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Original poster

Do you think they will ever update the Biff Chip Kipper etc books?

53 replies

strandednomore · 04/10/2011 14:34

Have just been reading one of the Biff and Kipper etc books with dd1 (who is at home with chicken pox) and in it they go to London with Gran, see someone who looks suspiciously like Margaret Thatcher but who my dd decided was the Queen pass by in her car and then have an "incident" with waxwork models including Princess Di. I haven't bothered explaining to dd who Princess Di was (I had enough problems with Nelson) but wondered whether they were ever going to update these books with some more, err, contemporary characters?

Incidentally, for anyone who has finally got the end of this series, do they conclude like the end of the Harry Potter novels? Does Wilma marry Kipper? Do any of them drop out of uni?

(clearly I am bored and spending too much time at home on my own with small children)

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Original poster
strandednomore · 05/10/2011 10:25

Yes there are some funny episodes. My favourite so far was a very surreal one where Kipper went off on an adventure on his own with his toys, ending up at a teddy bears picnic with Rupert the Bear and Paddington (who got kidnapped). I suspect the author/illustrator was pretty bored as they had put in quite a few "jokes" eg the destinations at the aiport (Bearuit, Bearmuda etc) and the fact that the plane to Bearmuda had got lost....

OP posts:
dameshopalot · 05/10/2011 10:40

I liked the one where there was a TV show host looking suspiciously like Jeremy Beadle....
Pork I will form an orderly queue behind you to join in the use of Magic Key Grin

bonkers20 · 05/10/2011 10:48

Oh dear God, please please please update them in the next 2 years.

Went through them all with DS1 (now 12) and I have another 2 years before DS2 starts school.

It's shallow I know, but I just can't stand the girl's hair style.

Itsjustafleshwound · 05/10/2011 10:55

The ones I hate are the ones with the X-bots and shrinking watches - just sooo dull ...

Love Bitch, Crap and Fucker - it is going to make doing it again with my son so much better!!

IShallWearMidnight · 05/10/2011 10:55

I was really clever and only had to suffer them with DD1 - with DD2 I managed to convince her teacher that as she was way ahead of the reading scheme, could she please bring in books from home (teacher couldn't fail to agree as she "wasn't allowed" to let any of her class move to higher bands/free reading, despite agreeing with me it was a ridiculous rule Wink); and with DD3 we home edded till Y3, so she earned to read by herself with whatever was to hand at home. Can't say I miss Biff, Chip etc at all.

KTk9 · 05/10/2011 11:05

We had the Victorians one last night!! Queen holding a wallet of Photos with Supasnaps written on them question from dd 'what are those?'!!

Also in one of the pictures in the same book, one of the people the children were thrown in jail with (bear with me those who haven't read it), shook hands with a 'dodgy' character that was already in the jail - Could there be undertones of another story there somewhere, or am I reading too much into this!!! (shows my level of boredom!).

Original poster
strandednomore · 05/10/2011 11:22

KtK9 - will have the Victorians one tonight or tomorrow so will let you know what I think....(or maybe it's dh's turn to do some reading...)

OP posts:
WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 05/10/2011 11:42

We love Gran though, she's a rebel!

PorkChopSter · 05/10/2011 13:13

She's also immortal.

See - the devil's work. Freaks, the lot of them Grin

Original poster
strandednomore · 05/10/2011 13:19

oh yes I love Gran, definitely fond of her after her sports car episode. She also has pink hair.
How is she immortal though? Have I missed something?

OP posts:
simpson · 05/10/2011 13:41

didn't she get a medal for something and have to go and see the queen???

Then something happened to her shoes (I forget what) and she ended up borrowing some from the queen Grin

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 05/10/2011 14:15

I think DD has got that Queen one at the moment, will check when she gets home from school. We like the one were she burst a bouncy castle with her knitting needles.

simpson · 05/10/2011 14:24

0oh yes and the sign said "no grannies allowed" Had forgotten about that one Grin

AllTheGoodNamesTaken · 05/10/2011 14:40

The ORT website says they are named Biff, Chip and Kipper because the author thought it would be really annoying for a child to see their own names in a book repeatedly, so chose those names becaise they're classless and not likely to have many children called those names.

Original poster
strandednomore · 05/10/2011 15:26

The ORT website is bonkers. My dd's would love to see their names in a book repeatedly! Don't people often pay for that priviledge by buying those personalised books?

I still think the name Kipper is just plain silly.

OP posts:
maverick · 05/10/2011 16:13

Despite OUP's development of synthetic phonics through the ORT spin-off Floppy's Phonics, OUP recently republished their Biff, Chip and Kipper books:

www.oup.com/oxed/primary/oxfordreadingtree/resources/biff/newedition/

Clary · 05/10/2011 23:12

ORT and the thought of having to hear "Floppy Floppy" yet again was the main reason we decided not to have a fourth child.

Great contarceptive, Biff and Chip and Kipper Grin

AllTheGoodNamesTaken · 06/10/2011 12:19

I admit it

once they got to the blue bookband, where they find the key and the little house and the secret door...

I enjoyed the ORT stories

Original poster
strandednomore · 06/10/2011 13:10

(don't worry I fine them quite amusing too)

OP posts:
Bonsoir · 06/10/2011 13:13

maverick - how on earth does OUP reconcile Biff, Chip & Kipper with the official guidelines to use only fully decodable books in the early stages of synthetic phonics education?

whyme2 · 06/10/2011 13:41

ah clary you did better than me. I would never have had the fourth child if I had known the full horror of the ORT.

We are just beginning round 3 (ie dc3 and the books with no words) and I am at breaking point already. I need a glass of wine in hand when we sit down to 'read'.
The only positive is that dd1 is an acomplished reader now (year 4) and is bribed given the job of listening to her siblings. Grin

I think it is the hairstyles I hate the most closely followed by the ridiculous names coupled with my inability to remember which name goes with which blasted character.

maverick · 06/10/2011 15:23

''how on earth does OUP reconcile Biff, Chip & Kipper with the official guidelines to use only fully decodable books in the early stages of synthetic phonics education?''

You need to ask them that. My personal feeling is that OUP should let the first 4 levels (pink, red, yellow, blue) of their ORT whole language readers go quickly out of print and should only sell their synthetic phonics decodables (Floppy Phonics/RWI) to schools requiring a beginning reading scheme. But, they are a commercial company and obviously feel that they can still make plenty of money selling the first levels of ORT Biff and Chip...

Bonsoir · 06/10/2011 15:37

maverick - I completely agree with you! The first four stages of classic ORT ought to be illegal!

melpomene · 06/10/2011 17:03

Can somebody explain to me what a "fully decodable book" is? Does that mean not using the most common "tricky" words such as he, she, come, the?

Bonsoir · 06/10/2011 17:29

Fully decodable books are books that are written exclusively in words composed of phoneme/grapheme correspondences that children have been expressly taught, along with a few tricky words that are über common in English and therefore need to be learned early on.