Chuckles Mini Review Catchup

I review everything I read, on my blog and on Goodreads. Most reviews are of a decent length but sometimes you don't have much to say about the book because of its length or you DNFed it or various other reasons. In cases like that it makes sense to write a few mini reviews in one post and clear them out your way! So lets catch up with some reviews from earlier this year.

1) Enid Blyton-The Wishing Chair Again
Mollie, Peter and Chinky rescue a naughty brownie, Winks, from Mr Grimm's School for Bad Brownies. Together they visit the Land of Spells, the Land of Surprises and they even have to rescue the wishing chair and Chinky from the evil giant Twisty.

Not quite as much fun as the first book but that is mainly because as a kid and again now, I really disliked the character of Winks who was rude, naughty and obnoxious. Frankly the children let him get away with too much bad behaviour and after what he did to Chinky, I'd have sent him back to where they found him. He's a thief and an idiot who can't stop causing trouble and doesn't care about spoiling things for other people and upsetting them. Chinky on the other hand is lovely and I would have loved a friend like him when I was young.

There are some interesting adventures including the hunt for Twisty, flying puppies, Mr Grim's school, The Land of Goodies and more. I liked the Toyland attack on Mr Grim. Warnings include there is a gollywog character called Mr Blacky (who is actually a lovely guy but of course this whole part of the story may offend) and a mention of his Land of Gollywogs though in my book we never visit it, just fly over to get to Mr Grim. There is also the name Chinky again for their pixie friend. I was also amused by Mother telling the kids when they arrive after the term at boarding school ends that she wouldn't get rid of anything in the playroom without consulting them. Considering she sold The Wishing Chair once and then took it from the kids for her own room, I thought that comment was funny! It was still fun to read it again after all these years but I won't be keeping it in my collection as I wouldn't read it again.  

Read July 2020
3 stars. 

2) Enid Blyton-More Wishing Chair Stories
The third book of Enid Blyton's magical Wishing-Chair stories, published in a single volume for the first time ever. 

I wouldn't really call it a third book in the series as this was a thrown together volume of stories that didn't make it into the first two books as they were a bit on the bland side, and other stories that were in each book. Repeating stuff I'd already read was pretty disappointing. 

There is no time line to this offering as the story jumps back and forward in time between events in each book, shown by the different colours of Wishing Chair wings. It is a jumbled mess frankly and not very good. Even the new stories are not that interesting.

Read July 2020
2 stars.