I've first read this as a child and don't know how often I actually re-read this. Often. Very often, I guess. It is my favourite book of Enid Blyton's, including some of the most appealing settings I've ever read about. Seriously, reading the summary, this book sounds weird. But reading the book, suddenly the summary sounds weird, not truly captivating the book's essence, the magnificience of how Enid Blyton managed to paint those characters and create a plot around them.

It has been a while since my last read, but I remember having a little trouble with the resolution of the storyline, so I decided to rate it with four stars. It is still a book to be recommended. ( )

Bill Smugs se quiere llevar a los niños de viaje a una casa cerca de la costa en un aeroplano propiedad de éste. Pero los niños se confunden y embarcan en otro avión que les lleva a un deshabitado valle rodeado de grandes montañas el cual parece albergar un rico tesoro y han de vivir escondidos de los mismos bandidos del avión en que llegaron allí los niños.

Another fun adventure! Once I started this one I couldn't put it down. I was so curious what was going to happen next :-) So much fun!

Adrianne ( )

Kirja, jonka luin lapsena varmaan miljoona kertaa parin Viisikko-kirjan ohella ja haaveilin salapoliisiksi ryhtymisestä ja hurjista seikkailuista. Eskapismia parhaimmillaan ja edelleen mainio kirja, jos haluaa lukea jotain tuttua ja turvallista, mutta silti viihdyttävää. ( )

I continue to be surprised by the Adventure series, the plots of which all seem to be longer and more involved than any other Blyton books I've read. The children certainly travel further than the Famous five ever do - this time they end up in Austria. But everything else is just the same - it is, for example, reassuringly possible to tell whether someone is good or bad just by looking at them.

It is also fascinatingly possible to see evidence of the classism Blyton is always criticised for. Towards the end, the children are looked after by an elderly couple, who are always referred to as "the old people" and who are frequently talked about instead of to, as though the couple weren't actually present. It feels quite uncomfortable to read actually.

The strangest thing is the reference to the war. Blyton is known to be one of the children's authors who continued to write as though the war didn't exist. This novel, published in 1947, does in fact talk about the war in the past tense, although, strangely, as something that happened to other countries. The children appear to know there was a war (though they speak about it as though about something a long time ago) but don't seem to know much about it or feel that it had anything to do with them. Absolutely fascinating really. I wonder what it would have been like to read this book in England back in the latter 40s. I suppose that children young enough to read it then would have been too young to be really seriously involved in the war when it was on, but I would imagine they would certainly remember it. And rationing would most certainly not be a distant memory but a current reality for them!

Despite the greater complexity, I still can't take to the Adventure series as I do to the Five. But it really is interesting to see a series handled differently. I wonder what's next? ( )