I think all British children grew up with Noddy - either the original or sadly the altered later version. Enid Blyton was definitely a part of every child's life in Uk - I remember feeling desolate when I came to the end of a series and there were no more Famous Five or Secret Seven books to look forward to. EB went out of fashion - supposedly because of her limited vocabulary but when I helped with a junior school library I found that the best way to get children interested in reading was to start them on Enid Blyton.. When they had worked there way through they were hooked on reading and wanted to move on to more challenging literature.