Up The Faraway Tree (The Magic Faraway Tree)

Reviews

Paul Middleton

Yes, Enid has to be more concise, having only 2 or 3 lines beneath each picture, but being concise is something she is very good at, and the pictures and text are an inseparable joy after a couple of reads. They are reading about Jo, Bessie and Fanny in their Faraway Tree book, and so they decide to go off and find them - surely something that all Faraway Tree fans would love to do! At the start of the book we meet 2 new characters, the children Robin and Joy.

Although this is shorter than the first three Faraway Tree books, it's a nice length read to your children at bedtime. (See my 6 photos of some of the illustrations.

Most readers will know that Enid's first 3 Faraway Tree books are novels with some pictures, but Up The Faraway Tree is different. In her last Faraway Tree book, Enid Blyton's soaring imagination combines to incredible effect with Dorothy Wheeler's beautiful illustrations. Alhough some are less enthusiastic that the last Faraway Tree book is picture-based, many have loved this just as it is, and most children will love it too.

Similar to but better than, a comic-book, with 2 landscape picture boxes occupying each page. Some criticise it for being picture-based, but prior to this reissue, identical copies of this book were selling for hundreds of pounds! They're from a 1951 edition, but the pictures are the same as this new Egmont book). So now visit some more amazing lands, such as say, the Land of Castles, or the Land of Wishes!

CHAPTERS:Off to the Enchanted WoodThe Land of CastlesThe Land of Roundabouts and SwingsJoy's Birthday TreatThe Land of MagicThe QuarrellersHere Comes Toyland! If you can get two copies, young children will love to colour in the black and white pictures! And well done Egmont (the publisher) because the last 4 chapters are an unpublished (text only) Enid Blyton Faraway Tree story.

Since childhood I have always believed this book's combination of text and pictures is magical. The Land of CakesUp To the Land of Toys (newly added)They Get Into Trouble (newly added)Mr Oom-Boom-Boom (newly added)In Santa Claus' Castle (newly added) Children will be pleased to know that the characters from the earlier books are all here; Silky, the Angry Pixie, Moonface, and Mr Watzisname, etc. The original book is 90 pages and the bonus unpublished Faraway Tree story adds another 38 pages.

4 pictures on view if the book is laid open flat, with a small amount of Enid Blyton text beneath each picture. I'm happy they haven't altered Dorothy Wheeler's original illustrations because they could not have been improved upon, even though some children will think the illustrations don't match the poorer ones in the current editions.