Wow! My 17 year old spent her early years being read these books to her at bed time every night. My mother was a reading specialist and I never remember seeing the series in the U.S., but my daughter was in N.Z. We had so many paperbacks we donated them to the library. My sister discovered the stories for her kids, and I sent her a rare, signed edition hardback. They were wonderful for teaching children resourcefulness, responsibility, morality and family values. It’s hard to imagine them being banned, but I guess it’s the world we live in today and will be coming to America very soon.
I discovered The Famous Five when I began learning to read Hebrew. It was the only book I could find in the language — I bought the English version to help when I got hung up on words. It is delightful!