Posted by Jock on December 22, 2005 at 02:57:58 from 84.64.131.122 user Jock.
In Reply to: Re: Enid Blyton beats Arthur Ransome hands down posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on December 21, 2005 at 16:57:35:
Agreed, children's favourite reading is very age dependant. Strangely, there is very little objective data on children's favourite books available on the Internet.
Enid Blyton's books were mass produced. She sometimes turned out two a week. Much of her writing is poor and formulaic. The Famous Five series is unashamedly plagiarist, and borrows from AR. For example, there is an island on which her children stay. It can only be reached by sailing or rowing a boat with the help of leading marks. Blyton is at her best when describing her own corner of Dorset. There are very convincing descriptions of disused narrow gauge railways and ruined castles which work because they are based on real locations that Blyton was familiar with.
If there was a list of children's favourites I suspect that Road Dahl would also be in the top twenty.