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A review by vikingwolf
The Adventures of the Wishing-Chair by Enid Blyton
3.0
I don't know how many times I read this book as a child but I loved it! I was forever trying to drag chairs out into the garden to use as my wishing chair, which enraged my mum on a daily basis one summer! I grew up on Enid Blyton books but I don't remember too much about this series other than the characters, rich kids Mollie and Peter who have their own playroom at the bottom of the garden, a houseproud mother and a servant called Jane. One day they visit an antique shop to buy a present for Mother and get involved in a strange adventure where they steal a flying Wishing Chair from the wizard shop owner and take it home. Each time the chair grows wings, it is time for a new adventure, and as a kid I just loved the different places and people that they met on their travels.
Reading this as an adult was always going to be a new experience and I'm glad to say that I still had fun with it. Of course I can point at how silly the kids are at times or laugh at their outrage when somebody steals their chair (seeing as it doesn't actually belong to them) but it was all very enjoyable. Each installment is a short self contained adventure of a handful of pages. I could be picky and say that each was too short and over too quickly but they were written for kids who might have shorter attention spans so that is fair enough. The kids are nice enough but my favourite character is still Chinky. The pixie is kind, intelligent and can do magic, as well as having a ton of friends through the magical community.
One alert to give is the name of the pixie being Chinky. The books were written back in 1937, and I first read it in the late 70's when attitudes to various things were different. My review is based on that context and I won't be publishing any comments on my blog complaining about the name being used in the review.
Reading this as an adult was always going to be a new experience and I'm glad to say that I still had fun with it. Of course I can point at how silly the kids are at times or laugh at their outrage when somebody steals their chair (seeing as it doesn't actually belong to them) but it was all very enjoyable. Each installment is a short self contained adventure of a handful of pages. I could be picky and say that each was too short and over too quickly but they were written for kids who might have shorter attention spans so that is fair enough. The kids are nice enough but my favourite character is still Chinky. The pixie is kind, intelligent and can do magic, as well as having a ton of friends through the magical community.
One alert to give is the name of the pixie being Chinky. The books were written back in 1937, and I first read it in the late 70's when attitudes to various things were different. My review is based on that context and I won't be publishing any comments on my blog complaining about the name being used in the review.