What is wrong with Biff, Chip and Kipper?

[NotLostJustSomewhereSafe]

Have read a couple of threads where some posters obviously think these books are not good. I'm sure it's been discussed before but I've missed it. What is wrong with them? Or right with them?

I hate auto correct if I type were - that's actually the word I wanted not we're.

TheOldestCat Tue 17-Jul-12 09:28:37

We had the one about the drunken horse a month or two ago. I thought it was but the stuff of legend.

Look out for the abandoned spectacles in nearly every book and some have secret messages, like there's one set in the arctic and there are 'hidden' letters throughout the book that spell 'POLAR' or some such thing. And Gran's Aga has the brand name 'Khan'. Lots of fun stuff like that. And regarding the words, you can usually spot the point that's being made e.g. reed and feed have ee in the middle, lead and bead have ea making the same sound.

Oh we had the drunken horse story recently with DS2 and he loved it. Both my older DSs (DS3 not there yet) have loved the Biff, Chip, Kipper books. I don't have a problem with them except that I'll have to go through them a third time in a couple of years time with DS3.

MuddlingMackem oh yes teddy bear's picnic has been my favourite too - it was very different from the others, very surreal.
I also think it's quite amusing how old some of them are. One has Magaret Thatcher passing in a car when Chip etc are on a trip to London - they also see Charles and Di at Madame Tussauds. My dd thought Thatcher must be he queen....there's also a story (not chip etc) about children playing on a building site.....it makes you realise how times have changed.
Anyway in answer to the OP I don't think there's anything massively wrong with the books except they are a little out of date.

Oh, we haven't had the Margaret Thatcher one. Don't remember it from DS either. Can you remember the title of that one, I might be able to find it in the library over the holiday. DD will probably want at least a few Biff & Chip books in her summer reading challenge selection.

On the topic of playing on building sites, we have the Complete Mary, Mungo and Midge DVD. When we watched it we realised that we would have to skip the first episode for the kids as that's what it's about! (My dad worked on the buildings so I don't remember a time when I didn't know that building sites were dangerous and not playgrounds, so my view as a child probably didn't match with most of my friends'.)

I couldn't remember the title but have sadly just googled it (am wasting time waiting to do the school run!) and it could be A Day in London - which is stage 8. That sounds about right as she had it a while ago. Enjoy!

I have always liked them. I like some of the subtle humour.

TBH, I hate phonic readers. I'm not arguing with phonics as a method of teaching to read, at all. But I think my DC gained a lot from reading "real" books. Even if they weren't really "reading" the books, they were part of the transition from being read to, to actually picking up an unfamiliar text, and reading for themselves. They helped to teach enjoyment of reading.

Well, I think if a child prefers Rainbow Fairies to Biff, Chip and Kipper, then their preference has absolutely nothing to do with good taste and discernment...

The early versions of A Day in London might have had Diana, but the 2011 reprint doesnt; its got the queen, Prince Philip, a non-grey haired Charles, and Princess Anne. Mind you, it still does have Mrs Thatcher in the car, so why would they leave her in but take Diana out?

:o @ rabbit just what is it your trying to say?

Diana certainly still appears in one, as does Jeremy Beadle, and a few other 80's famous people from time to time.
I like them. I also don't mind the Rainbow Fairies as long as I don't have to read them. I used to read lots of rubbish girls comics as a kid, and it didn't do me any harm. Youngest DD moved on from Rainbow Fairies when her teacher banned her from reading them, I'm just happy to see kids read.

DS (Reception - for another 53 minutes!) has the ORT books. Now he's moving through them he's getting less irritated with some of the dull stories; his favourite game is spot the caretaker, who he thinks is Ringo Starr... First person to shout 'peace and love' wins!

Thanks StrandedNoMore. Will have a look for that and if I can't find it will ask the teacher if dd can have that one when she goes back.

jimswifein1964 I think it's safe to assume the school will have the 80s version, not sure about the library if it has it though. Off to check the online database.

I liked them the 1st time through. I've done them 3 times now, and am starting to feel a sort of panicky desperation when the magic key begins to glow, and the adventure begins....like 'oh please just DON'T glow....!'

I've done it 3 times, and even managed to be enthusiastic when one of the kids I volunteer to listen to came out with one last week. But it was the Loch Ness Monster one (and I love Gran).

I don't remember Thatcher in the London one - our version definitely didn't have diana either, it was what Jimswife said. Maybe I just didn't recognise Thatcher!

So glad we've left the Floppy, Oh Floppy stage behind (anyone try reading that one in a porn star fashion?)

We're into the Magic Key ones now and they are marginally more interesting. Some have lots of strange subtext that must be there just for the grownups. We had one called 'Vanishing Cream' the other day and the pictures were just weird - the kids visited a magician who seemed to live in the middle of an industrial estate. Whilst the frankly unbelieveable story was unfolding the industrial units were exploding in the distance - but completely unreferenced in the story. I was but too.

I love winding DD up by calling them Flipper, Boffer, Biffer, Chipper, Choppy etc.

I loathe Biff et al.

DS luckily has finished them although he has recently discovered the ORT stage 12 ones which seem ok.

DD will no doubt get these from sept when she starts reception. She is a pretty strong phonetic reader but finds Biff books harder as they are not phonetic so cannot read these at the same level as she could other phonics books.

thatcher was definitely in the back of the car outside Buckingham Palace - dd1 assumed it was supposed to be the Queen.
i quite liked that one, but preferred the one with Queen Victoria in.

My dd's school didn't follow one scheme in particular so we didn't get them all, but I do remember a term or so of the Magic Key series, which she enjoyed. She was really stumped by the one where they think they've taken a picture of the dinosaur but then there's no film in the camera - makes no sense to a child of the digital age!! (I also wound her up by getting the names wrong).

DS1 loves them.

I would happily kill them. And Wilf and fecking Wilma. Dad is a total twat, too.

And what is with the nosy neighbour always peering over the garden fence??

Nothing.

My son liked them 7 and they're an awaful lot better than the crap he got at school ie Pussy and the birds and Simon and Mumps.