Five on a Treasure Island
I heard on the radio this morning that the publishers of Enid Blyton Books, Hodder, are going to change the language in the new publications of the first 10 Famous Five stories. I am personally torn over whether this is a good idea or not, the discussion lines seems to be
1) anything that gets children reading must be a good thing.
Or
2) Why change the language, children will soon pick up the meaning of the old sayings.
Some of the revisions include:
- Housemistress to teacher.
- School tunic to uniform.
- Mother and father to mum and dad.
- Dirty tinker to traveller.
- Awful swotter to bookworm
Let us know what you think!
We have also catalogued a complete collection of all 21 famous five books as published by BCA in 2006. Interestingly they appear to have copied the original illustrations in the books including the telescope being the wrong way round on wrapper design of Five on Kirrin Island Again.
Five on Kirrin Island Again (1st)
Five On Kirrin Island Again (BCA)
I am not sure it is necessary to change the language in these books. Having read the original Malory Tower series with my 13 year old daughter I think children can cope with it. She was fascinated by some of the expressions and enjoyed learning them. Most of them are self explanatory – for example ‘my people’ meaning family. Having talked to some customers about this too most of them would prefer to see the language unchanged.