I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for D to be old enough to comprehend Enid Blyton - not the golliwog kind of stories but the Famous Five level ones. Finally I came across the Naughtiest Girl books once too many times and succumbed and picked up the first one :). Left it lying around and D started picking it up and reading it. Over 3-4 days she has diligently read the book, relaying to me which chapter or page she was at from time to time.
Questions/Statements during the last days were:
- Does Elizabeth become a good girl at the end of the book?
- I don't like that boy who keeps bothering Elizabeth!
- She realizes she wants to stay at school only after she decides to go home. (This after completing the book today)
I am quite thrilled at this development. Though still unsure if she's actually understood all the words etc., I am glad that my excuse of maintaining a Famous Five collection over the last years has finally borne fruit ;). Now the only worry is to stop myself from buying all those EB's I haven't read in a while for a secret refresher for myself too !!
Questions/Statements during the last days were:
- Does Elizabeth become a good girl at the end of the book?
- I don't like that boy who keeps bothering Elizabeth!
- She realizes she wants to stay at school only after she decides to go home. (This after completing the book today)
I am quite thrilled at this development. Though still unsure if she's actually understood all the words etc., I am glad that my excuse of maintaining a Famous Five collection over the last years has finally borne fruit ;). Now the only worry is to stop myself from buying all those EB's I haven't read in a while for a secret refresher for myself too !!
wow..that's a great start..
ReplyDeleteI remember I used to skim over all the difficult words yet capture the essence.
and wow you have a collection?? I would also like to have a refresher..:-)
Thanks Uma :).
ReplyDeleteI have all the Famous Five series, St. Clares and Malory Towers ;) - you are free to come and read/borrow whenever you want! Bought them quite a few years back and everytime I saw them in the book case I would hope that atleast D would be interested in reading them :). Have heard that not all kids nowadays are into EB and all so wasn't sure. Good that I caught her attention young before she's exposed to all the other contemporary children's fiction out there ;).
Lovely aparna! I only have one EB unfortunately :(( Gave away all the others!! I loved the five find outers more than the famous five tho. And Malory Towers and St Clares are such favourites!
ReplyDeleteThanks Aparna :). That's a pity, I am sure you can start a collection again soon if one of the kids takes to it ;).
ReplyDeleteYes FF does get a bit repetitive but I love the food descriptions - the thought of going for a picnic with a basket stuffed with food and eating it in the open was so enjoyable - though I started reading that at a time when i was veggie and didn't know what half the stuff meant ;). Find-Outers is great fun, had bought a couple of those, then decided it was Enid Blyton overload for my bookcase - thanks for reminding me, will give D the first of that to read too, and let me see.
I know. I used to think frying bacon and sausages (or was it bacon and eggs) sounded sooooo delicious!!! Those kids had a lot of fun tho :) Looking fwd to more updates as D finishes a few EBs. I wonder whether she'll find it as fun to read as we did????
DeleteOh how wonderful.. I'd be thrilled too if my kids were reading. Oh and don't remind me of the famous five food.. lemonade, gingerbeer, cakes and scones. Yum!
ReplyDeleteThank you for dropping in Obsessivemom :). Today's one of those days I woke up at an unearthly hour so don't remind me of the midnight feasts ;)
DeleteSuper!!!! Am waiting too for Adi to start reading on his own so that I can share all my favorites with him ;) There seems to be lots of books for kids these days - all I knew until I was in 4th, 5th was the Enid Blyton books, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys. All ADi seems to be interested in reading these days is the Animal encyclopedia and books on dinosaurs!! :)
ReplyDeleteYes Poornima, there are so many phases these kids go through with so much more exposure and now so many more genres of books available that I really wonder if D or S would like to read the same kind of stuff I did. Nice when atleast some books get re-read by the next generation :)
DeleteI got Nancy drew for shriya and still I am unable to make her read that...May be should try Enid Blyton and Famous five.She loves Ramona and friends/Series of unfortunate events and various other series.May be being in Us, she is unable to connect to UK authors and we still like that as we grew up reading those....
ReplyDeleteAnyway Good job for D on this!!!!
hey Sudha! Long time no see, nice to see a comment from you :).
ReplyDeleteOh don't even tell me about all the new series available, I can just envision myself buying these in the near future. Right now, Damita is one of the few among her friends who has so much of a reading habit, so she doesn't hear about other books much. But I'm sure in a couple of years when her friends start reading too, I'll get requests for a lot of these new series of books!
I am heartened to learn that you are as fascinated with Enid Blyton's popular series such as The Famous Five, Naughtiest Girl, etc as I am. We can always put the golliwogs within their socio-historical perspective as I do in my book on Enid Blyton, titled, The Famous Five: A Personal Anecdotage (www.thefamousfiveapersonalanecdotage.blogspot.com).
ReplyDeleteStephen Isabirye
Thanks for stopping by Stephen :). Your book sounds interesting, I will definitely try to get my hands on it sometime soon!
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