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 written by Roderick Hunt, illustrated by Alex Brychta, and primarily follow the lives of three children, Biff, Chip and Kipper Robinson, their parents, their grandmother, their friends, Wilf and Wilma Page, Nadim Shah, Anneena Petal and the Robinson's dog, Floppy. The series was first published in 1985 with a set of 30 stories, and there are now over 300. It is used by more than 80% of schools in the United Kingdom, and has been translated into numerous languages in over 120 different countries. In 2000, it was made into a television series, produced by Collingwood O'Hare Entertainment and HIT Entertainment in association with the BBC.
Audience
The books are aimed at children aged four to nine, and could form part of an English language syllabus in line with the National curriculum, designed to help children learn to speak and read Standard English.
Adaptations
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. It ran on the BBC Schools strand on BBC Two from 2000 to 2008 and it was also on the CBeebies on BBC Two strand from September to October 2003, then it moved to the main channel on 2004. It also aired on CBBC Channel's Class TV strand in 2003 and again in 2007. It also ran during the BBC Learning Zone late night strand between August and September 2006. It was also sold on DVD as a whole series which came out in 2006.
In the television show, Floppy wears a collar around his neck with a golden key upon it. The key is magic, as the title suggests, and seems to do some strange things whenever one of the children asks a question and Floppy wishes for something. It starts to glow and transports the children, Floppy and sometimes their grandmother through a vortex to other worlds, where they have exciting adventures, such as dealing with trolls in a cavern, being characters inside a computer game, or finding the Fountain of Youth and when the adventure is done, they get a gift and the key glows and they all go home. In the books the key is kept in a box which opens the door to a dolls house and Floppy does not go on all the adventures. As well as Biff, Chip and Kipper Robinson, four other children also appear in the stories and occasionally find themselves in the adventures caused by the Magic Key, namely Wilf and Wilma Page, Nadim Shah, and Anneena Patel.
