[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Kiddie Lit

[Shaun Hately]

On 10 Jul 2003 at 23:21, ER wrote:

> >Me (Kirstini): The Famous Five books were all rewritten after a 
> while (I'd imagine it would be sometime in the late70s-80s).
> 
> Waaaaaaaaaah! Bowdlerising Blyton? Bang goes my childhood.

Oh yes.

I have an almost full collection of Famous Five first editions (I collect 
seriously), and the more recent reprints change quite a few minor details. 
George is no longer asked if she was spanked by her father, instead she's 
asked if she was scolded, for example. Some of the changes I can understand 
- for example, the 'little nigger girl' statement being changed - but the books 
are still set in the same period, and honestly, I can't see what harm a kid of 
today reading about the fact that a girl in the 1940s getting her bottom 
smacked could do.

Nothing could be worse than the 1970s TV series, of course, for mutilating the 
Five.

"We are the Famous Five, Julian, Dick, and Anne, George and Timmy the 
dog..."

> > Enid Blyton was abit of an illicit pleasure for me, as my mum 
> refused to let me read them at first, only giving in when a school 
> friend gave me some Secret Seven books for a birthday.
> 
> Oh, no, the Secret Seven, now you've done it, I'm regressing even 
> further back :) I think they were for even younger readers than the 
> Famous Five books, weren't they? All I can remember about them is an 
> incompetent village policeman ...

No, that's the Five Findouters (and Dog) (also known as the Mystery series), 
with PC Goon. Fatty, Larry, Daisy, Pip, Bets, and Buster the dog.

The Secret Seven are probably aimed at about the same age as the Famous 
Five, and going from memory, were written a little later. The Secret Seven 
were more organised than the Five - they were a formal club. Peter, Janet, 
Colin, George (this George is male), Jack, Barbara, and Pam. Their dog was 
named Scamper (always had to be a dog) and Jack's 'horrid sister' Susie, was 
sometimes involved.
 
Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately |webpage: http://www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       |email: drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in
common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter
the facts to fit the views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen
to be one of the facts that need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who:
The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia