Hi ForeverBookers,
How are you all? I hope you’re well!
I’ve just finished Five On A Treasure Island by Enid Blyton and I really enjoyed it! It’s definitely a middle-grade book but an entertaining, adventurous middle-grade book.
4 Stars!
I read Five On A Treasure Island for a few different readathons. Those being:
Reading Rivalry - Book Featuring Family - The main group of children are all related, as brothers/a sister and a cousin.
The Cardcaptor-A-Thon - The Rain - Read a book with rain on the cover - There isn’t rain on the cover of Five On A Treasure Island but there is a storm that happens about a quarter way into the book! That’s a major plot point of the story!
Believe-a-thon - Read a book from my childhood - I ADORED the TV show of The Famous Five as a child and I wanted to try the books! I’m very glad I did! This was my last read for the last Believathon too, hosted by Gav at How To Train Your Gavin on YouTube.
Disney Magical Hopathon - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3F55Y7bfU8&t=61s - Read a short book (less than 200 pages). Five On A Treasure Island is 183 pages!
What I loved most about “Five On A Treasure Island” was surprisingly the writing style. I thought that it would be written in an older fashion, which it was but what surprised me was that I didn’t mind this way of writing. When the characters used language such as, “my word,” to illustrate shock or “blow,” to show annoyance. “The Famous Five” is an older series of books, Five On A Treasure Island, the first story of it published in 1942.
Spoilers Below...
Five On A Treasure Island does have its drawbacks in how women were treated and seen. One of our main characters, George, doesn’t want to be a girl. This is evidenced in, “I’m George,” said the girl. “I shall only answer you if you call me George. I hate being a girl. I won’t be. I don’t like doing things that girls do.” From this we can see that George is a very high strung character, much like her father, Quentin. Quentin is an inventor who has a bigger role in the TV show of the Famous Five than this first book, I feel. In the TV show I always used to laugh at his attitude towards George, as well as feel a little sorry for her in her interactions with him. He’s somewhat softer in the book!
Now, on to the other children, Julian, the eldest of the 4 had more character in the book than in the TV show, I thought. He comes across as more interesting in the book. “He climbed into the boat. “Most exciting,” he said. “Golly, wouldn’t I just love to see that wreck properly — you know — go down under the deck into the cabins and look around. And oh, suppose we could really the boxes of gold!”
“That’s impossible,” said George. “I told you proper divers have already gone down and found nothing.” The way he uses the word “golly,” is another instance of older British slang being used.
Dick, however, the third or second eldest child, it’s never fully stated in the first book where George and Dick fall in age order, just that Anne is the youngest and Julian is the eldest. The ages aren’t really mentioned in Five On A Treasure Island. He’ll hopefully get more character development in the later books. This story is focused on George the most, I believe and then Julian, who take charge. Anne, the youngest child, is the character that comes across as the most relatable to me at least, probably because I was most like her as a young child. The others were too adventurous for me. Dick is the least present in terms of action in the plot, I feel. The last of the Famous Five is Timmy, a brown mongrel dog. George completely adores him.
“Come on, Timmy! Come on!”
They sat up and looked to see what Timothy was like. They saw no fisher-boy — but instead a big brown mongrel dog with an absurdly long tail and a big wide mouth that really seemed to grin! He was bounding all round George, mad with delight. She came running down to them.
“This is Timothy,” she said. “Don’t you think he is simply perfect?”
As a dog, Timothy was far from perfect. He was the wrong shape, his head was too big, his ears were too pricked, his tail was too long and it was quite impossible to say what kind of dog he was supposed to be. But he was such a mad, friendly, clumsy, laughable creature that every one of the children adored him at once.”
This is when Julian, Dick and Anne meet Timmy for the first time. They at first think he’s a human fisher-boy but when they’re introduced to a dog they all fall immediately in love with him! George’s parents don’t love Timmy though. Do they by the end of the story?
The main plot revolves around an island that belongs to Fanny, George’s mother and Quentin’s wife. George thinks she’s entitled to the island because she’s Fanny’s daughter, but is she? Does she get to keep the island or is something thrown in the way? The storm washes up an old wreck onto the island. What do the children discover there? There’s talk of gold ingots too, which are hidden somewhere on Kirrin Island? Where, though? Is it just a legend? You’ll need to read to find out!
George has the biggest character growth in this first book, I think. She starts off as a moody child, only concerned with getting what she wants but by the end she develops into a nice child, who’s willing to do anything for those she loves most, her family and pet dog.
Overall then, I really enjoyed Five On Treasure Island MUCH more than I expected to. The writing style just sat really well with me and I loved how the plot centred around the children, rather than the adults. I also loved how independent the children were! They went camping by themselves on Kirrin Island because they wanted to! I don’t think any child under 15 would do that today. I know that Julian is over that age but I don’t think the rest are yet, Anne certainly isn’t. I wish I’d been more like them at 11-17. They just seemed more free! I’m super excited to read the next book in series at some point next year!
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