Five Have Plenty of Fun

Brief Summary by Poppy Hutchinson (from www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk): A mysterious arrival at Kirrin Cottage, in the middle of the night, sparks excitement amongst George and her cousins. Berta is a vulnerable, young American girl, (daughter of a rich man) who is fleeing kidnappers and the Kirrin Household have been personally asked to protect and disguise her. In order to make her unrecognisable, Berta is transformed into a handsome looking young boy called Lesley – and the Five are constantly on the look out for potential kidnappers. Will the disguise be successful, or will Berta be recognised and therefore find herself in grave danger?


Random thoughts:

Another non-descriptive title (to go with Go Adventuring Again, Get Into Trouble, Fall Into Adventure and Have a Wonderful Time).

Uncle Quentin is at his most ridiculous level of Quentinness. In front of George, he vociferates his outrage because an American colleague has said he would give away scientific secrets if his only daughter was kidnapped and threatened. Quentin is livid at this lack of spine and moral fiber. "Traitor to us all! How can he even think of giving away secrets for the sake of a silly girl?" Nice to see you have your priorities right, Quentin, and good of you to let your daughter know, so that she won't ever let herself be kidnapped. Not that she won't get kidnapped anyway, mind. When Aunt Fanny tries to calm him down, and explain that some people actually care about their daughters, he has some well-deserved words for her: 'Women are always soft and silly. It's a good thing you don't know any secrets – you'd give them away to the milkman!' The children and Fanny laugh at him, and I also found him very funny in this book, but if I were George I would be offended.

And what's the secret that's worth more than George? Yet another cheap, limitless source of energy for mankind. I thought that uncle Quentin had already discovered that back in Kirrin Island Again. Besides, apparently, the scientists are finishing their research and intend to make all their findings public in a month, which makes me wonder why some people are so eager to get the secret, since it's going to be public in a few weeks anyway, and why Quentin would be willing to sacrifice his own daughter to avoid revealing something he intends to make public very soon anyway...

Oh well... so the American scientist arrives, is impressed with the Five, and finally sends his beloved daughter there so that she'll be safe from kidnappers. The police has warned him about that possibility, but asking the police for protection would be ridiculous. Also, as we all know, there's no safer place on Earth than Kirrin Cottage.

The differences between American and British language provide a lot of entertainment. Uncle Quentin is amazed at the American way of using the word "guy", which of course is used everywhere nowadays. I wonder if that has been removed from the "modern" edition. I hope not, because it's fun, like the difficulties Berta has pronouncing some words in the British style.

One of the measures taken to keep Berta safe is to dress her like a boy, making her the fourth girl in boys' clothes in the series (after George, Jo and Henry). And of course, even though she is very girlish, once she get into boys' clothes the little girl looks more like a boy than George, to George's intense annoyance. Really, George, can't you do anything about that curly hair of yours?

George, by the way, displays some immature behavior directed at their American guest. It's entertaining to see, although not as much as in the previous book, where she had Henry to fight back with the same weapons, making it extra entertaining.

In spite of George's attitude, however, and of Berta being girlish and a bit spoiled, she (Berta) turns out not to be bad at all, and she pluckily holds her own well.

Another funny part is the recurring joke of Uncle Quentin's inability to remember Berta's name. Berta's names, in fact, since of course she needs a new name once she is turned into a boy.

So, the entertainment in this pre-adventure part is provided by Uncle Quentin, George, Berta and her little dog. We are denied the pleasure of exploring a new setting, since this all takes place around Kirrin. There's one very brief visit to the island, after several delays while the children wait for Alf... I mean, James the fisher boy to finish repairing the boat. I wondered at that point why they didn't go to the island through the secret passage. Is it forgotten, like the fact that the island belongs to all the children and not just George, or maybe they just prefer to go there by boat? One thing is clear: the high difficulty of getting to the island through the reef is forgotten, since a police boat gets there with no problem.

With Berta disguised as a boy in Kirrin Cottage, her father has a fit because he detects some error in their calculations and Uncle Quentin has to rush away to visit him, with Aunt Fanny in tow, leaving the children alone with Joanna the cook to deal with any kidnappers.

Then the adventure part starts, and it's strongly reminiscent of Five Fall Into Adventure, where George is kidnapped by people who are after scientific secrets, with the children having to deal with it on their own, with Jo's help (nice to see you, Jo!).

I had to wonder about the police here. In the first place, why isn't some protection assigned to Berta, since it was the police who warned she was at risk. After the kidnapping, In Fall Into Adventure, there was a plausible not to notify the police, which explained the children dealing with the problem on their own. But here the police is notified, but prove to be extremely inefficient. The children are the ones who examine the crime scene and discover clues, and even when they tell the police about the clues they do nothing about them, leaving the children to investigate and find George and capture the criminals on their own, after some fortunate coincidences and a weird scene where both the children and the criminals get locked at the same time in different rooms of a house.

The children manage to escape and forget to notify the police until the following day, but it's no problem because the criminals haven't been able to get out of their locked room. Uncle Quentin and Aunt Fanny return at the same time. They hadn't returned when they heard about George being kidnapped because surprisingly Quentin had a collapse when he heard the news. This is the same guy who was saying a few days ago that if George was kidnapped he certainly would not give away any of his scientific secrets to get her back.

Blyton pokes meta fun at the title of the book, with the children discussing what title the book about their adventure should have. George is the one who comes up with "Have Plenty of Fun", even though she spent half the book sulking at Berta and the other half kidnapped. (To be fair, they also had some fun, but let me exaggerate a bit for comical effect).

The worst problem of the book are the uncanny similarities with Five Fall Into Adventure, but once you ignore that the story is enjoyable enough. Not the best in the series, but a decent entry in the series.


Next up: Five on a Secret Trail (Famous Five, #15) ( )

Los Cinco regresan a Villa Kirrin de nuevo; sin embargo, la llegada de Berta, la hija de un compañero de tío Quintín, alterará todos los planes. Han amenazado con secuestrarla. Para confundir a los secuestradores, la disfrazan de chico, cortándole el pelo y poniéndole ropa masculina.

Quintín y Fanny tienen que marcharse unos días. Mientras están fuera, los secuestradores atrapan a Jorge por error. Para alejar a los secuestradores de Berta, la visten de chica y la envían con la prima de Juana. Además de informar a la policía, los hermanos y Jo deciden realizar una investigación, en la que encuentran varias pistas dejadas por Jorge, así como un trozo de papel con la palabra "gringo" escrita. Jo sabe que hay una feria llamada la Feria de Gringo, y conoce a Spiky, que trabaja allí. Éste les muestra la caravana de Gringo, donde encuentran la bata de Jorge.

Spiky les dice a los niños que Gringo se ha marchado con su coche, así que buscan a Jim, el chico que trabaja en el Garaje Kirrin, que telefonea a sus compañeros de otros pueblos para ver si ha pasado el coche de Gringo por allí. Así le dicen que lo han visto en Twining. Julián y Dick van allí a investigar con Tim, encontrando a Jorge en una casa encerrada. Sin embargo, son capturados, y Jo, que los seguía a distancia, los libera y avisan a la policía.

England, ca 1955
Indeholder "1. I Kirrinhuset", "2. En natlig gæst", "3. Dårligt nyt", "4. Berta", "5. Næste dag", "6. Lidt vrøvl", "7. En mindre konference", "8. En forvandling", "9. En overraskende opringning", "10. En mystisk hændelse", "11. På Kirrinøen igen", "12. Yderst mistænkeligt", "13. Et frygteligt chok", "14. Hvor er Georg?", "15. Opdagelser i skoven", "16. Jo!", "17. Til Gringos tivoli", "18. Spiky er til stor hjælp", "19. En spændende plan", "20. Spændende øjeblikke", "21. Noget højst uventet", "22. Nogle herlige unger".

En familie med tre børn, Julian på 12, Anne på 10 og Dick på 11, sender ofte børnene på ferie ved deres farbroder Quentin og hans kone Fanny. Quentin og Fanny har datteren Georgina på ca 11 år og de bor ved Kirrin-bugten i et omkring trehundrede år gammelt hus kaldet Kirrinhuset. Georgina insisterer på at blive kaldt Georg og opfører sig meget som en dreng. Hun har hunden Tim. Nu er der sommerferie og der er tre uger tilbage. Quentin er en kendt videnskabsmand og har inviteret to gæster på besøg. En af dem er en amerikaner Elbur Wright og hans datter Berta skal efter ferien starte på samme skole som Anne og Georg. Et par dage senere kommer Elbur tilbage igen og aftaler at Berta kan være i Kirrin-huset et stykke tid for der er trusler om at bortføre hende. Quentin og Fanny går med til det og Berta, der er lidt yngre end Anne, kommer aftenen efter via en motorbåd til huset. Hun bliver installeret i Anne og Georgs værelse.
Berta har også sin hund, der er en sort puddel og lyder navnet Sally med. Til at begynde med er Georg ret muggen og jaloux, men hun overgiver sig efterhånden. For at kamouflere Berta bliver hun klippet drengekort og får drengetøj på og bliver kaldt Leslie. En nat hører Anne en motorbåd ude ved Kirrin-øen og ser nogle lys der, men så bliver der stille igen og hun falder i søvn.
Quentin bliver kaldt bort for at arbejde sammen med Elbur og Fanny følger med, så kokkepigen Joan bliver tilbage for at forkæle børnene, der til gengæld roser hende og hendes madlavning til skyerne.
Dagen efter Annes observationer tager børnene ud på øen og Joan ringer til politiet for at fortælle om lysene på øen. Et par betjente dukker op på øen og både de og børnene kan se spor af at nogen har været der, men de er formentlig stukket af igen.
Berta/Leslie har nu været sammen med de andre børn i over en uge og har fået sul på kroppen og en brunere kulør end før, så hun falder godt ind med dem.
Nogen forhører sig hos købmanden om hvor mange børn, der er i Kirrin-huset og et par dage efter forsvinder Georg midt om natten, da hun er ved at lukke Sally ud i hundegården.
Julian og de andre får Berta sendt videre til Joans kusine, hvor sigøjnerpigen Jo bor. Hun bliver også døbt om igen, så hun nu igen er en pige, men med navnet Jane. Børnene finder ud af at bortførerne har kørt i en sølvgrå amerikanerbil og finder både dækmønster og en seddel med ordet "Gringo", som Georg har fået skrevet og smidt ud fra bilen. Jo er forarget over at Georg er blevet bortført og giver sig til at lede efter "Gringo". Det er et almindeligt brugt navn i Cirkus-kredse, men der er et omrejsende tivoli i nærheden med det navn og Jo kender en dreng Spiky, der arbejder der. Politiet er mindre begejstret for børnenes initiativer, men tager dog mod oplysningerne. Næste dag hjælper Spiky dem med at finde Gringo's beboelsesvogn, for de gætter på at Georg er spærret inde der. En gammel kone kommer ud for at jage dem væk, men imens finder Tim Georgs badekåbe inde i vognen og slæber den ud.
De finder også Gringos bil under en presenning og Spiky finder ud af at den for et par dage siden var væk en times tid for at flytte en påhængsvogn. Børnene gætter på at Georg var med på turen ud og en venlig mand på en benzinstation kan opklare hvor bilen kørte hen. Om aftenen kører de på cykel derhen og sniger sig over lågen til huset. De kommer ind via kulkælderen, sniger sig op i huset og låser dørene til et par værelser, hvor nogen ligger og snorker. Til gengæld åbner de en låst dør ind til et badeværelse og finder en bundet Georg der. På vej ud falder de over en kat og Dick forstuver anklen og de bliver fanget allesammen, da mændene kommer til.
Heldigvis har Jo sneget sig efter dem og kan befri dem allesammen. De kommer hjem igen, får noget at spise og falder i søvn.
Næste dag kommer Quentin og Fanny hjem igen. De har politiet med og Julian kan fortælle hvor kidnapperne sidder og venter på dem. Berta får lov at blive på ferie og Dick lover politiet at skrive en bog om hvordan kidnapperne havnede i suppedasen. Den skal selvfølgelig hedde "De fem og kidnapperne".

Julian tager rollen som Berta's storebror i løbet af nul komma fem og vikler hende om sin lillefinger. Der er mange gode observationer om søskenderelationer og enebørn. Men ellers er historien lige en tand for langt ude. ( )

"De kanske är kvar på ön!" sa Julian. "Titta färska fimpar!" 'De', det var kidnapparna, som var ute efter stackars Berta, och som hade skickat hotelsebrev till hennes pappa.

Ju mer femgänget funderade, desto säkrare blev de på att det verkligen var kidnapparna som var på ön. För vem skulle annars gå iland på Georges ö mitt i natten och ligga och spionera på badstranden i Kirrin med kikare?

Just då hördes ljudet av en båtmotor som startade. "Kvickt!" skrek Dick. "Skyndar vi oss och klättrar upp i ruinen så kanske vi hinner se hur de ser ut!"

. ( )