Wednesday, the 13th of May–time once again for Shelf Control! Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies, and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. To participate, all you do is pick a book from your TBR pile, and write a post about it–what its about, why you want to read it, and such. If you participate, link back to Lisa’s page, and do also leave your links in the comments below as I’d love to check out your picks!
Today my pick is an Enid Blyton–Holiday House, first published in 1955. Blyton is of course one of my favourite authors (has been since my childhood) but with over 700 books to her credit, there are still many I haven’t read (and some I don’t even know of). This of course is one such. In fact, I only came across it very recently.
Holiday House is a standalone and one with a mystery element. Twins Patrick and Mary have been ill and are sent down by their parents to Holiday House in Devon by the sea. At the seaside, they set out to explore, and in the process find a secret passage and a derelict house, and of course, a mystery on their hands. What secrets do the passage and house hold? This book has been repackaged as part of the ‘Young Adventurers’ series with (from what I can see) different characters (Katie and Nick), but luckily I have the original version from fadedpage.com.
Enid Blyton’s mysteries, whether standalone or parts of series, are usually great fun–the findouters mysteries for instance have rather unique solutions in many of the stories, and the others even if they they have common elements like caves and hidden passages, are very enjoyable to read–the excitement of going down a passage through the caves, what one might find at the end of it, and the fear of the villains coming up on one, what a fun way of experiencing it all. So I am certainly looking forward to reading this one, soon.
Have you read this one? The original or repackaged edition? Did you enjoy it? Do you enjoy reading or revisiting children’s adventure stories or mysteries? Which ones are some favourites? Looking forward to your thoughts and recommendations!
The cover image and description are from the Enid Blyton Society page (here)
Literary Potpourri 
This is the first I’ve heard of this book. I must read it.
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I only recently saw this as well. Hope it’s a good one
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This looks cute. I would have loved it as a kid. Thanks for sharing.
https://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/2020/05/shelf-control-may-13.html
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It does, doesn’t it– I love revisiting childhood favourites from time to time, and don’t mind adding to the list even now 🙂 Thanks for sharing your link–heading over to check it out!
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I hate to admit that I’ve never read anything by Enid Blyton! 700 books? That’s incredible! What would you say are your favorites?
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Wikipedia lists 762: There are many, of her mysteries, I like the Five Findouters, fantasy, there’s the Magic Faraway Tree Books–there are also school stories (St Clares are the one’s I’ve read most), circus stories (Galliano’s Circus), ones set in farms (Six Cousins at Mistletoe farm).
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