The fourth book of the series. This one has an exciting start that kind of reminds one of Sherlock Holmes’ Final Problem. Criminals are out to get Bill Cunningham the detective friend of the children Jack, Phillip, Lucy-Ann and Dina. He is trying to move around town under cover and disappear for a few days. After an exciting start, things ease out a bit as the children journey along with their friends the isles in northern Britain. This was the fun part like a travelogue. We get to see puffins. Jack as a bird lover once again comes to fore; there had been no birds for Jack in the previous story. Phillip of course has his three rats and adopts a pair of exciting pets. The pets don’t play a role in the story though. Also, we see the return of nature as a major antagonist. In the first book, we had the sea flooding in, in the second, there were landslides. However, the third did not have the children contending against the forces of nature. Here the children are stranded in an island with no shelter during a sea storm with nothing but tents to protect them. Actually, the danger feels more real when the antagonist is nature than mere bad men. Because bad men, we know in Enid Blyton’s books do not kill children.
Valley of Adventure, Sea of Adventure and Mountain of Adventure have a good sound to them being closely associated with nature. After Valley of Adventure, it took me years before I finally got to read Sea of Adventure and Mountain of Adventure. So, there was always a sense of excitement about this book. And seas do have a kind of charm about them. And we see the poetic side of Lucy-Ann. For a change, this book does not have any secret passages. While secret passages are exiting, it becomes cliched when you have them in every book. Guess Enid Blyton realized that and decided to keep this story without them. In this book they are in uninhabited isles with limited trees and cliffs. So not much scope for passages of any sort. Also, while not a foreign country, being out in the open sea away from civilization is definitely exciting.
Continuing on from last book where the children were self-reliant, this book takes things further with children actually effecting a rescue rather than being rescued every time. The story has fair amount of excitement. The adventure starts earlier than the first two books and there is excitement around boat chases, hiding from enemies and escape. Of course, luck does play a role as usual. The situations in the book are so dangerous that I guess it is difficult for the author to get the protagonists out of the situations she has put them in without a lucky break or two.
It was overall a fascinating book with a good combination of nature exploration, food and fun, danger and adventure.
2 comments:
Yes. I remember reading it in one night because I had borrowed it from someone who had borrowed it from someone else. I do not remember the story properly much though but I did recollect some parts of it while reading your review. You have not read all the books in that series? Read the Circus of Adventure. I found it to be the best among them all. And in that book the adventures starts even earlier.
Nice review. All spoiler free.
Thanks Tanim. Re-reading the series.
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