The Famous Five: A review by Urvi Rao

Meet the famous five – Julian, Dick, Anne, George, and Timothy (George’s dog). Let me first introduce Julian. He is the eldest of them all. He has a determined face and is trusted in taking care of them all on their adventures. Next is Dick. He is funny and loses his temper a little. Next is Anne, Julian, and Dick’s quiet, little sister. She is the only one of all of them who doesn’t like going on their adventures and would rather, like to have a nice and peaceful time.

Let us talk about their hot-tempered cousin George. She is brave and courageous and loves her dog Timothy. She owns her own island called Kirrin Island and hates being called a girl. Last, but not least, we have Timothy. He is George’s dog. He loves her with all his heart. He understands every pat, stroke, and every word they say. He is the one who protects everyone and helps them in their adventures.

My favorite character is George because she is brave and strong and can do almost all the things as good as or better than boys. She talks to Timothy whenever she feels angry or sad. She is better than others at rowing and swimming and is very strong.

In summary, I like the series, as it shows teamwork, adventure, fun, and mystery all in one series. Enid Blyton even includes events from real life. This is why I really enjoy reading this series of Enid Blyton  

I hope you all enjoyed my review

Urvi Rao

(An avid reader at Hangout Library)

The Mystery of the Missing Chocolatier: By Pratosh

 Once upon a time, there was a chocolatier in the town of Budapest, Hungary, who loved children. His name was Gary Godman. His favorite child was the 9-year-old Johnny McDonalds. Johnny was a rather thin but flexible fellow who was kind but sarcastic. Everyone called the chocolatier ‘Gentle Gary’. One day, Gentle Gary went missing. Gentle Gary’s favorite child, the 9-year old Johnny McDonalds, was totally worried. Without asking his parents, he went to save Gentle Gary. On the way, he met a little boy who was about his age and asked if he wanted to save the chocolatier. Since the boy loved chocolates, he willingly agreed. The other boy’s name was James Macmillan. 

 

James was just like Johnny, but he was a great undercover guy. They kept on walking through thorny bushes giving them scratches, scorching heat giving them sunburn, but they carried on. After five kilometers or so, they could not take it anymore. Finally, they reached an ancient cottage. They knocked on the door, and a dwarf coming up to the door. He asked what the matter was, and the two kids told him everything. The dwarf felt sorry for them and let them inside. The house was beautiful. Just that they had to crawl to move around. They had a nice meal and then went to bed. The next day, when the boys woke up, a strange sight met their eyes. The house was a mess! They looked for the dwarf, but he turned into a wizard! 

 

Then they ran out of the house, on the way to search for the chocolatier. While the boys were running, Johnny got stuck in a pit and started sinking. James was going to help by pulling Johnny out, but he ended up singing along with Johnny also! They then landed with a thump. Inside the pit where they sank, there were many stones and sticks. With the stones, they lit a fire and used the sticks to make a campfire out of it. Then they found some ropes, so they took a long stick, and with the help of the rope, they attached a huge stone to the stick, making a spear. They found a narrow passage and went down, thinking they could find the missing chocolatier. It was very slippery. They slid down and landed in a room of cobblestone.

 

There were footprints and a banner that said, “Secret Hideout, Keep away!”. The kids were very curious to know what lay behind the banner, so they went in. There were bats and spiders all around the place. Finally, they were behind a bench where they saw someone’s feet. They crawled under the bench. Johnny could figure out who was sitting on the bench. It was Gentle Gary! They saw that he was tied up, so they untied him. Suddenly, some crude people spotted them. Luckily, there was a booby trap in the room where the kids were which tossed the intruders out. So, they took Gentle Gary, and they all stepped on the booby trap. They all flew out of the room. They were extremely relieved. And so, they all walked back to the city.

 

While Johnny was gone, everyone was worried including his parents. But finally, when the two boys returned to the town, everyone rejoiced. Everyone took out half the gold they had and gave it to Johnny because he had saved the chocolatier. Johnny went home along with his new friend. When they reached Johnny’s house, his parents were surprised to see him. Johnny introduced his new friend to his parents. Everyone was talking about the young heroes who saved the chocolatier. “Do you know how amazing Johnny and James are?”, One kid would say “Yeah! They are so cool!” Then it was all peaceful and everyone lived happily ever after in the town of Budapest.

Written by:

Pratosh

(For StoryWritingCompetition)

The Mystery of the Missing Chocolatier: By Dhriti V

 Once, there lived a chocolatier named Russell. He truly was an amazing chocolatier. He once invented chewing gum that never lost its flavor and candy that never got small, so one could suck on them all year long. All the other chocolatiers had grown jealous of Russell. They started sending in spies to steal his recipes.

Podnose made Chewing gum that never lost its flavor and Slugworth made candy balloons that could be blown up to incredible sizes. Russell got so upset that he decided not to hire new workers since they could be spies. Sam, another chocolatier was far more jealous than the other chocolatiers. He decided to kidnap Russell so that he would be the best chocolatier around. He decided, “I will kidnap Russell so I will be the best chocolatier around. I will be rich, rich, rich! Ha!”

The next day Poppy, a little girl, came to Russell for some chewing gum for her party. She discovered that the gates were closed and there was no smoke rising from the chimneys. She realized that Russell was missing. She called her friends Leslie and Jessie to help her look for Russell. They searched everywhere for Russell but could not find him. Suddenly, Poppy gave a cry. She had found a strange note. The note read, “19 1 13 is responsible for Russell’s disappearance.”

“Now what do we do?” asked Leslie. “We call the police of course!” replied Poppy. The trio raced to the nearest police station and gave the note to the police. The police told the friends to wait while the police looked for fingerprints on the note. Poppy had a notebook and a pen with her. So, while the police went to look for fingerprints on the note, the trio tried to crack the note using a photocopy of the note. 

A little while later, the police came back and said, “Looks like the culprit was very careful not to leave any fingerprints. He or she didn’t leave even one fingerprint.” By now Poppy was very worried about Russell. What was Russell doing now? Was he hurt? Suddenly Jessie gave a cry. She was pointing towards her computer. On the computer were these words, “Sam is the one responsible for Russell’s disappearance.”

Poppy scratched her head. She did not understand what was going on. Leslie and Jessie were screaming and yelling with joy. Finally, Poppy caught up. Jessie had used the alphabets with their number in the chain, and it spelled SAM like 19-S, 1-A, 13-M, and so on.

Poppy, Leslie, Jessie, and the police went over to Sam’s factory and arrested him. Leslie found Russell in a secret underground passage. Russell was very thankful to Leslie, Poppy, and Jessie. Poppy asked Russell for chewing gum. Instead of one stick, Russell gave her ten sticks of chewing gum. Leslie was given ten bars of chocolate and Jessie got candy balloons. Russell had never been never happier. What would he do without these kids?

Written by:

Dhriti V

(For StoryWritingCompetition)

        

 

 

Mystery of the missing chocolatier: by Rehaan

Once there was a chocolatier named Mr. Ballu, the bear who used to make yummy chocolates. Everyone in the jungle just loved his honey chocolates! He lived in the jungle in a beautiful house named Honey Loop, right by the edge of the river, with his wife Mrs. Ballu and their son, Junior Ballu. 

One day, a gang of monkeys came to Mr. Ballu’s shop to buy some chocolates, but Mr. Ballu did not let them have it because he knew that they were the ones who used to trouble him when he was young and still troubled everyone around them. No one in the jungle liked them and thought that monkeys were pure trouble! The next morning, Mr. Ballu went to get his special wild honey for the chocolates from his close friend, Mr. Bee, from whom he has been buying ever since he could remember. But that day was not like any other day! Mr. Ballu did not return home even past his usual dinner time. Mrs. Ballu started getting worried as in all these years he has never been so late. She then decided to wait till morning as sometimes the river would flow higher than usual making it difficult to cross. 

As soon as sunlight kissed the earth the next day, she called Mr. Ballu’s close friend, Detective Parinda, an Eagle. Parinda immediately visited the jungle and started asking around to get more information about anything unusual that happened in the last few days. After listening to everyone, Parinda had his doubts about the gang of Monkeys, but he still was not sure if they would be brave enough to do something like this- by “this” meant kidnapping Mr. Ballu.

Mrs. Ballu and Parinda along with all their friends started to search around the forest hoping to find Mr. Ballu or clues that could lead them to him. They called out his name in all directions hoping to hear a response. They tried their best to find him, but there was no sign of him. The next day, there was an envelope at Mrs. Ballu’s doorstep from the gang of monkeys. It read, “We saw Hiran taking Mr. Ballu to his old pastry shop.”  Since it was a message from the monkeys, Mrs.  Ballu was not sure, but still, she called Parinda and told him about it. Parinda sent his associate Chidiya to see if she could find anything unusual around the old pastry shop. But, nothing, nothing unusual at all.

Parinda decided to pay Hiran a visit to check for himself if the information was true. To Parinda’s surprise, Hiran started to spill the beans without much effort. It was Parinda’s stature and piercing eyes that made it work. Hiran said that he had locked up Mr. Ballu in the cave. He took him because he was jealous of everyone going to Mr. Ballu’s shop and reduced visits to his own bakery. With a bold face, Parinda went and unlocked Mr. Ballu who was in a shocked state. Parinda went to take Hiran to jail, but he had escaped by then fearing punishment.

Once Parinda got Mr. Ballu back home, he went in search of Hiran. Everybody told Parinda that they had seen Hiran running away from the jungle, so Parinda flew around the jungle but saw no traces of Hiran.

After 1 month, the gang of monkeys came to buy the honey chocolate. Mr. Ballu gave it because they had been good and helped in finding him. After a few months, Mr. Ballu got kidnapped again but this time, not by the monkeys nor by Hiran. Parinda assigned his team who were experts, but they also could not find Mr. Ballu. After a few days, they found out that the kidnapper gang’s name was Ware- jacks which was a group of cunning Jackals. Parinda and the team found their hideout. It was the same cave where Hiran had kept Mr. Ballu.

Then Parinda got a thought, “Hiran left the forest, but he has left a team of jackals to work for him here, but why?

Written by:

Rehaan

(For StoryWritingCompetition)

 

 

 

Mystery of the Missing Chocolatier: By Ishaan Mathew

 Cloyd was a chocolatier, but he was not just any chocolatier. He made the most delicious chocolate you could possibly imagine with bizarre (but yum!) combinations such as CCC (cherry, chocolate, and cream) and Berry Blast (A combination of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and other berries found deep in the Woods of Darkness). His secret to making tasty and popular chocolate? Nobody knew anything about that except that he made them by hand. He was 56 years old and was very famous in his district for his chocolates. His father, grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather, and great-great-great-grandfather had the same occupation, with the same amount of tastiness and the same amount of fame. His ancestors lived in a secret, secluded area so that other chocolatiers couldn’t steal the recipes for the chocolates, but Cloyd had traveled to Halwapur, the land of sweets, to set his business.  He built a small home on the outskirts of town as an office/house. He always wore a white kurta and pajama while working on chocolates. Soon, he became famous and his chocolates became a must for all festivities and celebrations. Even without celebrations or festivals, people would order lots of chocolates. Due to this, Cloyd did not have any spare time to do other stuff like read or watch TV. He had to work day in and day out.

 

Christmas was just around the corner and everyone was rejoicing. Everyone except for Cloyd that is. The poor man was too busy making chocolates. Everyone had already decided which chocolates to buy. “I’m going to buy some of each flavor.” said a man to his wife. Children were pestering their parents to remember to buy their favorite chocolates. Even old grandmas and grandpas were deciding on what to buy. And believe it or not, even doctors and dentists were talking about it. A man was telling everyone that he had overheard a dentist saying he would buy the sweetest chocolate from Cloyd! But one week before Christmas, the town woke up to horrible news. Cloyd had gone missing! Everyone was looking for him everywhere. In the woods, the roads, even the neighboring towns. There were a lot of wild suggestions about where he had gone. “I had seen something white falling off the high cliff over there,’ said a man pointing to the east, ‘That might be him!’

                                                     

Tom, a boy of about 10 years old, was very interested in the happenings. Everyone, including Tom, rushed over to see what had fallen from the cliff. It was just a bedsheet! A woman said, “I remember something- someone had asked me where Cloyd’s house was, and I told him where it was! He might have kidnapped him!” “Did he have a car?” asked a man. “Yes, he did!” replied the woman. “Its registration number was um……. yes, I remember it was- K123!” “We must search for that car!” said the man. “Yes, we should!” cried everyone present. A couple of days later, Tom went to Hastipur, where his grandparents lived, for the holidays. He was going for a walk with his dog, Bruce. When they stopped to relax for a bit on the way, Bruce suddenly ran off into the forest. Tom had no choice but to follow him. When he finally caught Bruce, something shiny caught his eye. When he looked at it, he saw it was a window of a house. He went closer to the house and looked through the window. What he saw inside the house was the worst thing ever!

 

Cloyd was lying on the floor, not moving a muscle! Thinking he was dead, Tom immediately tried to open the door only to find it was locked. He tried breaking the door open. This went on for 5 minutes till he heard somebody behind him, “What do you think you’re doing young man?!” He turned round to see the chocolatier standing behind him. “But if you are here then who is in there?’ said Tom, peeking through the window to find nobody there, “I thought you were dead!” “No, I was doing the dead body pose in Yoga!” said Cloyd. Tom exclaimed, “Why are you here? You are supposed to be making chocolates at Halwapur. Everyone is worried sick!” “Oh that,” said the chocolatier and started explaining. 

 

“Well you see, I was tired of working on chocolates 24/7. So, I wanted to take a well- deserved break without anyone disturbing me. So, when a man came in a car traveling towards my ancestral home…,” he said, pointing towards the house, “…I couldn’t resist. I asked him for a ride and he agreed. Thus, here I am.” “Well I can understand that,’ said Tom, “but we better go back; everyone is freaking out with you missing.” “Yes, we should.” said Cloyd. Meanwhile, the men had tracked down the car that was back in Halwapur and asked the owner where the chocolatier was. They were about to leave for Hastipur when another car came, and out came Cloyd and Tom! Everyone was surprised and happy at the same time. “Oh, Cloyd where were you? I want to order more of your chocolates!” everyone said at the same time. Tom shouted “Everyone stop! This is why he left so that you won’t pester him!” Everyone became silent and turned to Cloyd. He smiled and said, “It is true. And from now I will only be making one packet of chocolate per day so that I can have enough rest.” Everyone started complaining, but then someone at the back shouted, “It’s okay - and now that Cloyd is back, let’s party!” And that is what happened. Cloyd came back and everyone in Halwapur had the best Christmas (or so it felt).

Written by:

Ishaan Mathew

(For StoryWritingCompetition)