This book doesn't belong to one of Blyton's best-known series, but it was a really pleasant surprise for me. It has the feel of classic children's adventures like the Coral Island or Swallows and Amazons. Unlike other Blyton adventure stories, there are no criminals to fight against. It's just a group of children, mistreated orphans, who decide to run away together to an uninhabited island in the middle of a lake.

The story has good pacing and it's entertaining and moving. Really a wonderful read, in a style different from her other adventure series. It started a 5-book series, but it works perfectly as a standalone. Even if Blyton had not gone on to write so many other children's adventures and mysteries, this one would have been enough to ensure she was remembered among the classics of children's literature of the 20th century. ( )

Read this book as a child, got the book from my dad who also read it in his childhood. So the book I have is old, and worn. I loved the book as a kid and have read it many times since, still loving it today. Well written, and a secret island is just an awesome ingredient. Probably one of my favorite books ever.

Edit: upon reading other reviews, I learned that the Dutch edition I read is different from the original. In the Dutch edition, the three siblings live with an older lady, called Grims. Their parents haven't disappeared, but are away on a long trip. The 3 children spent their holiday with Lady Grims, because their parents thought it was a lovely lady. Which turned out not to be the case.
The ending is also quite different: the children know just about when their parents might be back, and it is Jack (Ben in Dutch) who reads it in a newspaper, I think, when he went back to town.

Very interesting to see how so many details were changed in translation! ( )

http://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2014/04/22/recent-reads-the-secret-... ( )

What I realize about The Secret Island is the juxtaposition of being grounded (in reality) and escapism. The harsh, bleak, unkind, hopeless, scary, and tantalizing reality and situation of the four kids - Jack, Peggy and Nora and (?) Peter are both impossible and easy to solve. Heaven is just a secret door away from hell. The preachy tone of Enid Blyton is kept sedated, which improves the flow of the adventure. I really liked the kids. I enjoyed the fairy tale ending of this book - it was so cozy... an ending that I'm showing mentally to dunce like cozies that can only dream of aspiring to Enid Blyton's excellence. Can't wait to read the Secret Of Spiggly Holes. ( )