The Naughtiest Girl Remixed

It was fun to watch the reaction of a nine-year-old to what's known in the book trade as a 'spin-off book'. The book said, 'Enid Blyton's The Naughtiest Girl' and was titled The Naughtiest Girl Keeps A Secret. She saw the title and reached out with a whoop of joy���wow, a Naughtiest Girl book she hadn't yet read.
Then she noticed the author's name at the bottom���Anne Digby���and halted mid-whoop.However, it took her only a couple of minutes to get used to the idea of a non-Blyton Naughtiest Girl book. Within two minutes, she had decided to give it a chance.
It's precisely to capture this ready-made readership that Hodder Children's Books have published a sequel series to the escapades of Elizabeth Allen, the strong-willed, curly-haired, mischief maker at Whyteleafe School. Blyton wrote four books in the series, Digby has written six more.
The blurb makes the intention clear: "At last, for all fans of Enid Blyton's The Naughtiest Girl, Anne Digby takes this favourite character forward in terrific new adventures." This simple line probably works better than any marketing campaign. What risk does an author run in adopting another's famous baby, copyright permitting?
Not much, considering children don't write passionate literary hate mail. "I've kept to the simple narrative style of the original stories, while introducing some new characters and allowing Elizabeth to mature slightly," Anne Digby has said, whenever asked about taking on Blyton's tomboy.
The question is, do readers want Elizabeth to mature given that her appeal lies in her hot-headedness. So we see a 'mature' Elizabeth in The Naughtiest Girl Keeps A Secret, often behaving out of character. In one chapter, Digby writes, "Elizabeth chose her words with care."
And when the snobbish Arabella tries to rile her with pretentious remarks, Elizabeth doesn't spit fire. She looks away. "For Arabella, with her sarcastic comments, she had only contempt," writes Digby. To use Blytonesque language: Golly! Hasn't Elizabeth changed awfully? No doubt, re-conceiving another author's creation is difficult.
As Geraldine McCaughrean, commissioned by the J M Barrie estate to write the sequel to Peter Pan asks, "To whom should I be true? Barrie? Public expectations coloured by Disney? An 11-year-old reader? Peter?" A writer's hesitancy, however, doesn't affect the spin-off book trade.
Nor does it stop at a sequel to the Naughtiest Girl. There's a prequel series to the Famous Five���the adventures of George and her dog, Timmy, preceding the arrival of Julian, Anne and Dick. The characters of Blyton's sagas just can't seem to enjoy retirement.