Some great reading

Reading can have a bad press some of which may be down to the lack of encouragement in reading for pleasure especially in an age of instant electronic gratification but part of this I feel is actually the the lack of appreciation of what is people love to read about.

The modern age has many pluses but one negative is the tendency to write notionally gender neutral stories that read more as stories for girls with lots of details around friendships, drama and relationships which is not something that instinctively does anything for you.

You like mysteries and adventures that hold you in suspense and even when they are, the political correct requirement to make the key characters female for gender empowerment   means there's nothing boys can relate to.

One author whose work I loved as a boy and still love to read is Enid Blyton and at least in her world boys are really boys who do have gumption and who doesn't feel the need to write to an agenda.

As a sissy gurl I'm glad boys have a proper place in the scheme of things.

Today I'm looking at a few I think are good for littles

While being a mixed gender series, The Six Cousins series has  quite a bit for a boy looking at the lives of six boys and girls, three of whom has lost their home in a fire and three whose lives are affected by having them stay with them.

It's less a 'kitchen sink drama' thankfully as more an adventure looking at the different characters in the area such as shady poacher, a wondering philosopher the older boy lionizes who tunes out to be a thief  and the importance of working hard.

It looks too at a topic that is relevant today, how it is some boys seem to lack that spirit, more concerned with looks within the older boy being more namby-pandy and yet the one who initially was and clearly most effected by the fire finds meaning in life on the farm letting his sense of maleness out.

The role of a too soft Mum in the upbringing of three of the children and her own lack of adult maturity are explored too

Although aimed more at the eight year old reader, this is the story of Donald who can't really concentrate on academic things in school as he's always dreaming about a life with animals sometimes seeing himself as a naturalist, sometimes wanting to be a vet although his school reports are a concern for his father.

When is Grandma offers to get him a puppy for his birthday his excitement is shattered as at one his parent reject it and the story is of his attempt to secure the object of his fascination -that puppy.

Reading it again, his boyish nature and the longing for a pet really connected to me.

The Boy Next Door is an unusual novel in the extensive Enid Blyton catalogue in that while it is an adventure, the focus of it is a mystery around a boy, a ten year old American boy called Kit who on the outset we are told lost his father and was moved to England for his own protection as his father had left a huge amount of money to him when he's of age and is a target for kidnapping not least by his uncle.

Kit is meant to be hidden away in property miles from anywhere, free from being overlooked where he has a housemaid and a tutor but can be seen by Betty, Lucy and Robin who live next door here he's playing Cowboys and Indians with red indian* dress up attire on.
They didn't know of a boy next door nor did their Mummy.

The book looks at how even though he's not meant to be seen by a soul, he plays with them having adventures although though he's threatened with a spanking if does, how two people suddenly arrive nearby looking for him and ultimately how he foils a kidnapping with the boys and girls help. He also is reunited with his father!

We also learn the source of where he was to be found for the two looking to kidnap him was very much closer to home.

* Intuit or "First Nation" is the preferred term today in Canada.

As unfortunately with most of Enid's works since the 1990's the editors have been changing names of characters, removing unpolitically correct references and the like so to really enjoy these you need to find copies BEFORE 1990.

Dean's editions before this point are easy to find even if they lack all the original illustrations without breaking the bank and Armada paperbacks exist too which the Cousins series in my collection are part of.