Age 7+
In the wake of the Costa poll this month that declared Enid Blyton our best-loved author, this new book purports to be by Blyton, but isn't. Pastiching the style of the Famous Five stories, it intersperses a new adventure - in case the existing 21 are not enough - with pages of factual tips for adventurers. These range from how to survive a shipwreck or start a fire in the wild (fairly challenging for young readers) to how to pack a rucksack or find a secret passage (easier). This last is a spoofy section as written by Fred “Fatty” Trotteville of Blyton's Five Find-Outers books. The large format is stylish, and the look is retro, but it rings a bit hollow, the language mildly hams it up (with all the “old brick”s and “I say”s) and there are details of every lavish meal. The story combines a retrospective narrative, as if from the grown-up characters (Timmy the dog being sadly deceased), with diary entries by each of the four children from an adventure supposedly unsolved in 1959, plus drawings, maps, photographs, letters and facsimiles of documents. The reader is invited to solve a concluding riddle and check the answer online. The result is a book in the spirit of Blyton that combines the nostalgia of The Dangerous Book for Boys with publishing gimmicks that are more sophisticated than Blyton ever knew

The Famous Five's Survival Guide
Hodder £15.99

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