The Island of Adventure - Review

The Island of Adventure is the first in the Adventure series that feature Jack, Phillip, Dina, Lucy-Ann and parrot Kiki. While every book in the series is a standalone, there is a storyline related to the personal life of the children across the eight books. In this book, Jack and Lucy-Ann meet Phillip for the first time at their tutor’s house where both Phillip and Jack are getting tutored during their summer vacations. It is interesting seeing the beginning of a close friendship. Jack and Lucy-Ann don’t have parents and Phillip has only a mother and a sister Dinah who is with their uncle and aunt.

Jack and Lucy-Ann can’t go back to their uncle’s place as their uncle’s leg is fractured – they have to stay back at the tutor’s place. They don’t want to. That is the first conflict in the story. Phillip comes up with the idea that the two of them can escape and come with him to stay at his uncle’s home Craggy Tops. Craggy Tops is mentioned as an exciting place filled with birds and Jack is an amateur ornithologist. There is a general sense of excitement about the story moving to Craggy Tops. Will they manage to pull off the escape scheme?

Once that move to Craggy Tops gets settled, we start getting glimpses of Craggy Tops – the exotic house on the cliffs isolated from rest of civilization, secret underground pathways running through the cliffs and the mysterious island called Isle of Gloom. The main source of conflict is the house hold helping man Jo-Jo who seems to be at odds with the children and intent on spoiling their fun. We also start getting to know the protagonists better – Jack is a responsible sensible good-natured boy who is crazy about observing birds. Phillip is also similar to Jack, but he is extremely fond of all manner of insects and animals. While Jack mostly likes to observe, Phillip tames animals and keeps them about his person. In this book, no animal plays a major role, but we come to know of Phillip’s interest in mice, beetles, star fishes, snails etc. And he is a tease, especially with respect to his sister Dinah who doesn’t like insects, rodents, reptiles and the like. Lucy-Anny is the typical devoted young girl, who is petite and affectionate and loves her elder brother to distraction. Sharply in contrast to the relationship between Lucy-Ann and Jack, we have that between Dinah and Phillip. Dinah is very different from Lucy-Anny – a no nonsense type who is not particularly sentimental, impatient and liable to fly into rages. They also have a bond but keep squabbling with each other. That is the bunch.

Till half way through the book, there is no sign of any crime whatsoever. There are suspicious signals being exchanged between the sea and the cliff on which their house is located. There are continuous conflicts with Jo-Jo. The children befriend a mysterious man who claims to be a bird lover. He mentions the possibility of an extinct bird ‘The Great Auk’ being present in the area. Jack gets a notion that the bird may be there on the Isle of Gloom and children start trying to find ways to reach the island. That becomes the focus of the story.

Meanwhile there are lot of happy moments of picnic lunches, visit to the town, sailing trips with the stranger etc.

When they finally reach the island, they discover human presence on the island and ancient mines. That is when the mystery really starts. From there the story proceeds rapidly. The children visit the island and explore the mines and get trapped in the mines. Then there is the discovery of secret paths. Secret underground paths through rocks, under the sea and running through ancient houses – this is a standard trope of sorts in Enid Blyton stories. It is quite exciting for someone reading about them for the first time. Especially it was for me who even before I read Enid Blyton books used to imagine secret passages under the staircase, under the cots, the loft and all other dark mysterious places. I guess Enid Blyton knew about this favorite fantasy of children and pandered to it.

The end turns out very exciting with criminals gaining focus, a couple of surprises and lot of danger and action. The surprises of course lose value during re-reads. But Enid Blyton stories like those of certain other authors does not rest on the surprises alone.

Finally, the story ends with some happy developments in the personal lives of the children. After all the heart pounding action, we end with a warm fuzzy feeling.

This book tells a really interesting tale in itself but somehow this book is found not to have sufficient sheen if it is read after the following books in the series. The settings get more and more exciting book after book and the earlier books seem rather mundane compared to the later books. Also, some surprises, especially those pertaining to the personal lives of the children are surprises no more for those who have read the other books. That was one of the reasons I did not find this book all that exciting the first time I read as I read this as the third in the series after Castle of Adventure and River of Adventure. However, there was some positives also of reading it after the others. If you have already read books in the series, you see the children together and you have grown fond of them. So, it is exciting to be introduced to them when they first met each other.

If you are in the right frame of mind and are able to indulge in absolute suspension of disbelief, you will be into the story and the experience will be that of sheet ecstasy. However, if you start thinking about it, cracks will begin to show. For instance, in quite a few instances, the children are aided by luck. Also, in this story, it looks as if the criminals may have been caught even without the children’s intervention. If you are one, who likes to see their protagonists achieve success entirely through their exertion and intelligence, you may be left a bit disappointed. There are other aspects I want to touch upon. There are also other endearing aspects such as comic relief provided by the antics of Kiki the parrot that are a common thread throughout the series. But I will cover them in the reviews of one of the other books of the series.