The Adventures of the Wishing Chair

Peter and Mollie were hunting for an antique shop so that they can get something nice for their mom, who was interested in antique things. They get into a shop where weird things happen. The shopkeeper doesn't let them go and both of them sit scared on a chair wishing they could go home. Suddenly, the old chair that they were sitting on grows wings! And just as they wished, they go home- the chair flew!

That was the first adventure they had with the wishing chair.They found out that if they sit on the chair when it grew wings, and wished to go somewhere, it would take them there. Or the chair would take them to any place it desired if they had no particular place in mind.

In their second adventure with the wishing chair, they rescue a pixie, Chinkie who becomes their friend. The wishing chair was kept in the children's play house and Chinkie would keep guard of it and let Mollie and Peter know if it grew wings.

The kind of adventures that they have are funny, exciting and quite imaginative.They go to a magicians party, they go to the land of dreams where anything could happen, the wishing chair even gets stolen a couple of times, but the trio manages to get it back.

The wishing chair has a character for itself. It is not just a chair that flies. It gets cross, excited, stupid- it acts like a child. There are two books in this series and a compilation of related stories which have the wishing chair as a part of it. So if you want to go to lands far beyond your dreams, join Mollie,Peter, Chinkie and their Wishing chair...

The Noddy series

Most of us have watched 'Make way for Noddy!' on TV. But did you all know that Noddy was born out of Blyton's pen too?

There are 24 books in this series and some of them have been converted as such into the animated version. Noddy is a woodden boy, who ran away from the craftsman who made him because he also made a lion that scared him. He ran into a woods, where he found Big ears, a friendly brownie, who took him to toyland.

Noddy's life at toy land is something we are all familiar with- his yellow taxi which goes 'Parp, parp!',his blue hat with a bell in the end and his characteristic way of getting into trouble or helping people out.

The other major characters we see in this series are Tessie bear,Bumpy dog, Mr Plod, the bad goblins Sly and Gobbo, Martha Monkey and the rest of the toyland.

In the TV series, we barely get to know that Noddy is new to Toyland. But in the book series, we come to know how he has to prove that he is a toy and not a decorative item, and even after proving that, he has to prove that he is a 'good' toy. Most of the time, Noddy gets into trouble because he does not know how things work in toyland.

Next time before you watch a 'Make way for Noddy!' show, try reading the books. It is so much more fun as you get to know each of the characters in detail.

The Naughtiest Girl

We all know about children who are so naughty that their governesses are forced to leave. Like in The sound of music for example. Elizabeth Allen was of that sort too. She was the naughtiest little girl you can ever imagine. When her governess resigns her post, her mom decides to send her to Whyteleafe school.

To lose all the fuss and freedom that she experienced as an only child was not a happy proposition for Elizabeth. She tries all she could so that she is not sent away. But Elizabeth has to go to Whyteleaf. She vows to be the naughtiest girl in the school and to get into trouble as much as she could so that she gets expelled-so that she could come back home.

Whyteleafe was a school were both boys and girls learnt together.All the problems students faced were solved by student representatives and not the teachers.William and Rita were the head boy and girl respectively.They, along with the jury made all the decisions for the student community. This included giving all the students equal pocket money-Elizabeth had no intentions of giving all her money into the school fund to get back only a few shillings.

But this was one among the many things Elizabeth had a problem with. She makes friends with Joan who tries to make Elizabeth behave better.After a while, realizing how lonely she would be without all her friends around her, Elizabeth decides to stay on in Whyteleafe.

In the later books, she makes friends with Julian, and he is as strong a character as Elizabeth is in the following stories. The series was continued by Anne Digby.