A long time ago, when I was busy trying to read everything by Enid Blyton1, I came across The Magic Faraway Tree. And. I. Loved. It.
This being the age before Amazon and not having a large library around, I never got around to reading the other books in this trilogy, which was … frustrating at the time, for several years.
So it’s a bit … exciting? … to have bought this as something to read along with my daughter. We read the first chapter today, and I feel that … as “children’s books”2 go, this one has definitely aged3 well.
Amazon links:
- Individual books (The Magic Faraway Tree, The Folk of the Faraway Tree, The Enchanted Wood)
- Bundle
- Speaking of which, I’m surprised I don’t see books by her around today (even a search at a place like Barnes and Noble comes up nearly empty). Possibly because they’re dated, but still … ↩︎
- genres are so fluid these days, where does children’s literature end and young adult begin? While we’re here, I’m also not certain where young adult ends, or whether (judging from what I see) if it ever ends! ↩︎
- the first book in the series was written in 1939 (!), and the third in 1946 ↩︎
Apurv
Outside the Famous-Fives and the Secret-Sevens, my favourite were the Mr. Meddle books (Mr. Meddle’s Muddles and others). What times were had back then with these wonderful stories!
Agam
Yep, this whole genre has kinda faded away. On the other hand, a massive amount of “teen fic” and “young adult” fic that never existed before, but … yeah not the same …
Gautam Brahma
She was accused of racial overtones in the naming, and treatment of her characters and many libraries and sellers played safe by dropping her. I believe things are changing though