Most of us associate holidays with travel, fun and food, whether in real life or in books. Here is a set of books that talk about unusual holidays with an extra element: adventure. There is danger, humour, laughter, quirky characters and more in these four books. Read on...
Adventure series by Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton's Famous Five, Secret Seven and Five Find-Outers are all accompanied by their respective dogs but Kiki the parrot from the Adventure series is my particular favourite. With her nonsensical sayings and imitative noises, the parrot offers plenty of laughs and, in some books, even helps rescue the four children from danger. Other animals make appearances too, depending on which one Philip Mannering manages to tame in that particular book. Whether on a remote coast, island, valley or mountain, Philip has pets ranging from lizards and snakes to puffins and dormice; something his sister Dinah hates. Jack Trent, Kiki's master, and his sister Lucy Ann live with the Mannerings. Many of the messes the kids fall into have to do with their friend Detective Inspector Bill Cunningham's work while Philip and Dinah’s mother tries to stop them. Towards the end of the series, she gives in and marries Bill. The order of the books is The Island of Adventure, The Castle of Adventure, The Valley of Adventure, The Sea of Adventure, The Mountain of Adventure, The Ship of Adventure, The Circus of Adventure and The River of Adventure, but you can read them as stand-alone stories too.
The Talking Parcel by Gerald Durrell
Ever heard of Moon calves who give Moon Jelly along with milk and cream? Or of a sea serpent who is a Cordon Bleu Chef? Read about them in Durrell's crazy tale. The story opens with Simon and Peter visiting their cousin Penelope on a Greek island. While swimming in the sea, they come across a brown paper parcel that speaks. They open it to find PARROT (Percival Archibald Reginald Roderick Oscar Theophilus), and Dulcibelle, the singing spider. When Parrot tells them about the goings-on at the land of Mythologia, the three teenagers decide to go with them to help defeat the the cockatrices who have locked up the three books of power - the Dictionary, the Herbal, and the Book of Spells. There are a whole are loads of mythical and real animals mixed up in this totally zany adventure: cockatrices, toads, werewolves, sea serpents, dragons, phoenixes, weasels, griffons.... Just toss logic overboard and enjoy.
Trumpet of the Swan by EB White
This is a very different book from the others on this list. Eleven-year-old Sam is on a camping holiday when he finds a pair of trumpeter swans making a nest. When he chases a fox away and saves their eggs, the swans begin to trust him. When the eggs hatch, the youngest swan, Louis, is mute. In an attempt to learn to communicate, he goes to school with Sam, and learns to read and write. Louis' father steals a trumpet and the young cygnet learns to play on the instrument, becomes well-known and wins the affections of the swan he loves. A gentle tale with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments.
Adventure series by Willard Price
This is another series called Adventure but it has nothing in common with Enid Blyton's. Hal and Roger Hunt take a year off from school to help their father John Hunt collect animals for zoos around the world and his own animal farm in New York. Over the 14 books, the boys remain 19 and 14 years respectively, never go back to school and have adventures all over the world: from the Amazonian forests of South America to the Equatorial forests of Africa and from Papua New Guinea to the Arctic wilderness of Alaska. They travel deep into the Mariana Trench, explore volcanoes in the Pacific islands, land up on an old-world whaling ship; live in an undersea city off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and on the adventure goes. Amid the adventures, there is loads of information on geography and natural history. Willard Price wrote 14 books: Amazon Adventure, South Sea Adventure, Underwater Adventure, Volcano Adventure, Whale Adventure, African Adventure are some of them .