'The Secret Room' ORT Stage 4 - has anyone else's dc read this one?

[melpomene]

Very strange storyline. Biff, Kipper etc move into a new house. The family strip off the old wallpaper in Biff's room and are surprised to find a door behind the old wallpaper, leading to a dark 'secret room' in which there is a dolls' house. The dolls' house resembles their house, and inside the dolls' house are dolls which look like Biff, Kipper and Chip (but dressed in Victorian clothing) and a model dog which looks like Floppy...

It reminded me of the opening of a horror film; I was half expecting the ending to be either (a) Biff wakes up the next morning and discovers the doll which looks like her has been decapitated in the night or (b) Kipper enters the secret room and discovers a skeleton of a child who was locked in there 100 years previously. I just found it very creepy! DD1 read away happily, regardless, of course.

[Shitemum]

god, that would give me nightmares!

[unknownrebelbang]

I read it with DS1.

Then with DS2.

And then again with DS3.

If nothing else, the Biff and Kipper stories would be a great contraceptive, alas I'd alrady had DS3 before DS1 started school.

[melpomene]

lol unknownrebelbang

[NotAnOtter]

ds has recently read this and it evoked a love of reading not seen before in him

[unknownrebelbang]

Oh the boys enjoyed it NAO.

As did I, first time round....

[hellish]

dd2 loved that one,

[cory]

This is the first of the Magic Key series, which sends them back in time and on lots of other adventures. Both dc's really enjoyed this series and so did I.

You shouldn't watch all these horror films, dear. They'll only give you nasty dreams

[tarantula]

blimey reminds me of some comic story where the girl goes into a room and in the room is a picture of the room. She gets locked in and ends up in the picture. Think it might have been in Misty. Hated that story

[trumpetgirl]

I found it really scary too. Glad I'm not the only one. I mentioned it to a couple of the mothers at school and they looked at me as if I was mad and one said "it's a childrens book" in a really patronising way.
DD loved it though, and I am thoroughly enjoying her reading the rest of the books to me

[lingle]

yes it was a bit different from the usual "oh mum fell over" plot wasn't it?

[twentypence]

Ds loved the magic key ones and is now similarly obsessed with the Secret Seven.

[Gobbledigook]

We've read this one - mine loved it!

Not easily spooked obviously!

[Bramshott]

We had this last week. I thought "thank God, an ORT book that actually has a discernible plotline!". Reading has suddenly 'clicked for DD1 (Yr 1) and she's been really enjoying the Level 4 books.

[sagacious]

I did read it with a
But ds loves it just as well as the magic key books continue on for a fair few stages...

It is nice to have a proper storyline.

Fond memories (not) of

Floppy
No floppy
Floppy
No floppy
Oh floppy

[GrapefruitMoon]

I loved this one - in fact I often have dreams that we find a secret room in our house (wonder if they were triggered by this book?)

[bigscaryorangespiderami]

I loved this one, and the magic tree adventures which follow it.

Have read them both with ds and dd. Alas they have now progressed beyond the magic key and I must confess to feeling a bit

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

oooo - was helping in school this morning and a child read me this book. It gave me the shivers but the child thought it was a perfectly reasonable thing to find in a secret room!

[ChasingSquirrels]

I liked that and the next couple of levels and the adventures - though also found the secret room slightly odd.