"The Valley of Adventure" was the third of Blyton's "Adventure" series books, and was published in 1947. It has the same title in the U.S. edition. While all of the main characters return and the general arc of the plot is similar to those in the other Adventure books, this is the book in which Blyton best established an exciting and adventurous locale and a particularly effective combination of secret places, hidden treasures and scary bad guys. It may well be that it is because of this combination that many readers identify this volume as their favorite from the Adventure series.

Of course, the book reintroduces Jack (the bird lover) and his sister Lucy-Ann (a bit on the timid side). They are orphans who are informally adopted by Mrs. Mannering because of their friendship with Mrs. Mannering's children and because of her great fondness for them. Mrs. Mannering's children are Philip (the animal whisperer) and Dinah (squeamish about animals, but level headed and independent). The cast is rounded out by Kiki, Jack's pet parrot and the comic relief. The children's ages range from 14 for Jack and Philip to 12 for Dinah and 11 for Lucy-Ann.

In each book the two sets of siblings find themselves on school vacation with Mrs. Mannering, (and by this book also with Bill Smugs, now a regular character, - Mrs. Mannering's friend and a member of an unspecified British secret service). Each book starts out with the family going on a simple, relaxing holiday, (here it's birding in the countryside), but mystery, suspense and skullduggery always rears its head about three chapters in. Here, the kids get on the wrong plane during a melee at the airport and find themselves in Austria.

"Valley of Adventure" is a bit more heavily plotted than some of the other Adventure books, so the action moves around more, there are more secret places, there are multiple escapes and there are more secondary characters with important roles than is usual. This book does feature the coolest hideout for the kids, (hint: it involves flowing water), and some of the best underground action.

This book recaps all of the characters, their relationships to each other, their various personalities and the group dynamics, (Philip teases Dinah, Lucy-Ann dotes on brother Jack, and so on), that will be consistent throughout the series. So, it's not necessary to have read book one, ("Island of Adventure"), or to have followed the books chronologically, but it probably would be helpful since the first book does establish all of the basics. (That said, each later book does rather efficiently set the basics out again, in the first chapters, for new readers.)

This is a stronger book from a girl's point of view, since the two girls are now much more involved in the most exciting parts than in the earlier book. Perhaps the strongest note, apart from the whiz bang adventure, is that apart from some teasing and the like all of the children trust and admire each other, and the siblings are loyal to each other and their friends. There is none of the incessant sibling conflict that is popular in many current books. There is no moralizing or preaching, but there is a powerful undercurrent of courage, bravery and doing one's duty that is always in the background.

Blyton was criticized by "serious" reviewers for using short declaratory sentences and an undemanding vocabulary. Her response was that she did not listen to any critic who was over 12 years old. That said, these are not light weight or simpleminded books. The characters have charm and individual personalities. There is no pretense of grand literary accomplishment, but these are exhilarating and suspenseful adventure tales, well told. It is a testament to their quality that most of the reviews at this site have been written by people who read the books in their childhoods and still remember them vividly.

And, these books do stand the test of time. Caves, tunnels, floods, deep holes, secret passages, hidden doors, underground rivers, abandoned buildings, creepy noises, mysterious lights and sounds - all of the standards of tween adventure - start here, in the hands of a writer who knew how to tell a gripping story.

These books were hard to find in the U.S. until reprints began to appear. I'm delighted to see that we now have Kindle versions, which makes it easy and relatively inexpensive to try one. If you have a tween or even younger reader who likes gung-ho adventure and imaginative larking about, then one of these might be worth a try.

I was enchanted by this story from the time I read it as a child when I checked it out from the library. I forgot the name and the author's name, so I couldn't find a copy for myself until I recently found a website that helped me track it down from plot details--but I had an almost movie-like memory of the children and the waterfall and the cave with hidden art treasures. It's delightful to re-read this exciting children's adventure more than 40 years after I first read it!

Of course no normal children would have such adventures happen to them, but nevertheless, they are very "real" children for storybook children. They make mistakes (that's how this adventure happens) and quarrel sometimes. They are definitely not perfect goody-goody two shoes children, but they are good and they are fun. This will be a great story to read aloud to my grandchildren when they're a bit older. Meanwhile, it's fun for grandma to read to herself! In fact, I recently came across a sequel in an antique mall and snapped it up.

Enid Blyton is one of my favorite children's author. Her books are easy to read, understand and very engrossing for little kids. I wanted to introduce her books to my children and ordered this one for my 8 year old. He loved the book and characters so much that he finished it in less than 3 days and has been wanting to read the rest of the novels in the adventure series. Im so delighted that I will definitely order more book sets from this author.

Great paperback quality of wonderful story!

Very satisfied with service and wonderful book

This was one of my favorite books as a young girl. I had to forgotten the name of the author and the title but remembers the exciting story. I am happy to have found it again.

Still just as fantastic as when I first read it 30 years ago. Love it, bought the whole series again!

I recomend this book to anyone that likes a thrilling series
this book is again one of the best books ive read!