Mark Lawrence's Reviews > The Folk of the Faraway Tree

Celyn and I have completed our marathon re-read of the Faraway trilogy. The third book is, like the second, simply a collection of tree-related episodes, each fairly self-contained. This time the new child to be introduced to the tree and improved by the experience is Connie, daughter of a friend of the mother.

Connie's fault is being curious. This is in itself curious. Part of it is the use of the word 'curious' in place of nosy. Though I suppose if that was the extent of it Blyton could have brought in Nosy Nelly. Another element does appear to the the now-anachronistic view that curiosity, particularly in girls, is an undesirable trait. The book is over 70 years old though and even in the 'sanitized' versions some evidence of its age will show through. In the 'grand battle' at the end the girls are all sent up the tree with Silky to wait while the boy, Moonface and male small-folk sort the trolls out.

A variety of magic lands are visited, some of them (the lands of secrets and of knowalls) specifically to show the undesirable nature of nosiness (or curiosity). There's a return to the land of Dame Slap/Snap too.

It's a bit curious that the magic medicine used to cure the children's mother in book 2 isn't mentioned given that Connie's mother is sick for months ... but then again they didn't even bother to cure Rick's sick mother with it in the book where they got it ... even though there was some left over. Here's a quote from book 2: "'We'll put the rest of the bottle of magic medicine away,' she said. 'I don't need it any more but it would be very useful if someone else is ill'" And the only reason Rick is there in book 2 and Connie in book 3 is because their mothers are really ill and unable to look after them...

It's also a bit odd that given access to knowalls and secret tellers who can answer literally any question they children limit themselves to things like 'the secret for growing bigger apples' and 'where I left my second best yo-yo'.

The finale is a threat to the tree itself, which appears to be dying. There's a failed attempt to breach the gem-caves beneath the tree (wherein trolls are damaging the tree's roots) - these 'caves' seem to be ... um ... earth caves as the only thing that stops rabbits burrowing in from underneath is a stone floor. An entrance is eventually effected by using a type of enlarged caterpillar to chew down through the tree and out through the roots into the cave. This seems highly improbable (what about the earth/stones?) is hard to visualize, and makes you wonder why the caterpillars couldn't chew through the cave doors far more easily ... but hey.

It's neither better or worse than book 2, though the formula could wear thin! Celyn enjoyed it.


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