Wednesday, the 3rd of August, and time for Shelf Control once again! 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, when you got it, and such. If you participate, don’t forget to 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 as well!
Today’s pick is from a pile of Enid Blyton books that I have waiting to be read; while I read many many of hers as a child and more as an adult, with over 750 books written, I’m sure I have at least three or four hundred (may be far more) still to explore, and while I doubt I’ll ever read each and every one, there are plenty on my radar to still get to, especially her nature books, and ones set around the different seasons but also many of the stories.
Today’s pick is a standalone, The Children at Green Meadows (1954). I was hoping to squeeze this one in with my 1954 Club reads but sadly ran out of time. The Children at Green Meadows is about three children, the Marshall children, Francis, Clare, and Sam who live with their mother, father who is wheelchair bound having been injured in the war, their grandmother, and Mr Black the cat. They live at Green Meadows, a farm sized property, much of which is lying unused but Grandma who it belongs to, doesn’t wish to sell. A chance fight between Francis and a boy with a dog, leads to the dog being brought to Green Meadows for the children to look after. And this is just the beginning for the children soon find themselves looking after a menagerie, and Green Meadows turning into an animal home–with a horse, pigeons, and dogs among them! This soon begins to chance the family’s life bringing more happiness.
This was not a book I knew as a child, but being a story involving rescuing and giving shelter to animals, it is a theme pretty close to my heart, in some ways much more so now than before, even though I have always loved animals. Blyton had a great love for nature and this reflects in both her nonfiction and fiction, and I have found even from my recent reads that I often learn things I never knew before (most recently, cows don’t have upper teeth). This sounds a perfectly lovely read and one I very much want to get to soon!
Have you read any of Blyton’s nature themed books? Any by other children’s authors that you like particularly? Looking forward to your thoughts and recommendations!
Lisa’s pick today is one I want to read as well, Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys, set around the single largest maritime tragedy, of a ship carrying refugees and wartime personnel with over 9,000 losing their lives.
As always the cover image is from Goodreads and the description from the Enid Blyton Society page
Literary Potpourri 
Not one I remember from childhood, either, but I’m pretty sure I’d have been suggesting our very own animal rescue home to my parents if I’d read it.
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I’d very likely have done the same. Given enough space and resources, I’d have one now too 🙂
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I read a lot of Enid Blyton books as a child, but I’ve never even heard of this one. She wrote so many! This sounds like one I would probably have loved.
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True; I didn’t know this as a child either.
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I would have loved this as a child. I loved books about rescuing animals.
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Me too Wendy; any book with animals was a fvaourite as long as they weren’t harmed
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Sounds nice. I don’t think I’ve read this one.
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It sounds very much something we’d love
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This sounds wonderful Mallika! I read a lot of Blyton as a child but never came across this. ❤📚
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Me neither; and my mom who also read lots of different ones than I did hadn’t either. But she was so prolific, there are probably hundreds we don’t know.
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I never read any Enid Blyton books as a child, so as an adult, I’d love to give them a try!
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As I child I loved the mysteries and adventure books, school stories also the fantasy stuff like the Faraway Tree and wishing chair; now I find the nature books, fiction and non fiction my favourites, and still enjoy rereading old favourites. If you’d like to try some fadedpage.com has a fairly large selection of public domain ones available.
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Good heavens, I knew she was prolific but 750?? That’s incredible!
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I think wikipedia lists something like 762 to be precise; mind boggling, even if some were on the same template.
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