Figure 1.--Here is an Enid Blyton Famous Five book published in Serbian during 1995. Notice the modern dress in the illustration. Both the boys and girls wear jeans. It must have been part of the full set as its number 2 in the series--'Five Go Adventuring Again'. It was purchased a birthday present for 10-year old Nikola. His grandmother Mara enscribed the book with a charming birtday greeting. "Happy Birthday Nicholas, Your gandmother has bought you this book for your 10th birthday. You can read it - at least every Thursday. Books are important. In your life you need to read plenty of books because life is long. You will realise that books are man's best friend. This book is a good friend on your birthday. Happy Birthday. Grandma Mara" Valuable Wisdom from Grandma. Nicholas had a smashing granny. I think he may have been a reluctant reader. Click on the image to see the inscription.

Interestingly, the Famous Five books as well as other Enid Blyton books are among the most translated books ever written. No one has an exact count of vthe number of translations of the Blyton books. We note one estimate exceeds 3,500. That wouls make her the fifth most translated author in history. This huge number results from the large number of books written by Blyton and the many different translation in some if the more important languages, just as thereare many English language editions of the same book, Nor do we know how many lanuages are involved. We know the books have been translated into all the major languages and most smaller languages, smaller in the sence of the number of speakers. One study lisdted 36 languages, but we suspect that the actual number is even greater. We are sure just whu her works are so popular, but there clearly is a universal appeal. One factor is that younger children like for children to be some of the characters in the books read. Especially characters that appeal to them. And the simplicity of vocabulary makes the books idea for young readers. Of all the Blyton books translated, the Famous Five series is by far the most important.

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Created: 12:50 AM 3/15/2011
Last updated: 12:50 AM 3/15/2011