- The Adventure Series
The Adventure Series by
Enid Blyton , a prolific English children's author, is a series of eight children's novels. These books feature the same child characters: Philip, Jack, Dinah, and Lucy-Ann, along with several adult characters. Jack's petcockatoo , Kiki, is also a standard feature in each novel, and the bird always comes through with some raucous utterance that amuses everyone or helps the children to evade danger.The stories show the four children off on their own, discovering and solving mysteries without much adult assistance. Although the publication dates span a decade, Blyton reportedly wrote each of the novels in less than a week.
The colourful dust jackets were illustrated by Stuart Tresilian.
Novels
*"
The Island of Adventure " (1944) as "Mystery Island" (US, 1945)
*"The Castle of Adventure " (1946)
*"The Valley of Adventure " (1947)
*"The Sea of Adventure " (1948)
*"The Mountain of Adventure " (1949) (with Brian J. Peppers)
*"The Ship of Adventure " (1950)Originally, the series was supposed to end after this episode, but under the great demand of dedicated fans, Blyton wrote two more episodes:
*"
The Circus of Adventure " (1952)
*"The River of Adventure " (1955)All of the books are in print, and the original editions are expensive collectors' items.
TV versions of "The Island of Adventure" and "The Castle of Adventure" were made.
TV versions of all 8 novels were produced by Cloud 9 Entertainment Studios in 1996. [http://www.imdb.com/company/co0004240/] "The Castle of Adventure" had its title changed to "The Woods of Adventure" and the plot differs greatly from the book.cn|date=October 2008
Plot summaries
The Island of Adventure
Philip meets the orphaned brother and sister Jack and Lucy-Ann at a summer school, where he has gone as he was ill for most of the last few terms. Learning that they do not much like the Aunt and Uncle they stay with, he invits them home to his house, Craggy tops, where they meet his sister, Dinah, his mother, Allie, as well as a strange man who calls himself "Bill Smugs". But all is not as it seems on a little island nearby, and they soon find themselves on the trail of money laurenders in the disused copper mines on the island.
"The Castle of Adventure"
The children and Mrs. Mannering travel to a lonely mountain cottage, which lies close to an old
castle . Curious about the ruin, and eager to watch a family of golden eagles nesting in it, the children explore the place. Jack decides to stay overnight in the castle courtyard, and finds he is not alone. He finds men doing bad things and quickly alerts his close friends who get help."The Valley of Adventure"
Preparing for a trip by plane with Bill, the four children inadvertently go into the wrong plane, which takes off under frightening circumstances — and find themselves stranded in an
isolated valley scarred by war, and at the mercy of sinister men looking for a long-lost treasure."The Sea of Adventure"
Bill takes the foursome on a trip to a Scottish island to help them recover from
measles . But amongst the islands, they stumble upon a sinister plot; Bill disappears, and the children are left alone to find out where he is and what is going on."The Mountain of Adventure"
Hoping for a quiet holiday for once, the children, Kiki, Mrs. Mannering and Bill head off for a mountain
farm inWales for some wandering. But on the search for the Vale of Butterflies, the children get lost and find themselves near a mysterious mountain. Ominous rumblings of the ground, a pack of wolves roaming the area, a black fugitive, and Philip's disappearance are but a few of the mysteries the children have to unravel about the mountain."The Ship of Adventure"
On a trip to the
Mediterranean , Lucy-Ann acquires aship in a bottle , which proves to be the key to the location of a long-lost treasure. But eager as the children are to find it, they soon have to deal with a sinister adversary who will stop at nothing to get the riches for himself."The Circus of Adventure"
Who is the strange pompous boy Bill has invited to his home for the holidays? neither Kiki nor does Jack like him. The children soon discover that he is a prince,named as Aloysius gramondie, and as such he has enemies on trail.The enemies want to overthrow his uncle, who is bit too strong ruler for enemies,and to place the prince on throne who is just 11 years old .Jack and Kiki find themselves following the others who are kidnapped and taken to a strange country of tauri hessia — but they find help in a circus, and with his new friends Jack will soon decide the fate of an entire nation.
"The River of Adventure"
Recovering from a very bad flu, the four children and their family make a river trip in the
Middle East . But not only for an innocent occasion; Bill has received the task to watch a crook named Raya Uma. The children soon find another adventure revolving around a magnificent buried city filled with treasure beyond imagination.External links
* [http://www.enidblyton.net/adventure-series/ Adventure Series Book Reviews & Articles]
*imdb title|id=0417805|title=The Island of Adventure
*imdb title|id=0369317|title=The Castle of Adventure
* [http://www.enid-blyton.co.nr/ Adventure Series Online]
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