The Magic Key

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the 2003 song, see One-T.

The Magic Key is a series of books published for children as part of the Oxford Reading Tree, from Oxford University Press. The books are co-written by Alex Brychta and Roderick Hunt, and primarily follow the lives of three children, Biff, Kipper and Chip Robinson, their parents and grandmother, and their dog, Floppy.

In the TV show Floppy wears around his neck a collar with a golden key upon it. The key is magic, as the title suggests, and seems to do some strange things whenever Floppy wishes for something. It transports the children and sometimes their grandmother, to exciting adventures, such as dealing with trolls in an underground cavern, being characters inside a computer game, or finding a fountain of youth. In the books the key is kept in a box and Floppy does not go on all the adventures.

As well as Biff, Chip and Kipper Robinson, 4 other children also appear in the stories and occasionally find themselves in the adventures caused by the Magic Key. They are: Wilf and Wilma Page, Nadim Shah (whose mother and father own the local corner shop which features in a couple of the stories), and Anneena Patel.

The books are aimed at children from 5 to the age of 8, and form part of the English language syllabus in the National Curriculum, designed to help children learn to speak and read Standard English.

The books were developed into a Television series, consisting of 26 episodes, each featuring a different story, plus helpful hints towards teaching children good use of English.

The series was shown as part of the BBC Schools segments in the morning, then transferred to CBeebies in 2004, and shown during 2004 and 2005.