Fun for the Secret Seven

Fun for the Secret Seven is Enid Blyton's story for 7 year olds about a club, a secret password and an old horse nobody else wants to pay for.

What happens

It starts with a note through the letter-box addressed to Peter, Head of the Secret Seven. Jack needs a meeting called. A boy at school is in trouble and won't say much about it.

So Peter writes out the notices. Half past two, in the shed with S.S. on the door. No one gets in without the password and you have to wear your badge.

The password is Scamper, which is also the name of the family spaniel, and he gets very overexcited every time somebody whispers it through the door.

Then the actual problem. Old Mr Tolly lives on the hill with his dog and his horse. The horse lives in the second room of the cottage, because Mr Tolly loves him that much.

The horse got hurt pulling a heavy cart. The vet's bills came to more than ten pounds and Mr Tolly's pension won't stretch anywhere near it.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

The farmer who owns the horse says the animal is only fit to be shot now he can't work. Two of the girls are in tears about it inside a page.

The children also frighten themselves wondering out loud whether Mr Tolly could be sent to prison. Nobody harms the horse in front of you, and the whole point of the book is the Seven refusing to let it happen. Even so, if your reader is the sort who cannot bear an animal being threatened, read the first two chapters alongside them.

What they get in return is the bit children love about these books. The shed. The password. The badges. Buns and boiled sweets and four bottles of ginger beer that won't go round.

Peter is BOSSY. He tells his own sister off for interrupting, and he really does say things like please address any remarks to me. Your reader will either find him very funny or want to argue with him, and both are good fun.

It's a plan-making story more than a chase. They work out how to hide a horse, who will muck out the stable and how on earth to find the money, and every child gets a job.

The language is properly old fashioned. Jolly well, fat-head, pocket money counted in pennies. Most of it explains itself.

What to read next

If the meetings in the shed are the draw, Puzzle for the Secret Seven gives them the same crew on a proper detective job, starting with a trip to the fair and Jack's awful sister Susie tagging along as usual.