The Circus of Adventure

I've just discovered this series and the author, Enid Blyton, who must never have had her work very well distributed in the States. That's my only explanation for why a bookworm, from a long-line of bookworms, has never heard of this charming & suspenseful series of children's books or its extremely prolific author (the blurb says she wrote over 700 books!) The two in the series I've read so far are real Nancy-Drew style page-turners. They center on four children who manage to be more successful operatives than their beloved stepfather, Bill, who is an actual British spy. Philip, Jack, Dinah and Lucy-Ann are brave and resourceful, but Blyton has created very real children - hers aren't too perfect. They give the strange interloper to their family vacation, Gus, an awfully hard time. A very cheeky parrot, Kiki, adds a surprising amount of humor. My 6 year old was desperate for, "just a little bit more, please!," at the end of every chapter. No higher praise for a children's book. [...]