Dinah Mannering: Philip's younger sister of about twelve at the beginning of the series. Like her brother, she has a tuft of hair standing up atop her head, but she shares neither his gift in attracting, nor his love for, animals, especially the small creeping types (mice, insects, snakes etc.). Temperamental as she is, she often finds herself the target of her brother's teasing, but otherwise she is quite level-headed, tough, intelligent and grown-up for her age. Thanks to a German friend at elementary school I discovered Enid Blyton's Adventure series and Famous Five series in the fall of 1965 and reread them from time to time even now in my sixties.

The journey under the sea, through a long, long tunnel that connects the mainland to the Isle of Gloom, is very nicely done, and (I think) completely realistic. I had reservations about the thought of a man-made tunnel, but no, Enid Blyton describes a natural underground fissure with a few alterations here and there to make it a little more passable. And the entrance to the tunnel is pretty cool too – down the well! I did wonder, though, why Bill said it would be foolish to go climbing down wells and through underground passages in the dead of night, and that they should wait until morning. Why? Would it be lighter underground during daylight? ;-) The stories show the four children off on their own, discovering and solving mysteries without much adult assistance. Although the publication dates span a decade, Blyton reportedly wrote each of the novels in less than a week. Whether dealing with forgers, gun-runners, Nazis, traitors, mad scientists or thieves, they frequently find themselves in desperate situations. Their adventures are a step up from those of the Famous Five in that they involve aeroplanes, motor-boats, a cruise-ship, seaplanes and helicopters. The Island of Adventure (published in 1944) is a popular children's book by Enid Blyton. It is the first book in the Adventure Series. The first edition was illustrated by Stuart Tresilian.

Adventure Series

Following the events in The Ship of Adventure, Bill marries Mrs Mannering and adopts all the children as his own. The children call him Bill Smugs due to the fact that he introduced himself under that alias on their first adventure. Enid Blyton (1897-1968) πραγματικά δε χρειάζεται συστάσεις. Είναι η συγγραφέας που μας χάρισε αξέχαστες στιγμές ανάγνωσης και μας σύστησε ευρηματικές παρέες παιδιών που ζουν περιπέτειες, λύνουν μυστήρια, ταξιδεύουν, κινδυνεύουν και χάρη σ’ αυτούς περνούσαν ευχάριστα και όμορφα οι εξωσχολικές μας ώρες. Ποιος δεν έχει διαβάσει τους Μυστικούς 7 ή τους 5 φίλους, ποιο κορίτσι δεν έχει ονειρευτεί το Σεν Κλερ ή το Μάλορυ Τάουερ; Έτσι λοιπόν οι εκδόσεις Μίνωας επανακυκλοφορούν τη σειρά «Περιπέτεια» ξεκινώντας από την αρχή. Φύγαμε για «Περιπέτεια στο νησί»; Note: The following synopsis contains spoilers. If you haven't read the book, you may not want to read this. I've put comments on language changes and other oddities as I went along, because I thought it would make more sense if these are seen in context. I have heard it said that The Island of Adventure starts slowly, and perhaps it does. But I think it's very nicely written, full of colorful detail and interesting characters, and the setting of Craggy-Tops, where Philip and Dinah live, is excellent. I suspect that, as far as this series goes, the first of the eight books is probably only slow when compared to the others – but reading this fresh (and barely remembering a single thing from my childhood) I feel the slow start is necessary to draw the characters and setting before plunging us deep into action. But then again, a young reader probably has a shorter attention span than me, so...

Originally, the series was supposed to end after this episode, but under the great demand of dedicated fans, Blyton wrote two more episodes: When Bill buys a plane, he decides to take the four children for a holiday, but events at the airport lead to the four getting into the wrong plane. When the plane lands they find themselves in an unfamiliar valley scarred by war and, once again, the four children fall into an adventure involving a lost treasure sought by a band of villains. It can be hard, re-reading childhood favourites (or, in this case, moderately well-liked introductions to series that contain favourites). They never live up to your memories. The days go by. Some trivia: Jo-Jo's "queer beliefs" become "strange beliefs" in the 1988 edition. And the word "to-morrow" loses its hyphen. Jenis petualangannya 11-12 dengan Lima Sekawan (((o(*°▽°*)o))) yang artinya: Lorong Rahasia! Gua Persembunyian! Harta!! (✧ω✧) ...atau minimal sesuatu yang berharga [̲̅Rp(̲̅ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°̲̅)̲̅✧]In short, The Island of Adventure serves to whet your appetite for a nice juicy main course – which comes in the form of Castle and Valley. Observe how Jo-Jo has been given a makeover. He's even stopped rolling his eyes and become simply shifty-eyed. The older, non-PC version is more realistic, in my opinion. Subsequent references to rolling eyes have been eliminated, except for one stray instance (probably an oversight – no pun intended).