Under what circumstances would you possibly name your kids...

[MrsMerryHenry]

Kipper, Chip and Biff???

And why in God's name does Wilf and Wilma's (two more great names) mother wear thumbs as earrings???

[Wordsmith]

Just makes learning to read even more difficult...

[Hassled]

So you're more concerned about the names than the complete absence of any sort of parental concern while the children run around with a dodgy magic key? Sheesh.

[funnypeculiar]

Which one of the Kipper/Biff/Chip combo is a girl. I feel especially sad for her, somehow. I'm all for strong female names, but one can take if too far.

Poor old Floppy, too.

[MrsMerryHenry]

Dodgy magic key? What book is that in??

I'm actually more concerned about the sheer brutality of cutting off someone's thumbs and hanging them as a trophy on your ears. Skipped that bit, didn't you, Hassled?

[MrsMerryHenry]

Biff's the girl. Weird, ain't it? Not even funny peculiar, funnypeculiar. Just peculiar.

[RustyBear]

Apparently Biff is a girl, Chip is her twin & they are 7. And here they all are

I spent about 5 years hearing readers in DD & DS's classes & never noticed the thumb earrings.

[Yurtgirl]

In Welsh they are called Cad, Dids and ?

Floppy is called Mwlsyn!

[funnypeculiar]

Blimey, Rusty, there's a whole back-story in there... Ds clearly needs to read harder to get the desired level of personality development.

[LovelyRitaMeterMaid]

DS has just started having books with Wilf and Wilma in. Must look out of the thumb earrings.

[MrsMerryHenry]

The earrings thing is really freaky. I showed them to DH and he needed no prompting to guess Mrs Wilma's bloodthirsty obsession with body parts. But the question is...whose thumbs???

Yurtgirl, what do those words mean in English - are they equally odd or are you Welsh readers blessed with real character names?

[Takver]

Cad, Dids & Onw, Yurtgirl

[cazzybabs]

It is because the author didn't want anybody reading them to have the same name as the characters and they are also phonetic...

[MrsMerryHenry]

Cazzy - but Wilf, Wilma - these are all 'normal' names! And there are plenty of otherh phonetic names to choose from: Sam, Stan, Viv, Jeff, Lillian, Sara...to name but a few.

[cazzybabs]

i don't know about Wilf and Wilma - maybe they ran out of ideas...they are not that popular though (well I guess Wilf is coming back into fashion)

[cazzybabs]

Anyway they appear more in the parallel books - they strike me as sort of add ons from a later stage.

I am not an expert in ORT though and wait to be corrected

[cazzybabs]

Honestly the reason for B, Ch and K was so no-one reading them would have the same name...but other than that I have no idea why they choose those names

The creepy man with glasses and a beard who appears in most of the books is a self-portrait of the illustrator.

[GossipMonger]

Kipper is short for Christopher

Biff is short for Barbara and

Chip is short for David.

[GossipMonger]

tis true!

[TsarChasm]

I take it you are going through a Kipper, Chip and Biff range of books home from school? If so, I feel your pain.

We have (mercifully) moved on. Even dd got fed up with highly irritating Floppy messing stuff up.

[TsarChasm]

They all look so androgynous and the names don't give any clue unless you know what they're short for (which I didn't).

Floppy makes my trigger finger itch.

[IneedacleanerIamalazyslattern]

I am desperate for another book with Wilmas mum now for the earrings gee whizz I really need to get a life.
Just sent dd for her reading book and was (sadly enough) disappointed she wasn't in this one.

[MichelleObama]

Gossipmonger - how do you know this?

[NationalFlight]

Chip isn't short for David. No way

[NationalFlight]

that would be 'Dave'.

[IneedacleanerIamalazyslattern]

Is Chip not shor for Charles?