Good Old Secret Seven

The Secret Seven #12

by Enid Blyton

Cover worn, page edges tanned. Shipped from the U.K. All orders received before 3pm sent that weekday.

Genres: Childrens, Mystery, Adventure, Fiction, Classics, Young Adult, Middle Grade

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

See also:
Ένιντ Μπλάιτον (Greek)
Enida Blaitona (Latvian)
Энид Блайтон (Russian)
Inid Blajton (Serbian)
Інід Блайтон (Ukrainian)

Enid Mary Blyton (1897–1968) was an English author of children's books.

Born in South London, Blyton was the eldest of three children, and showed an early interest in music and reading. She was educated at St. Christopher's School, Beckenham, and - having decided not to pursue her music - at Ipswich High School, where she trained as a kindergarten teacher. She taught for five years before her 1924 marriage to editor Hugh Pollock, with whom she had two daughters. This marriage ended in divorce, and Blyton remarried in 1943, to surgeon Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters. She died in 1968, one year after her second husband.

Blyton was a prolific author of children's books, who penned an estimated 800 books over about 40 years. Her stories were often either children's adventure and mystery stories, or fantasies involving magic. Notable series include: The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, The Five Find-Outers, Noddy, The Wishing Chair, Mallory Towers, and St. Clare's.

According to the Index Translationum, Blyton was the fifth most popular author in the world in 2007, coming after Lenin but ahead of Shakespeare.

See also her pen name Mary Pollock

Reviews

[David Sarkies · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Secret Seven explore a castle
13 January 2015

Well, as soon as I started this book before I knew it I had finished it, which is not surprising since the 120 pages uses large type with decent spacing. Hey, it's a kids book so I was hardly expecting Crime and Punishment (though I would be interesting to see if there is a children's version of that book – with pictures).



Anyway, the Secret Seven get themselves a telescope, and suddenly discover that Suzie and her friend have also been told that they can use it, so after being swayed to let Suzie have access to the secret hideout, they decide to use it to check out a castle that happens to be near the village. Funnily enough this was the first time I realised that there was a castle near the village, and while the image of the castle in my head didn't really look like this:



I did have an image in my head, probably more like this one:



It sort of made me jealous because we don't have any castles here in Australia, though we do have ruins, but our ruins tend to be pretty boring, sort of like this one:



So while it may be a ruin, there is not all that much to explore inside, and even then they tend to be on somebody's property so if you climb the fence and start poking around inside you'll probably find yourself being chased off by a farmer with a gun (yes, farmers actually have guns in Australia, believe it or not – those kangaroos can be real pests).



Anyway, the Secret Seven, discovering that somebody is hiding in the castle decide to go and check it out, and sure enough they are up to no good, so they decide to get to the bottom of it. Mind you, their telescope gets stolen, and destroyed, and they also find themselves locked up, however as I have suggested, it seemed that everything went by so fast that before I knew it I was at the end. Mind you, it can be really annoying when you are sitting at a coffee shop in the morning reading your book and you have to be at work in five minutes yet you have three pages to go.
I decided to finish off those three pages.

[Daniel Myatt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finished reading this to my God Daughter over WhatsApp video. It was her reward for being good whilst being home schooled.

Whilst she was enthralled by the story, I was left feeling a little empty by it! Very sexist and left me feeling a bit short changed.

But still a fun adventure that enthralled a small child and I guess that's the audience 😊

[Philip · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jack has a brand new telescope and the Secret Seven have great fun looking through it, even spotting some art thieves hiding in the heretofore unmentioned crumbling castle that stands nearby. It's a gripping premise and one that this novel fails to live up to.

This book is rushed, with crucial plot points and character moments skated over and the main mystery being such a b-plot. These kids don't even do any detecting any more. I swear all they did this book was look through a telescope. It also suffers from having Binky in it, c'mon Suzie you can get a better sidekick than that rabbit-faced besom. Where's Jeff?! Who remembers Jeff?

Barbara at one point is given a whole paragraph of speech! I think this might be more than all her previous contributions to the stories combined. She's moaning about Suzie of course saying how "If she were a boy I'd like her awfully - but as she's a girl, she's just a nuisance." This line shocked me greatly, not because of the sexism because we all expect that by now, but I didn't actually know that poor Barb could string two sentences together.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another classic Secret Seven. In this book, the Secret Seven get to use a telescope. This sparked a discussion with my 5 1/2 year old son about how big space was. He came to the conclusion that "Space is so big that it can't even fit in your brain". We also enjoyed discussing the clues in the story and our ideas of what would happen next.

[Rashu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the sinhala translation " චිත්‍ර සොරකමේ අභිරහස ".

[Shreyas · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Good Old Secret Seven' (The Secret Seven #12) by Enid Blyton.


"Grown-ups always seem to know at once what's the best thing to do," said Pam, thankfully."That's one of the differences between them and us!"


Rating: 3.75/5.


Status: Definitely a first read. I don't recall reading this particular book during my childhood. [I had first read some of the Secret Seven books about 20 years ago. At present, I'm not sure which of these I had read earlier and which I haven't.]


Review:
Jack and Susie have been gifted a telescope by their Uncle and are allowed to share it with their friends. During a session of birdwatching using the new telescope, Janet stumbles upon a new adventure revolving around the old dilapidated Torling Castle.

Well, this was an interesting read. The book never had any slow bits and it promises to be a thoroughly enticing book for children.

One of the best parts of the book was when the boys first plan to visit the Torling castle without the girls because 'it would be too steep a climb for the girls' and the girls take a stand for themselves. Finally, the girls of the Secret Seven Society do some legwork and surveillance without being left behind. Another great thing about the book was that the adults were finally concerned about the kids' nighttime adventures that they decided to take the matters into their own hands - thus resulting in the timely rescue of the kids. Oh, Scamper had his part to play in the rescue too. Good old Scamper!

Throughout my current reread of the Secret Seven books, I have preferred Jack over Peter as the most sensible and tolerable member of the Secret Seven. I take my words back; now I definitely prefer Peter over Jack. Maybe Janet is better than both of them. Susie has been a nuisance for the Secret Seven Society for quite some time. And despite knowing that, Jack has always been careless enough to reveal Secret Seven plans and passwords around it. It has been happening in all of the Secret Seven books I have read so far, and it happened in this book as well.

Also, I felt it quite weird that the Secret Seven members jumped to Susie's defence in a matter of seconds. While I agree it is less believable for Susie to be a thief, it was quite surprising that all the members agreed that she doesn't lie. Like guys, she lied to you in the fourth chapter of this book itself; she lied about seeing a guy falling off a roof while looking through the telescope...



Disclaimer: Ratings reflect the enjoyability factor of these books considering they are intended mostly for children. Not to be compared with my ratings and reviews for books primarily intended for YA and adults.

[Flávia (Fuga de Letras) · Rating 3 out of 5]

"'She's more like a boy, really', said Barbara (...) well, you know what I mean. She's brave -- and bold, and don't-care-ish -- and she doesn't cry if she hurts herself, and she'll stick by her friends through thick and thin. if she were a boy I'd like her awfully -- but as she's a girl, she's just a nuisance, '"
I know this was written in 1960, but come on...

Apart from a couple of situations similar to this one I quoted here, I enjoyed this little book. It was a nice and short adventure. I had never read anything by Blyton and was very curious. It certainly reminded me of the books I used to read as a child that were similar to the series, in the sense that they feature a group of kids (be it 5 or 7) that find themselves solving mysteries.

[bakanekonomama · Rating 3 out of 5]

Baru sekali ini baca serinya Sapta Siaga. Seru euy!

Kali ini jumlah personilnya lebih banyak dari Lima Sekawan. Ya iyalah namanya aja Sapta Siaga!

Ceritanya jauh lebih sederhana dari Lima Sekawan. Bukunya juga tipis. Duduk sejaman juga bisa langsung beres. Siap cari seri-seri berikutnya ah. Tapi klo bisa yg pas lg diskon gocengan kayak buku ini >_<

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate the newer covers for these books :( The Secret Seven were SO much younger than the Famous Five, which made them much quicker, brainless reads - but I liked how they were young enough to actually get adults involved instead of being all nooo, we can do this ourselves!

[Midnight Sun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting indeed

[Tommy Verhaegen · Rating 4 out of 5]

De cover is een vrije interpretatie van de inhoud en eigenlijk misleidend. De kauw op de voorgrond is deel van een kolonie kauwen die in en rond de ruïne van het kasteel, dat het middelpunt van het verhaal vormt, leven maar buiten een achtergrond geen echte rol in het verhaal spelen. Het meisje achter de tralies in een wel erg nieuw kasteel doet eerder denken aan een gevangene dan aan iemand die buitenkijkt vanuit een ruïne.
Algemeen is het natuurlijk een boed door Enid Blyton, wat betekent dat het ook zovele jaren na het schrijven nog altijd op eenzame hoogte staat bij de jeugdliteratuur.
Waar de Vier voor de jongsten bedoeld is en De Vijf de beroemdste reeks boeken van de schrijfster vormen en voor de wat oudere jeugd bedoeld zijn, liggen de Club van 7 verhalen daar qua doelgroep tussenin. Niet te kinderlijk maar ook nog niet te ingewikkeld qua diepgang.
Ze zijn wel door en door Engels, wat dank zij de televisie waarschijnlijk geen enkel probleem zal vormen.
Een les die uit deze reeks in het algemeen kan getrokken worden is dat 7 helden (+ Snuffel en moeial Anna) te veel van het goede is. Er zijn gewoon niet genoeg bladzijden om ze allemaal tot hun recht te laten komen. De eenvoudigste oplossing, waar de schrijfster eveneens voor kiest, is dan ook om in elk boek slechts enkelen van de 7 een hoofdrol te laten spelen.
Het is lang geleden geschreven en hoewel de meisjes volop deelnemen volgt Enid Blyton de geplogenheden van de tijd en laat de gevaarlijke dingen aan de jongens over, de meisjes blijven bang en afwachtend achter. Al zullen ze soms onverwacht toch een veel spannender aandeel krijgen, en zeker niet alleen als ze weer eens gevangen of ontvoerd worden.
Het verhaal is spannend maar alles verloopt erg prettig, iedereen - ook de criminelen - doet aan fair-play, het enige slachtoffer zal uiteindelijk de telescoop zijn die zulke belangrijke rol in het verhaal speelt.
En erg goed verhaal van een topschrijfster in een reeks die toch iets minder hoog gekwoteerd wordt dan haar andere uitmunde reeksen.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Enid Blyton when I was growing up and now I have children of my own I am digging them out or acquiring them ready to read to them when they are old enough to appreciate them. This is the 12th installment in the secret seven series, aimed at a slightly younger audience than the famous five books. I found this one in a charity shop – yes I know it was a great find as it is a first edition!. Sadly it has been quite badly mistreated over the years with drawing/doodling on the pages, names in the front, torn pages and some monster has left a coffee cup on the cover and left a hideous ring! *shudders*
I don’t actually remember reading this one growing up so I was quite eager to skip through it – obviously being only just over a 100 pages long it is quite a quick one so I dipped in and out amongst more adult reading. Jack and his annoying sister Susie have been given a telescope and whilst borrowing the telescope to do some bird-spotting Janet spots someone hiding in the old castle up the hill from their farm. It all manages to be quite interesting and would certainly have been quite enticing for me if I was still a child.
Unfortunately my older self feels that in places it was a bit rushed and this left to some missing plot holes and not enough character development. I also hated the books with Binkie in as a kid so the fact she featured did not help.
I liked the fact that the girls, especially Barbara, showed a bit more spirit in this book – refusing to be left behind when the boys first suggest they go up to the Castle without them. All in all, I’m glad I found it and read it but not one of my favourites.

[Stephen Hayes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jack is given a telescope, which he shares with the Secret Seven, who notice strange doings at an old castle up on a hill.

Load shedding at 6:00 am, so I read Good Old Secret Seven, and finished it in an hour and a half before load shedding ended. I'd read a few of the Secret Seven books, but even as a child had not been very impressed with them. My main memory of them was the children's encounter with the village policeman who kept telling them to "Clear orf", but he didn't appear in this one. And the only one who seemed to have any character was Susie, the villain of the sub-plot, and she was far more interesting than the rest of them put together.

[Gillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was asked to read this by a 9-year old, so I did. I'd say it's a good adventure for someone that age. Of course, there's the usual business with club secrets and passwords, and there's Scamper the dog in the mix. In this adventure a present of a telescope leads to seeing something strange which they have to investigate.
There's some confusion with times, from the opening sentence, "One morning after school, ...." which was on a Friday. Did schools at that time finish in the morning? The other is when Janet's mother says it's getting late, immediately followed by Jack telling Janet he had to get home for an early lunch.

[Minna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tässä SOS omii aika häpeilemättömästi Jackin JA SUSIEN lahjaksi saaman kaukoputken itselleen - tosin pitkin hampain luvaten, että Susiekin saa sitä joskus käyttää. Minusta he kohtelevat Susie-parkaa epäreilusti. Sarjan loppua muistaakseni ennakoiden tässäkin silti joku jo huomauttaa Susien olevan älykäs ja omatoiminen ja että onpa oikeastaan sääli, ettei hän ole SOSin jäsen... Plussaa linnanraunioista, sellaiset ovat aina cool! Siitä syystä tälle nimenomaiselle kirjalle neljä tähteä, vaikka en pidäkään kaukoputken omimisesta. Ei taida sarjasta olla kesän projektiksi, nehän tulee luettua loppuun kohta jo!

[Farseer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another Secret Seven story along the same lines we are used to. Susie is still a pest, although she is a great foil for the Secret Seven. She is intelligent, although annoying, and you can't help feeling like she has a point in her feud against the Secret Seven, since they exclude her from their adventures.

Anyway, here we have a telescope that the children use to see strange goings-on in a ruined castle. The story is OK, without being anything special, but it made me remember with fondness the superior castle story by Blyton, Castle of Adventure. Then again, the Adventure series, targeted to older children, was always more exciting and less simplistic than the Secret Seven.

[Luka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good adventure. But also contains the following:

"She's more like a boy, really" said Barbera, which made all the boys look scornfully at her. "Well, you know what I mean," she went on. "She's brave - and bold, and don't care-ish - and she doesn't cry if she hurts herself, and she'll stick by her friends through thick and thin. If she were a boy I'd like her awfully - but as she's a girl, she's just a nuisance."

and

"Oh, I will, Peter, I will" said Janet, wishing she was coming too. "Oh, why am I a girl? I do so want to come..."

[Sean Harding · Rating 2 out of 5]

With book #11 barely fading from the eye balls along comes book #12 and more goings on for the seven twerps. Very formulaic and the series has ground into a man these holidays are a bust aren't they nothing going on round here - aha stumble into mystery of some sort - aha convenience and coincidence help us solve it along with every adult within a 100 mile radius being a dunce.

[Vinay Leo]

The Secret Seven series was the first “series” of Enid Blyton I came across, thanks to a book being passed on to me by my cousin. For a child, I think the series was fun. It made me want to explore the idea of forming secret clubs with badges and passwords and such. It is a box set I’ve acquired since then, and hope to reread soon.

[Saffron Mavros · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book series is meant for a younger age group, but thrilling and exciting nonetheless.

New plots, stunning escapes, and chilling mysteries keep you hanging on every word! And of course the descriptions of the elaborate meals that the seven have. Let's not forget the official "seven" meetings that each of us, deep down, wanted to be a part of, like those eavesdropping intruders.

[Jenna Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad Susie got to be a bit more included in this instalment even though the Seven were reluctant and kinda mean about Susie to her face.

The story itself is fine. The mystery felt a bit pointless/forgotten as 90% of the book was just the Seven arguing about whether Susie should be allowed to look through a telescope that was partially hers in the first place.

[Minahil · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was pretty nice and in this one of my fav parts was that their dog scamper was the hero mostly and i hope that jack bought a new telescope with his share of the prize money and i thonk that the secret seven should be more kind to susie (jacks sister)

[Akewisut · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Book for age 11-15

[Dixita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and I want a telescope too now for solving some mysteries and spending good time looking at the night sky of stars moons and galaxy

[Kylie Abecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as intriguing and interesting as the previous books in the series, but still a good old secret seven tale.

[Rue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Their telescope gets stolen

[Lisa Ugolini · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did anybody else root for Susie? :D And for the girls in general....

[Andrew Alfred · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love it

[Medhansh Vaddadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading complete set of books... It all started during the pandemic time. One of my favourite reads during pandemic

[Redwan Hasan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Secret seven? More like stupid seven!