Five O'Clock Tales

The O'Clock Tales Collection

by Enid Blyton

A magical collection of over forty tales. Join Sneaky the elf as he steals a growing spell and gets a terrible fright; or Snip and Snap the brownies as they play a trick on the Red Goblin; or lazy Kate as her bed takes her to school!

Genres: Childrens, Fantasy, Short Stories, Middle Grade, Fiction

152 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1941

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

[Sarah Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have loved reading this to my son and he loves the nice mixture of stories, so now we will start on 6 o'clock tales.

[Ahana]

I like it

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a short story collection, there’s bound to be something for everyone. A lot of them have preachy morals relevant to the era.

[Jennifer Heise · Rating 1 out of 5]

One hears so much about Enid Blyton and her place in mid-twentieth century Children's Literature, that I've been trying to read her stuff when I come across it (in this case, in a library booksale).
Wow, this is bad. There are some morality short stories with normal-ish kids (in which improbable coincidences allow young people to Be-done-by-as-you-did), some animal stories leaning heavily on the Joel Chandler Harris Uncle Remus stories, and a number of fairy-pixie tales. If you took half a cup of corn syrup, half a cup of saccharine and dumped in a half cup of liquid stevia extract, you would likely end up with something of the over-sweet, sticky and unappetizing mess we are presented with. Thorton Burgess' animal stories (while terribly flawed) outmatch the animal stories (or you can go back to the original fable sources instead), and the fairy/pixie stories wouldn't even rate Rose O'Neill or Margaret Tarrant illustrations. I valiantly soldiered on through them in hope of finding Fairy Joybell as mentioned in Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire books, but alas, no luck. It's hard to believe the amazing fiction of the 1970s came out of a tradition of reading this nonsense!

There is one bright spot in the collection, a recommendation of the author's to combat a fit of the sulks by holding an lemon acid drop (hard candy) in one's mouth until it melts, smiling all the while. That would probably work.

[Huma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading this book quite a few times when I was a child. Saw it today among a stack of Archie comics.
The only story I can remember is about the girl who was too lazy and her bed started walking towards the school while she was still sleeping to teach her a lesson!and yes, that's because that story was the one illustrated on my copy.

[Azreena · Rating 4 out of 5]

My very first Enid Blyton book when I was a child! :D

[Thea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last read January 2015

[Mashael · Rating 4 out of 5]

How good to read a book with short, funny stories. It made me feel like I'm a child again lol. I enjoyed reading it and it was a lovely book!

[Venkat]

i want read this book

[Nuqksh Sapra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has short stories, I read 2-3 stories everyday. All stories are nice.

[Barun]

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