Hello everyone and welcome to my first post on this new blog! My name is Keira 🙂
I thought I would start off with a slightly more casual post where I just recommend some books to you! Posts on this blog will surround weekly themes which I announce on my Twitter on Sundays. This week’s theme is adventure in honour of author Enid Blyton’s birthday on the 11th of August.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at some great adventure stories!
The Island of Adventure by Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton was the inspiration for this week’s theme, so naturally she needed to be at the top of this list! Although her work on the Famous Five and Secret Seven series are probably more famous, the Adventure series featuring characters such as Lucy-Ann and the Mannering siblings remains my absolute favourites.
I own old copies of the books that my grandma had as a child, so they have a lot of nostalgic value and besides that the stories are just wonderfully engaging. As a child I also loved the Famous Five, although I never read the Secret Seven, but the Adventure books remain on my bookshelf to this day (it helps that there’s only eight of them!)
The books follow a group of children who end up moving in to an ancient mansion on the coast when Jack, Lucy-Ann and Jack’s bird Kiki follow Phillip home after boarding school is over. The two meet Diana, Phillip’s sister, and the four get up to all sorts of adventures.
The adventures are done mostly by themselves without adults, but as all good children’s series should, there are a plethora of good and supportive adult role models throughout the books who are neither annoying nor boring!
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
Another classic children’s book, Peter Pan is the perfect example of an adventure story. There are pirates, a world where nobody gets older and a boy who loses his shadow!
Everyone knows the story of Peter Pan, or the Disney version at least, and I actually didn’t read the book until recently, but I found it very much enjoyable.
If you happen not to know the story of Peter Pan then you are seriously missing out and you should go and read the book immediately… or at least watch the film!
The Little Queen by Meia Geddes
Whilst there’s a reasonable to good chance you’ve heard of the previous to books on this list, you probably haven’t heard of this book.
The Little Queen is a slightly confusing, but rather brilliant story about a little Queen who is left to rule the country and goes on a journey travelling throughout the world she lives in where she meets a variety of people from people who walk all the way around the planet to people who make windows and she questions who and what she wants to be.
Not only does the character go on an actual journey, but she makes a personal and emotional journey throughout and Meia Geddes’ lyrical writing style makes the short book a very enjoyable read.
Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
This is an adult classic this time, and a rather unknown one at that.
Gilman’s most established work is her short story The Yellow Wall-Paper, which deals with rather dark topics to do with a woman being isolated from the world and her interests. Herland is a novella, rather than a short story, but still keeps the theme of very primitive feminism.
Three explorers find a forgotten land where only women live and have their eyes opened. Each of the men has a very different reaction and the way that the book is written gives an interesting insight into the psyche of the time as well as providing a rather interesting adventure story.
Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi
On a more light-hearted note, Furthermore is a middle-grade fantasy novel from the author of the Shatter Me series. In this new novel, Tahereh Mafi is able to express her story through beautifully lyrical, but not overly complicated and busy writing in a way that she developed throughout the Shatter Me series and it was truly delightful to see how it came to fruition in this book.
Furthermore is certainly a fantasy novel, much like Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus was definitely a fantasy novel, but similarly reads like a beautiful work of magical realism.
The main characters, Alice and Oliver grow a beautiful friendship form a rather tense beginning as they travel through the world of Furthermore, which is at once beautiful and dangerous, as they try to rescue Alice’s father. Nothing is as it seems and this adventure certainly has a lot of unexpected twists, making it both a beautiful and exciting read.
Rolling Blackouts by Sarah Glidden
This is non-fiction and it’s also a graphic novel, but I wanted to include it anyway. It is perhaps not as exciting or exotic as many of the other adventures I’ve talked about today, but Sarah Glidden’s journey in Rolling Blackouts is contemporary and important.
Rolling Blackouts is a recollection of Glidden’s journey through the Turkey, Syria and Iraq and tells not only of her own experiences and realisations whilst working as a journalist there, but also the stories of the people she travelled with and the people they spoke to. It’s sad and hopeful and an eye-opener and definitely worth the read.
So that was it!
Have you read any of these books? Let me know what your favourite adventure stories are by leaving me a comment!
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Headphones and Hyperboles 
Peter Pan has always been an absolute favourite story of mine. I loved all the Pan-centric movies I watched thus far and I cannot see that ever changing. I used to keep my window open at night, just in case a shadow wanted to stop by 😀
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It’s such a classic and also awww so sweet that you kept your window open!
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I live on the fifth floor of a huge apartment complex, so I will be forever sad that the cute “lets sneak out through the window” stories could never come true for me haha
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Ah yes that might be a little dangerous!
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Reblogged this on Keira's Archives and commented:
Go and check out my new blog! It’s very similar to this one, but an updated version 🙂
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