Tsk.
Lousy intro.
Anyway, Enid's books have really eye-catching titles:
- Thirteen O'Clock
- The Faraway Tree
- Children of Other Lands
- The Toys Come To Life
- Tales of Toyland
...and so many more.
I first read The Faraway Tree series when sis' friend, Ai Chen, lent us the whole series. It's basically
about 3 children who find an enchanted tree. They meet queer people like a guy with a moon-shaped face (creatively named Moonface) and a guy who wears a saucepan on his head as a hat (also creatively named - The Saucepan Man). The enchanted part of the tree is actually the top of the tree, where different lands will come and go. The children visit different lands each time, but they have to leave it before it "moves on", or they'd be stuck there forever.
That's where the suspense comes in la. Sometimes the people of the land are really weird, e.g. Topsy-Turvy Land, where people walk on their hands with their feet in the air, say goodbye when they first meet and hello when they part ways etc. Because the children can't possibly walk on their hands, they're sort of disliked by the people and are almost captured and imprisoned.
Some lands are really hard to leave, like Candy Land (yum) and Toyland (whee).
Enid's books basically revolve around these sort of themes, and she successfully taps into the little kid in all of us. In me, anyway.
Toys coming to life and having parties of their own, the Land of Nursery Rhyme where all the nursery rhyme characters are real people, fairies breathing life into snowmen, a sacred, enchanted world unraveling when the clock strikes 'thirteen', enchanted lands where happy-ever-afters always happen... we may sneer at the thought and tell ourselves that these things aren't real. But there will always be a part of us that longs for them, for brighter colours in the world - bluer skies, greener trees, happier birds, and kinder people.
Enid tells us that that kind of world does exist. And it is closer than we think.
In Those Dreadful Children, she writes about 2 families: The Carltons - perfectly behaved and
well-groomed, and the Taggertys - chaotic, noisy and loud. It's ironic to see each family labeling the other as "dreadful". The title takes on a whole new light when Enid writes that the 3 children from each family labels the children 'on the other side of the wall' as "those dreadful children".
Vastly different from her short stories, this particular book captures the human nature in each one of us and reveals it from different perspectives and surroundings. Selfishness exists in a child well brought up as easily as it does in a wild child. Biases and prejudices against the other just because he lives differently. The longing for a higher purpose and the need for a higher Being.
The turning point of the story was when Mrs Taggerty was knocked down by a car after a typical war day with the rest of the family.
Call me soft, but I felt a tingle within me when Mr Taggerty asked himself, "What is it about the Carltons? What do they have that we don't? Why are they so different? There must be something!"
Call me soppy, but I cried when the oldest and roughest of the Taggertys, Pat, broke down and promised God that he'd be the best boy on earth as long as He kept his mother alive.
The magic of Enid Blyton is that she makes all of us feel like a ruffian Pat Taggerty, like a straight-backed John Carlton, like a helpless Mrs Taggerty, and like a compassionate Mrs Carlton.
A ruffian becomes obedient, a rigid boy becomes accepting of different people, lives are transformed, love is discovered... aren't they all magical?
We search for the amazing, thinking that they are unbelievable, but see -
I first read The Faraway Tree series when sis' friend, Ai Chen, lent us the whole series. It's basically
about 3 children who find an enchanted tree. They meet queer people like a guy with a moon-shaped face (creatively named Moonface) and a guy who wears a saucepan on his head as a hat (also creatively named - The Saucepan Man). The enchanted part of the tree is actually the top of the tree, where different lands will come and go. The children visit different lands each time, but they have to leave it before it "moves on", or they'd be stuck there forever.That's where the suspense comes in la. Sometimes the people of the land are really weird, e.g. Topsy-Turvy Land, where people walk on their hands with their feet in the air, say goodbye when they first meet and hello when they part ways etc. Because the children can't possibly walk on their hands, they're sort of disliked by the people and are almost captured and imprisoned.
Some lands are really hard to leave, like Candy Land (yum) and Toyland (whee).
Enid's books basically revolve around these sort of themes, and she successfully taps into the little kid in all of us. In me, anyway.
Toys coming to life and having parties of their own, the Land of Nursery Rhyme where all the nursery rhyme characters are real people, fairies breathing life into snowmen, a sacred, enchanted world unraveling when the clock strikes 'thirteen', enchanted lands where happy-ever-afters always happen... we may sneer at the thought and tell ourselves that these things aren't real. But there will always be a part of us that longs for them, for brighter colours in the world - bluer skies, greener trees, happier birds, and kinder people.
Enid tells us that that kind of world does exist. And it is closer than we think.
In Those Dreadful Children, she writes about 2 families: The Carltons - perfectly behaved and
well-groomed, and the Taggertys - chaotic, noisy and loud. It's ironic to see each family labeling the other as "dreadful". The title takes on a whole new light when Enid writes that the 3 children from each family labels the children 'on the other side of the wall' as "those dreadful children".Vastly different from her short stories, this particular book captures the human nature in each one of us and reveals it from different perspectives and surroundings. Selfishness exists in a child well brought up as easily as it does in a wild child. Biases and prejudices against the other just because he lives differently. The longing for a higher purpose and the need for a higher Being.
The turning point of the story was when Mrs Taggerty was knocked down by a car after a typical war day with the rest of the family.
Call me soft, but I felt a tingle within me when Mr Taggerty asked himself, "What is it about the Carltons? What do they have that we don't? Why are they so different? There must be something!"
Call me soppy, but I cried when the oldest and roughest of the Taggertys, Pat, broke down and promised God that he'd be the best boy on earth as long as He kept his mother alive.
The magic of Enid Blyton is that she makes all of us feel like a ruffian Pat Taggerty, like a straight-backed John Carlton, like a helpless Mrs Taggerty, and like a compassionate Mrs Carlton.
A ruffian becomes obedient, a rigid boy becomes accepting of different people, lives are transformed, love is discovered... aren't they all magical?
We search for the amazing, thinking that they are unbelievable, but see -
Fairyland is within reach
The Phoenixian Cloud rises as does the mythical phoenix
the birth of new life - is it not magical?
life is what we make itI may choose to call it The Eclipsing Darkness.
But Psalm 19:1 says that "the heavens declare the glory of God".
Look again, I bid you.
Is it not better named,
A Ray of Hope ?
4 comments:
very very very nicely done...
thanks~
the glory of God shall be declared indeed :) God created Enid Blyton anyway. hehe.
loved the way the toys came to life to play at night and fell off mantlepieces. wah... ...
[juan] well said =) yeah yeah always wondered what it would be like if my stuffed dog came to life and commented on the way i hugged him ^_^"
Post a Comment