kid, but I only remembered one or two of the pieces in here, and even those I didn't remember well. Compared to Enid Blyton's Book of Fairies, which was incredibly imaginative and memorable, this one felt a bit flat and lacked the vitality and creativity of some previous books.

In addition, I found a surprising amount of schadenfreude in these tales - so many were about getting one over on people (or fairy-folk) who had been mean to others. Understandable, perhaps, but not what I would necessarily want my kids learning. 2 - 2.5 stars.