The Ship of Adventure

Enid Blyton's The Ship of Adventure is a cruise-ship adventure for 9 year olds, and it's the one where a parrot gets smuggled down to Southampton in a picnic basket.

What happens

Mrs Mannering has had quite enough of adventures. So this summer she's taking all four children on a big white ship called the Viking Star. It's off to Portugal, Madeira, Morocco, Spain, Italy and the Aegean islands. Bill isn't coming (on purpose!).

The only snag is Kiki. Parrots aren't allowed on board. Jack doesn't make any fuss about it at all, which should have been a clue. Then, as the ship pulls away from the quay, a parrot breaks its chain and flies straight across the water.

Jack's explanation is VERY innocent. The others don't believe a word of it, and your reader won't either.

Life on board is a dream. There's a swimming pool on the ship, deck games, a cinema and a long menu they eat their way down. Kiki wins over the cabin steward by sneezing, coughing and asking him where his hanky is.

Philip, naturally, finds a pet. On a coach trip in Morocco he rescues a tiny hurt monkey and calls him Micky. Kiki is not impressed. One cabin battle ends with soap, a toothbrush and hairbrushes flying at the parrot!

Then a new boy called Lucian comes aboard with an uncle who clearly finds him a nuisance. He's friendly and gangly and he will NOT leave them alone. Mrs Mannering is certain there's no chance of anything strange happening on a ship. You can probably guess how much that's worth.

It's worth knowing this one shows its age quite a lot. In Morocco the local traders and children are described in a way that's very much of its time, and some children throw stones at the monkey before Philip steps in. On board, Jack calls the younger passengers spoilt little brats, and Lucian gets laughed at for his teeth and his glasses.

If your reader is sensitive to teasing or to animals being hurt, those bits might sting. For a child who loves an old-fashioned adventure and doesn't mind a chat about how books were written back then, there's loads to enjoy.

One more thing. The first chapter runs through all their earlier holidays and gives away how several of them turned out.

What to read next

So if your reader hasn't met these four before, start with The Island of Adventure. It begins with Philip on a hillside being bossed about by a voice that turns out to belong to a very rude parrot.