[The Magic Faraway Tree]: A Series Review

Happy Spring Break, friends!

Today is the first day this week that actually felt like spring which feels like a big deal. Hope you are enjoying spring wherever you are.

Today I am thrilled to be sharing my series review of The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton. In order, the books are titled: The Enchanted Wood, The Magic Faraway Tree, and The Folk of the Faraway Tree. We discovered this series last year and absolutely love all the books!

I bought The Magic Faraway Tree in Ireland at a fantastic bookstore in Dublin. Then I had my mom get us the other two on trips to the UK. They have quickly become some of our favorite read alouds! So glad Enid Blyton has several other series for us to enjoy as well. We have started her Wishing Chair series and it’s a lot of fun too!

Book Summaries: “Joe, Beth, and Frannie move to the country and find an Enchanted Wood right on their doorstep. In the magic Faraway Tree live the magical characters that soon become their new friends – Moon-Face, Silky the fairy, and Saucepan Man. Together they visit the strange lands (the Roundabout Land, the Land of Ice and Snow, Toyland and the Land of Take What You Want) atop the tree and have the most exciting adventures – and narrow escapes.”

“Joe, Beth and Frannie take their cousin Rick on an adventure he’ll never forget to the magic Faraway Tree, where he meets Moon-Face, Silky the fairy and Saucepan Man, and visits all the different lands at the top of the Faraway Tree. Like the Land of Spells, the crazy Land of Topsy-Turvy, and the land of Do-As-You-Please, where the children ride a runaway train!”

“Joe, Beth and Frannie are fed up when Connie comes to stay – she’s so stuck-up and bossy. But they don’t let her stop them having fun with their tree-friends, Silky, Moon-Face and the Saucepan Man. Together they climb through the cloud at the top of the Faraway Tree and visit the wonderful places there, the Land of Secrets and the Land of Treats – and Connie learns to behave herself!”

We loved these books so much! It’s always so exciting to find a series that everyone loves. It makes reading aloud so much fun! As this was a read aloud series, I have structured my review to share why these were great for read aloud. Enjoy!

Why read this books aloud:

Clever, fun stories. These novels have such engaging, fun stories making them perfect for read aloud. They are all really a series of short stories with each story ranging from 1-3 chapters. In each story, they go on a new adventure in a magical land or simply up the Faraway Tree. We loved all the clever adventures they go on! So fun to see how they first discover the Faraway Tree, the origin of Saucepan Man and other characters, and the many adventures in the magical lands at the top of the tree. I also appreciate that these are great for young kids — not scary, intricate or preachy. All the stories are a great blend of excitement, silliness, and adventure.
So many neat settings. We loved discovering new lands with the characters. Some of our favorites were the land of birthdays, the land of dreams, the land of sweets, the land of presents, and giant land. Each book takes readers on multiple adventures to different lands at the top of the tree and surrounding it. These books are so magical and all the magical lands are so clever!
Great characters. We love the characters in this book! The three siblings, Joe, Beth and Frannie are very relatable and fun to experience adventures with them. All their friends in the faraway tree are so fun as well! We loved Moonface, Silky, Saucepan Man, Whatsizname and all the other characters. I had fun making up different voices for the characters. And they really came to feel like old friends by the end of the series.
Fun illustrations and good chapter lengths. We loved seeing the different drawings in each chapter and the length of chapters was great for reading one chapter a night without it feeling long. Again, the conflicts in the story are resolved within a chapter or two. Plus there are lots of changing details with the lands and different adventures in each. That kept my kids attention easily. We actually read book 2 first and could easily follow along the action.

We love this series so much!! It’s always fun to find a series that becomes part of you and this was definitely one of those for our family. We love the stories, the characters, and the settings. I can’t recommend this series highly enough!