The Strange Umbrella and Other Stories by Enid Blyton is a collection of seventeen short stories titled The Strange Umbrella, The Enchanted Mirror, Sly-One's Ice-Cream, Stones for a Horse, Ripple Gets a Necklace, The Great Big Bumble-Bee, The Little Clockwinder, It's Going to Rain, The Magic Silver Thread,Blackberry Pie, The Singing Shell, The Frightened Teddy-Bear, The Old Boot, The Rabbit That Didn't Grow Up, Upadee and the Dragon, The Tale of Higgle and Hum and The Surprising Easter Egg. The Strange Umbrella is about a pixie named Tiptap who lives in Apple-Tree Cottage in Feefo Village, and has an inheritance of five pounds a week and does not have to work for a living.
Tiptap becomes very lazy and unproductive by having no work to do, and eventually learns a bitter lesson. The story teaches a moral lesson about the importance of working hard and being resourceful and earning an honest living.
The Little Clock Winder is a about Dickory Dock who is a clockwinder to the king of Elfland. Dickory Dock was supposed to wind the clocks each night, but he does not because he is careless is careless and the clocks go wrong. One day the king gave Dickory Dock a magic key that could wind anything in the world, but he tells Dickory Dock that he must keep it only to wind clocks. But even though Dickory Dock’s work is now much easier he does not always remember to wind the clocks which makes the king very cross. Dickory Dock is sent away to the land of humans and can you guess what he does there?
The Frightened Teddy-Bear begins with a little girl named Jane who takes her teddy bear out shopping. On the way, Jane’s shoelace comes undone and she keeps the bear on a step nearby until she does it up. But Jane forgets to take the teddy with her when she goes on her way again. The little teddy bear has frightening encounters with a cat, three naughty children and a dog before managing to escape and return to Jane’s nursery.
Reviewed by Hannah George