Book Review: The Island Of Adventure by Enid Blyton

For Philip, Dinah, Lucy-Ann and Jack, the holiday in Cornwall is everything they'd hope for - until they begin to realize that something very sinister is taking place on the mysterious Isle of Gloom.

But they're not prepared for the dangerous adventure that awaits them in the abandoned copper mines and secret tunnels beneath the sea.

My Review:
I had actually started this book during last summer as lighter reading for my mood during the pandemic but I got distracted from it for some reason and never got it finished. I went back to it last month and got it completed.

Philip is spending time with a tutor at extra lessons in the summer after being ill which is where he meets Jack and his sister Lucy-Ann for the first time. Jack needs extra coaching because he has little interest in studying. Their parents died in a plane crash and the siblings are having to stay on with the tutor as their uncle is not interested in taking care of them. Philip suggests that they run away and come back with him to Craggy Tops, where he lives with his Uncle Jocelyn, Aunt Polly and sister Dinah, while his mother is working away from home. When Jack's Uncle Geoffrey is prepared to pay Aunt Polly to look after Jack and Lucy-Ann for the summer, the four children look forward to a summer of fun in Cornwall.

 

The children are all fascinated by the nearby Isle of Gloom, which is declared to be haunted by their unpleasant servant Jo-Jo. Jack is convinced that there could be rare birds out there and wants to 'borrow' Jo-Jo's boat to explore it. He gets an opportunity to see the island up close when their new adult friend Bill Smugs takes them out in his boat. But when the boys sneak out to explore the island one day on their own, they discover that people have been there recently, doing something inside the mines and tunnels. Is there some kind of smuggling or illegal activity going on? Is this why they are being warned off the island? Is Bill involved in it? The boys decide they have to find out what is going on, leading to a dangerous adventure and more trouble than they expected. 

 

The children all have different personalities and hobbies. Jack is an avid birdwatcher and has a pet parrot called Kiki that goes everywhere with him. Kiki is a complete pain in the neck with her frequent screeches, and repetition of all her different phrases on almost every page. I started to find that it was slowly getting on my nerves. Lucy-Ann was the youngest and weakest of the group, scared of everything, the one who gets seasick, but the attribute most wearing is her inability to function when Jack isn't around. Philip is a great animal lover who forever has creatures in his pockets or crawling around him. I wasn't keen on the number of animals that he just gathers and keeps, as he is basically imprisoning animals against his will. I'm also not keen on the level of violence between Philip and Dinah. Dinah flares up at the slightest thing and the siblings are forever hitting and attacking each other, which is disturbing.  

 

Enid Blyton's books are old fashioned in attitudes, a product of the times that they were written in. This book was first published in 1944 so the girls are expected to do the household chores like cleaning, while the boys do the heavier chores. The more dangerous parts of the book feature the boys on an adventure while the girls are left behind for their own safety. There is even a comment from a character that Philip's mother should stay at home with her children instead of working for a living, which is certainly an outdated attitude. I can ignore this kind of thing in books as I know that times were different when the books were written. Other readers may be offended by it, so be aware of the content.    

 

Other readers have commented through the years about Blyton's use of non-white characters to be her bad guys and this book is one of them. Jo-Jo is a nasty character, surly, unpleasant, spies on the kids and tries to hit the boys on a couple of occasions. Some readers may be offended by the constant references to his colour, so be warned of that content too.  

 

I liked the adventure element to the story, just as I did when I read it as a kid. While I could ignore the oldfashioned attitudes in the writing, I was often irritated by the fighting between Philip and Dinah, and especially by that parrot. I don't think I'll read on with the rest of the series, at least not for the moment. It's not as good as the Secret series.

 

Read March 2021

3 stars.