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Original poster

Biff and Chip are twins

81 replies

misshardbroom · 01/03/2010 19:37

Who knew?

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CantSupinate · 02/03/2010 14:33

I read that Biff was Elizabeth, & yes I knew they were twins.
Don't know why people moan about 'em. DS5yo quite likes the Magic Key books.

stealthsquiggle · 02/03/2010 14:33

DS used to get very cross with the end of the magic key ones "and the key glows, and back they go and blah blah blah"

BalloonSlayer · 02/03/2010 14:37

I thought Biff was Elizabeth too. It's a common nickname for Elizabeths (also Buffy) - it's a child's pronunciation of it.

MumNWLondon · 02/03/2010 14:37

re: magic key - told DD(6) that she only has 6 books left and she said - i bet it says in the last book that all the magic key adventures were actually dreams!

She will not believe me if i say the real names as of course nothing is true unless her teachers tell her.

SeaTrek · 02/03/2010 14:46

Is it right that I feel a little sad that I never got to enjoy the magic key books?

My son's school don't do Biff and Chipper type books past band 4, and even then they were few and far between in the boxes. Even so, I knew they were twins

snorkie · 02/03/2010 16:32

piprabbit, they are set in & around Oxford, I'm sure of it.

gruber · 02/03/2010 16:51

Oh that sodding magic key! Why didn't we have one?! Even I remember reading the books and thinking "that is so unlikely to happen."

Disclaimer: May have made me the cynic pedant I am today.

StevieDunton · 02/03/2010 17:13

ooh we have green island and hamid does his best

BendyBob · 02/03/2010 17:17

I'm glad so many others think the names are 'unhelpful' (trying to be tactful there in case a mnetter comes on and says her dc are called Kipper, Biff and Chip)

They all look like boy/tomboys too which confuses me even more.

Bah sod all that - read Dr Seuss..that gets 'em reading a treat.

Original poster
misshardbroom · 02/03/2010 17:54

I thought they were set in & around Oxford, you can see Didcot power station in a lot of them.

I really, seriously need to get a life, don't I?

OP posts:
primarymum · 02/03/2010 18:14

But why is ambulance in one written as ambwlans-are they on holiday in Wales in that one? Someone was having a baby!

Original poster
misshardbroom · 02/03/2010 18:49

yes, they were on holiday in Wales and the farmer's wife went into labour. Didn't Wilma's mum deliver the baby or something?

OP posts:
2shoes · 02/03/2010 18:50

good grief
I never realised........

Wallace · 02/03/2010 19:46

I think they might be set round Oxford it si the Oxford Reading Tree

piprabbit · 02/03/2010 21:30

Perhaps it was something about the seaside that looked familiar then?? I was sure that there were some very familiar places .

Perhaps I'm getting confused with when I lived t'other side of the M25....

ShoshanaBlue · 02/03/2010 21:43

The bit about the real names is in the big flopover books of stage 1.

paisleyleaf · 02/03/2010 21:53

That escalators one was a favourite here too!

BalloonSlayer · 03/03/2010 16:03

OK well talking of twins, what's Topsy's real name then do you think?

I have often felt like trolling on the Baby Names board with that one.

MumNWLondon · 03/03/2010 17:20

definately set in essex - several references in stage 8 and stage 9.

DontCallMeBaby · 03/03/2010 17:30

Annie I'm glad someone else noticed Steven Spielberg's cameo appearances. Very odd. Though I'm guessing from ahundredtimes' post that he's actually the school janitor/illustrator. But he DOES look like Mr Spielberg.

I rather like the 80s decor (Biff's dream bedroom in the house they move into), and spotting where more modern details have been added in later editions (there were no flat panel computer monitors in the 80s ...)

Boco · 03/03/2010 17:35

Dps favourite book was one dd2 had for about 3 weeks and drove us all completely insane. It was called 'Up and down' and involves escalators in a shop.

The text went..
mum went up
dad went down
dad went up
mum went down
oh no said mum
dad went down
mum went up
'up and down!' said dad.

Dp was delighted by dad declaring 'up and down!' for some reason, and annoys us all by saying it for no apparent reason.

BalloonSlayer · 03/03/2010 18:17

One of DS1's first ones went something like:

Oh Floppy
No Floppy
Oh Floppy
No Floppy
Floppy Floppy

DD was 3 and was so delighted that she could "read" it too.

katgod · 03/03/2010 22:25

I love this thread. I think we are on ORT 8, but we mix the schemes up so often have Rigby Rockets or v dull factual National Geographics instead. Am glad have not had to read too much of the Magic Key which is bonkers IMO. But I am so excited at an Essex setting for some forthcoming adventures

piprabbit · 04/03/2010 00:05

.

piprabbit · 04/03/2010 00:07

By the way - we are very sad in our house at the moment.

DD is reading stage 8 'World Explorers - Steve Fossett'. The final page asks the quesion, what will his next adventure be?

How to explain that he crashed his plane and died?