The book version of a straight to dvd disney film. As mentally stimulating as an 'Adam Sandler' movie. Narrative horse-tranquilizer. Whenever you start to enjoy it you can actually feel a few more braincells commit hari-kari. Everytime someone praises this book a fairy dies...wait..wait.. i'm sure i've got a few more ;)... It's just- there is something so wonderfully imaginative about all of the places and people that are there in these books? The strange lands and the ridiculously quirky characters are a constant source of entertainment simply because they are so very weird. I mean yes, of course the conflicts are simplistic and the antagonists are not too bright but that's not what I'm here for. I'm here for the worldbuilding. There are so many possibilities for adventure and conflict in the Wishing-Chair setting that the children and Chinky do not really need a mischievous or silly outsider to accompany them on their travels although at least one makes an appearance — Thomas, but he doesn't get to go with Peter and Chinky when they whisk away in the chair to get help for his unpleasant-looking face! According to the Index Translationum, Blyton was the fifth most popular author in the world in 2007, coming after Lenin but ahead of Shakespeare. Including a feature-length adaptation of Enid Blyton’s The Adventures of The Wishing Chair, this Tonie is perfect for long journeys and chapter-by-chapter listening.

Hilda McGavin is once again the talented illustrator. Her efforts seem a little different from the more defined pictures that decorate the first book. The children are a little older or bigger-looking of course but the illustrations overall seem a weeny bit less-detailed than in the previous volume. Not all that noticeable though. The Wishing Chair is ready to whisk your little one off to magical lands, and they don’t need to be sitting down to fly away.

Wishing-Chair Books, Stories and Games

Enid Blyton was the first all-text no-pictures author I ever read. Two decades worth of evolved tastes and increasing cynicism have washed away most of my delight, but I continue to retain a lot of fondness for her fantasy stories. Sometimes I do wish I had access to a wishing chair which could whip up some adventures in a whiff.... Ha Ha... The first book, Adventures of the Wishing-Chair, has the distinction of being Enid Blyton's first full-length novel — although it is episodic in nature. A TV series was made in 1998 as part of Enid Blytons Enchanted Lands.

Blyton does here to children's fiction what Edgar Rice Burroughs does to adventure fiction. And NO, the fact that this is aimed at kids does not excuse the poorness of the writing. Something I noticed in the last book of The Faraway Tree series, and particularly in this book, is that the father has vanished. There is no mention of a father in this particular story, only mother. While the Faraway Tree was written during and after the war, there is a good explanation as to why the father vanishes, however this is a pre-war book. Maybe the reason that there does not appear to be a father is because we are looking from the children's view point and most of their time is spent with their mother while father is off at work. However, the children are also clearly pre-school since not once are they mentioned going to school. Peter and Mollie arrive home from school where Chinky joins up with them and they're ready for more adventures. On their first visitation to a strange land they meet Chinky's cousin "Sleep-Alone." He's a rather anti-social type who just wishes to get away from everyone and everything so that he can have a decent sleep but, unfortunately, he's always disturbed no matter where he is and Peter, Mollie and Chinky play their part in his interrupted life. The adventure moves on and a problem arises when their wonderful chair is stolen so naturally there's an all-out hunt for it and this is where they become involved with Mr. Spells — an Enchanter. After a rather unpleasant introduction they eventually make friends with him and later on in the book Mollie and Peter seem able to visit Mr. Spells whenever they like which is a little unusual because when entering magical places there's generally a need to be accompanied by one of the in-folk such as a fairy or pixie.Over the course of the books they travel to all kinds of weird and wonderful places — the Land of Dreams, the Village of Slipperies, Mister Grim's School for Bad Brownies, the Land of Goodies and many others, meeting characters like the Grabbit Gnomes, Witch Kirri-Kirri, the Snoogle, Mr. Spells and Winks the brownie. Enid Blyton used some of the same lands in her Faraway Tree series. The trade name of "Meccano" is used in one chapter and it's noteworthy to the extent that one can reflect a little on the period during which the book was written.

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.from removed chapters of the previous books as well as material from Sunny Stories and Enid Blyton's Omnibus! [2] Television adaptation [ edit ] Enid Blyton one of the worlds most translated authors and probably the largest selling children's author of all time. This appears to have been written earlier than the Faraway Tree series and Blyton's style in this book seems to be quite different as well. Where the Faraway Tree had stories that covered multiple chapters the Wishing Chair has about one adventure per chapter with the exception of two, one takes up two chapters and the grand finale takes up three. Also, where the adult world occasionally intruded into the world of the Faraway Tree, in that the fairies would come and visit the children in their home, this does not happen in the world of the Wishing Chair. A couple of the adventures do involve the adult world intruding, but they only involved an incident when the Wishing Chair was going to be sold, where it was then moved into the house, and the other one involved a missing ring. However, pretty much most of the adventures occur in the play room, and the faerie realm, which appears to be an extension of the play room.

In this final book, Mollie and Peter are home for the half-term holiday and Chinky (or Binky) and the Wishing-Chair are ready to fly away with them to magical lands. They visit the Land of Wishes, the Land of Scally-Wags and help Santa Claus deliver presents on Christmas Eve. Do you want distinct characters, rich descriptive writing, emotional involvement and that mix of the fantastic and grounded that makes a story feel truly magical? Then you should look elsewhere because this book has NONE of that :P . Throughout the book they all have the desire to visit the Land of Goodness-Knows-Where for some reason or another but despite many attempts they never actually get there. This book will provide you a dose of healthy nostalgia and remind most fans about the joys of earlier generations and the books. Enid Blyton is a legend and a brilliant story writer. The Wishing-Chair Again came out in 1950 after it was serialised in the Sunny Stories magazine about a year earlier. That's over ten years after the first book ( Adventures of the Wishing Chair) was published.Instead, they just pop the Wishing Chair Tonie on top of a Toniebox to join Mollie, Peter and a whole host of spellbinding creatures for some enchanting adventures. Whether they are curled up on a comfy sofa, snuggled down in bed or settled down in a car seat, The Wishing Chair will instantly transport them somewhere else entirely.