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Wishing Chair #1

Adventures of the Wishing Chair

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Once Mollie and Peter have discovered the Wishing-Chair, their lives are full of adventure. It takes them to all sorts of magical places, from the giant's castle where they rescue Chinky the Pixie, to the amazing party at Magician Greatheart's castle.

185 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1937

251 people are currently reading
2739 people want to read

About the author

Enid Blyton

5,132 books6,299 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
3,112 (42%)
4 stars
2,392 (32%)
3 stars
1,458 (19%)
2 stars
313 (4%)
1 star
119 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 246 reviews
Profile Image for Oliver Smuhar.
Author 4 books63 followers
July 14, 2019
Wow, this book brings back memories. I'll be honest, I have never actually read an Enid Blyton book myself, as my mum used to read them to me as a kid. However, now that I am older and a little faster at reading, I gave it a go and damn, am I impressed.

It's just a fun, fantastical adventure that is bound to make you smile every page you turn. And through Blyton's creative and innocent mind, she takes you down a well paced and thrilling journey in the likes of Alice in Wonderland. Honestly, after reading this book as a young adult, I wished I had read it as a kid myself, instead of something like Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney.

Peter and Mollie are great leads, and hopefully they return in the sequel. I may read some other books in the collection including the Faraway Tree series, however, I don't own too many. Even though the story is well paced and the subtle pictures offer a great image in your head, I feel this book is really a four star. I gave it five because of the powerful little thing, nostalgia!

The only thing holding it back is its kind of like a kid's cartoon, where the two protagonists go on many adventures, however, each story doesn't link together all too well and there's no one cohesive story (just like episodes in some cartoons). So with this lack of depth, Blyton's adventure is indeed superb for a young child as they can absorb the book a chapter at a time, but I would have liked some more development from the obvious lessons founded by Peter and Mollie.

All in all, Adventures of the Wishing Chairs is an amazing ageless story. It's almost fantastic, but the same could be said about other fantasy children's books. Plus, Chinky is the best part of the whole book!
Profile Image for Dane Cobain.
Author 22 books322 followers
July 11, 2013
It's no Faraway Tree book, but the Adventures of the Wishing Chair is a delightful read and one which parents will enjoy just as much as children. In it, two children (Mollie and Peter) discover a magical wishing chair in a mysterious antiques shop - it has the ability to grow wings and fly, and it does so to take them home from the shop.

Of course, Blyton sprinkles in characteristically weird names, too - 'Chinky' the pixie, for example. I mean, is that deliberately racist? The book was first published in 1937, in a time when it was common practice to use the word 'nigger' in serious pieces of literature, but still.

This is effectively a collection of short stories that are held together by the common plot device of the flying chair, but that's good news for parents who read to their children before bedtime - the stories are both sequential and stand-alone, and each chapter is the perfect length.
Profile Image for Deborah Obida.
701 reviews696 followers
July 17, 2017
A fast and easy read that consist of a collection of stories about some kids and a wishing chair that can take them places, oh the chair fly.
Profile Image for Indah W.
Author 1 book21 followers
November 25, 2010
Woohhoo.. I finally back on Enid Blyton again.. and I gotta say that I'm amazed by her imagination.. she had written sooo many fantasy stories and at times you got a different taste from one story to another and I think it's haaarrdd to do that, hahaha..

I still have 2 more books of this series to read and I'm excited about that one..

Ohh ohh.. I'm wondering where will Peter, Mollie & Chinky have the next adventure with their wishing chair?

And how I wish I had one as well! Wakakakakak :p
Profile Image for Wreade1872.
813 reviews229 followers
September 12, 2017
Do you want distinct characters, rich descriptive writing, emotional involvement and that mix of the fantastic and grounded that makes a story feel truly magical? Then you should look elsewhere because this book has NONE of that :P .

This is Blytons knockoff of E.Nesbits, Five Children and It or maybe the sequel the The Phoenix and the Carpet.
Blyton does here to children's fiction what Edgar Rice Burroughs does to adventure fiction. And NO, the fact that this is aimed at kids does not excuse the poorness of the writing.

Now its not without a certain excitement. Bad writers have two advantages over good ones. Firstly is speed, a bad writer can fit as much incident into a couple of pages as a good writer would in a couple of chapters.
Also good writers like good politicians tend to be hampered by logic and reason. A bad writer like a popular politician feels no need for there to be any rules and can throw whatever random nonsense they like into the plot.

Its true that some good books can feel almost as random, Mary Poppins for example is at least as variable as this, however that randomness is offset by grounded moments that make the weird ones stand out through contrast.

Despite the very short chapters i rarely made it through one fully engaged. The flatness of the characters and mediocrity of the writing making it so hard to care. Literary beige.

The book version of a straight to dvd disney film. As mentally stimulating as an 'Adam Sandler' movie. Narrative horse-tranquilizer. Whenever you start to enjoy it you can actually feel a few more braincells commit hari-kari. Everytime someone praises this book a fairy dies...wait..wait.. i'm sure i've got a few more ;)...
ok i've just realised i'm putting way more effort into finding ways to insult this book than the author did in writing it, so i guess i'll stop :P .
Profile Image for chucklesthescot.
3,000 reviews134 followers
June 28, 2020
I don't know how many times I read this book as a child but I loved it! I was forever trying to drag chairs out into the garden to use as my wishing chair, which enraged my mum on a daily basis one summer! I grew up on Enid Blyton books but I don't remember too much about this series other than the characters, rich kids Mollie and Peter who have their own playroom at the bottom of the garden, a houseproud mother and a servant called Jane. One day they visit an antique shop to buy a present for Mother and get involved in a strange adventure where they steal a flying Wishing Chair from the wizard shop owner and take it home. Each time the chair grows wings, it is time for a new adventure, and as a kid I just loved the different places and people that they met on their travels.

Reading this as an adult was always going to be a new experience and I'm glad to say that I still had fun with it. Of course I can point at how silly the kids are at times or laugh at their outrage when somebody steals their chair (seeing as it doesn't actually belong to them) but it was all very enjoyable. Each installment is a short self contained adventure of a handful of pages. I could be picky and say that each was too short and over too quickly but they were written for kids who might have shorter attention spans so that is fair enough. The kids are nice enough but my favourite character is still Chinky. The pixie is kind, intelligent and can do magic, as well as having a ton of friends through the magical community.

One alert to give is the name of the pixie being Chinky. The books were written back in 1937, and I first read it in the late 70's when attitudes to various things were different. My review is based on that context and I won't be publishing any comments on my blog complaining about the name being used in the review.
38 reviews
December 23, 2010
I have so many great memories about the Wishing Chair series and many of Enid Blyton's other books. I loved the fantasy world where pixies and gnomes and little magical people where around every corner. I see a lot of the Harry Potter series in the Wishing Chair and wouldn't be surprised if Rowling read a lot of Blyton when she was younger.
Profile Image for Sara☆.
38 reviews11 followers
October 24, 2021
This will ALWAYS be a 5 star book for me.

When I was young, it was new and exciting; it’s the reason I would look for fairies at the bottom of the garden or for elves in the park near my house. It helped me believe in magic and stimulated my imagination. I think it’s also one of the books that encouraged me to start writing.

Now that I’m older, re-reading The Adventures of the Wishing Chair is not only nostalgic and comforting, but it reminds me to look for the magic around me, and is still just as exhilarating a read as it was back then.

Thank you Enid Blyton, for being such an important part of my childhood :)
Profile Image for Klara.
78 reviews59 followers
May 9, 2025
This was a nostalgic childhood re-read. I have rated it as my 10 year old self when I first read it, and thought it was wonderful. I dreamed of having a wishing chair after this.

Interesting to see the change in language over multiple decades. The writing now seems quite formal and uses words we rarely rely on today.
Profile Image for Lucy.
113 reviews14 followers
September 26, 2018
A reread from my childhood. Only this time o read a chapter a night with my youngest son <3 He loved it!
Profile Image for Ghalooya.
8 reviews
December 5, 2025
(3 and a half stars)

I loved this book but it doesn't really deserve five stars, don't get me wrong I love Enid Blyton but it's a children's book and it was very simple. honestly such a very cozy book to read, all the craziness ends when you finish each chapter! can't wait to read the second book!
Profile Image for BookishDramas.
842 reviews28 followers
January 11, 2025
The Adventures of the Wishing-chair (Rewards) by Enid Blyton
The Adventures of the Wishing-chair (Rewards) by Enid Blyton (1971-05-10) by Enid Blyton

One of my earliest read books, from the school library nearly 4 decades back.
And what an adventure it was...........

Enid Blyton one of the worlds most translated authors and probably the largest selling children's author of all time.
This book is a classic fantasy story from the world’s best-loved children’s author.

Mollie and Peter have saved some money and plan to go to buy their mother a birthday present and as they say ........ Holy-moly... they discover a chair or vice versa, which can fly...
Adventures start....
The book that I have has beautiful illustrations which show the various scenes as it happens.
This book will provide you a dose of healthy nostalgia and remind most fans about the joys of earlier generations and the books. Enid Blyton is a legend and a brilliant story writer.

Sometimes I do wish I had access to a wishing chair which could whip up some adventures in a whiff.... Ha Ha...

I would recommend this book to people who love kid adventure books.

NB - This is a review of the book based on my personal interaction with this book.
The author Enid Blyton’s work has been criticised during her lifetime and after for its racism, xenophobia and lack of literary merit. Her views and the views or writings in her books are her own and I neither promote nor condone them.

Her books especially those I have read over my childhood have given me and the dozens of my friends (classmates) who borrowed from me or from our school library great pleasure and enjoyment and provided much relief during a time when we did not have access to TV, quality engagements online, or other such outlets.
Profile Image for vaishnavi ☆゚⁠.⁠* is editing reviews!.
309 reviews77 followers
December 21, 2025
No better place for a kid to start with stories of magic than Enid Blyton's books! pleaseee i beg you, if you know a kid or have a kid or plan to have a kid (wtv, you get my point) please introduce them to Enid Blyton's books early on!! These books are legitimately the reason I love reading now <3

It's been a while since I last read this book, so I read it again and woah, it brings back some warm memories of my childhood. Blyton so wonderfully writes about a world where kids live along with pixies, fairies, gnomes, witches, and animals that talk that you find yourself wishing for it to become reality.
Profile Image for Nell.
892 reviews6 followers
November 13, 2015
I read this many many years ago for the first time – I do love Enid Blyton’s fantasy stuff – but the Wishing Chair books really don’t live up to the wonder of the Magic Faraway stories.

Quite disjointed really, hopping from one adventure to the next and they seemed like very short adventures for the most part, so you never really felt like you had a chance to enjoy them.

Not one of my favourite Blyton stories, but I needed something super easy to read to relax my brain, and that’s what I got.
Profile Image for Denise Elwyn McKenzie .
144 reviews2 followers
Read
March 20, 2020
I've had the 'Wishing Chair Again' since I was a child, but this is the first time reading the first book. It is made up of short chapters of two children Peter and Mollie with thier Pixie friend Chinky going on grand adventures on a flying chair. Most chapters are a full story in themselves. Only a few carry over.

If I can't have a TARDUS then a Wishing Chair would be the next best thing.
Profile Image for Godzilla.
634 reviews21 followers
January 9, 2009
My young daughter loved it, even though it does feel dated and slighlty out of kilter with the modern world
Profile Image for Jennifer.
199 reviews
February 2, 2012
My father read this to me as a little girl and now I have read it to my boys. My youngest (6 yrs old) really enjoyed them :)
Profile Image for Scott.
Author 25 books44 followers
September 2, 2025
I read this to my daughter who loves the tales. Lots of different adventures for Peter and Mollies, with the wishing chair and their pixie friend, Chinky.
Profile Image for Blake.
1,304 reviews44 followers
September 4, 2025
(FYI I tend to only review one book per series, unless I want to change my scoring by 0.50 or more of a star. -- I tend not to read reviews until after I read a book, so I go in with an open mind.)

I decided to make a 'childhood favourites' shelf for those books I grew up enjoying.


First time read the author's work?: No

Will you be reading more?: Yes

Would you recommend?: Yes


------------
How I rate Stars: 5* = I loved (must read all I can find by the author)
4* = I really enjoyed (got to read all the series and try other books by the author).
3* = I enjoyed (I will continue to read the series)
or
3* = Good book just not my thing (I realised I don't like the genre or picked up a kids book to review in error.)

All of the above scores means I would recommend them!
-
2* = it was okay (I might give the next book in the series a try, to see if that was better IMHO.)
1* = Disliked

Note: adding these basic 'reviews' after finding out that some people see the stars differently than I do - hoping this clarifies how I feel about the book. :-)
Profile Image for Carrie Brownell.
Author 5 books90 followers
October 11, 2018
I wish I had discovered Enid Blyton a few years ago when my oldest kids were younger. Blyton is the perfect author to read aloud to kids ages 5-8ish. Thankfully I still have a few kids in this age range but I read this one for myself to "preview" it at the ripe ol' age of 40 and still enjoyed it fine! Blyton likes to tell imaginative, magical stories full of elves and pixies and wizards. There is sometimes a moral lesson attached but not always. The stories are pleasant, gentle and adorable. I'll be reading more Blyton for sure -- WITH my kids!
Profile Image for Izzy Smith.
84 reviews5 followers
February 6, 2019
It was very attention grabbing and very fun! I have read a lot of Enid Blyton books including: The famous five, the folk of the faraway tree, the find-outers, the secret seven, christmas treats and then, The wishing chair.
The thing I like about Blyton is she writes in a old-fashioned way.
All her stories are magical and impressive!
This book I found is very enchanting! I would recommend this book for younger readers....
🤓
Profile Image for Sha.
1,000 reviews39 followers
July 24, 2020
Plot: Two kids find flying chair and go on adventures to weird places populated by weird people.

1. Enid Blyton was the first all-text no-pictures author I ever read. Two decades worth of evolved tastes and increasing cynicism have washed away most of my delight, but I continue to retain a lot of fondness for her fantasy stories.

2. It's just- there is something so wonderfully imaginative about all of the places and people that are there in these books? The strange lands and the ridiculously quirky characters are a constant source of entertainment simply because they are so very weird. I mean yes, of course the conflicts are simplistic and the antagonists are not too bright but that's not what I'm here for. I'm here for the worldbuilding.

3. And admittedly it's not very scientific worldbuilding. It's not going to stand up to close scrutiny or examination and the rules are nonexistent but you try and tell me that Land of Dreams sequence wasn't a chaotic delight.

4. This is actually one of the less compelling books in Blytons fantasy land sagas because there is a greater focus on the dumb antagonists than in the worldbuilding. But it still features gems like the civilized mice and the invisible paints and the land of dreams.

5. I wouldn't actually advice giving this to kids to read without accompanying commentary, mind you. If only because it's been a while since this was written and the portrayals of good and bad and delinquency (sigh) are kinda questionable. But hey~ flying chairs!
7 reviews
November 16, 2020
This book has not aged well. The children are awful human beings, and their mum is worse.
But the ideas for the adventures are pretty fun and creative, even if they do rely a little to heavily on kidnap / slavery as the hook.

Maybe I’m just getting too sensitive as I get older. My 6 year old son thought it was amazing...
Profile Image for Cait Garrett.
143 reviews
June 20, 2024
This was a fave series when I was a kid and I picked them up when I was clearing my room out at my parents.

Was feeling quite down lately and wanted someing super light hearted so I thought it was a good time to revisit 🥰

Profile Image for Akhila Ashru.
187 reviews21 followers
August 25, 2025
I read this with my daughter one chapter per day before bed time. she enjoyed it and apparently gave 5 stars 🤗. For me not much exciting only a few chapters are really funny. Short chapters make it perfect for beginners to read.
Profile Image for Claire23.
335 reviews
February 4, 2024
So damn nostalgic although don’t think I’ll be reading until I have kids or nieces and nephews.
Profile Image for Rupanwita.
163 reviews26 followers
October 7, 2024
I found it mostly unoriginal yet harmless content. It is interesting for a 6 year old I suppose. We had much fun reading this as bedtime book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 246 reviews

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