Famous Five: Five On A Treasure Island: Book 1

I grew up with the Famous Five, and they spurred my love affair with adventure books. It has been some time since I've read them again, and so, as an adult, delved back into the series that transformed my life.The book was as great as ever. Fun filled adventure mixed with moralistic messages that still resonate with children today. You have a great bunch of children that all have different personalities, and above all, they just want to have fun. They are inquisitive though, which draws them into the adventure on Kirren Island, where gold ingots await them!You can't deny that it is a little old-fashioned nowadays - no smartphones, Nintendo DS's, iPods, but what it does do is provide escapism into a world that has thrills and danger, but just the right balance. It is nostalgia at its best.

Sadly I gave all my Famous Five books away during my teenage years. However the other day I realised I missed Julian, George, Dick, Anne and Timmy so wanted a catch up. The only edition I could get on Kindle was this one - and it was a slight disappointment. There are no 'lashings' of anything, no 'mummy and daddy', no 'golly's. It has been rewritten to suit a modern children's audience, and I must say that on the whole I disagree with this choice. Alright, so things have changed eg. perhaps it is now inappropriate to include 'queer' or 'spank'. Those changes are understandable and a sign of the times. But what is the point of changing the word 'lashings' for 'loads', or 'mummy' for 'mum'? When I was an eight year old and reading these books for the first time they were the same format as they had been for over fifty years. Who thought it necessary to dumb it down for today's children? Surely they can cope with the language like millions of other children have. For me, revisiting these books was a chance to have a little giggle at the archaisms, and for them to be completely missing was a disappointment. I'm surprised they didn't change Dick and Aunt Fanny's names!However the story was the same, although much shorter than I remembered - I imagine my reading speed has increased quite a bit! This is still a great adventure for children, and brings back fond memories for adults. If you can look past the completely unnecessary changes (which admittedly I got used to after a while and didn't affect the characters or the story very much) then this is a great trip down memory lane. It's just a shame publishers felt it necessary to make 'lashings' of changes to a text that has been loved worldwide for half a century - if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

I bought this for our 8 year old son as it was a favourite of mine when I was his age. We were a little worried that the story would appear dated to him but to our surprise, he could not put it down and could not wait to get his hands on the second book in the series once he had finished it.Anyone who is worried it will be no match for the more modern Diary of a Wimpy Kid, David Walliams series etc should not be. Still a great read....although I had not realised first time around how many innuendos are present. Reading it out at bedtime for him meant an occasional smirk had to be hidden.A great step back in time and highly recommended.

The last time I read an Enid Blyton book, I was about ten years old. I'm now 47, but the years have not desensitized my imagination enough to not appreciate this type of 'kids adventure' stuff that I used to find so very appealing. However, my cynical mind suspects that only those of my age and beyond would feel the same for we now live in a world of high tech video, mobile phones and social media that even very young children seem to be so very fascinated by. But for me, this is a little bit of youth recaptured. Outstanding. Any easy five stars.

I read this book when I was 9 or 10 and then all the sequels. Now many many years later, I have read it again and it still is a great story. The setting is around post war and stories of good guys/bad guys works. There is excitement, there is fear, always there is a happy ending where good triumphs over ill. There are memoiries of biking on summer days and stopping at a little shop for icecream and ginger beer and calling in at farmsteads for eggs and milk whilst camping. The characters are perfect not forgetting Timmy the dog being a hero on many occasions. I can see me reading this book and again. The book is timeless the series is timeless.

that this book had to be updated in language. No longer is the called "Timmy"... for some reason perhaps modernisation this has been shorted to "Tim". Trying to bring the language of this book into the 21st century loses so much of what made the Famous Five books so great. Very disappointing.

I remember reading the series as a child and I wanted to experience these stories again, many, many moons on. I have not been disappointed. I can see that there is some controversy out there concerning the changes made to some of the original wording, to make them more PC, but upon reading this one, I am pleased to see that the tone is still acceptably old fashioned and therefore in line with the way books were written then. Classic stories than will never age. Definitely recommend!

I brought my unwell grandson home from school and wanted a way to keep him amused while he snuggled up on the sofa. I had the inspiration to download a book I loved as a child and he was hooked for the afternoon! He read it all, unable to put it down!