The Secret Code
Tuppence
and Tommy (I do hope I haven’t broken any copyright laws, but I couldn’t
resist) are saving up for a ride in a hot air balloon, but they seem to be
having just as much trouble making money as the characters I named them after.
In the absence of convenient criminals, they sell cookies and lemonade and plan
a party for pets. But criminals come in all sizes, and when first Tuppence’s
school project and then half the money they’ve saved goes missing, Tuppence and
Tommy soon have more on their minds than balloons.
This is the first original Kids Book By You I’ve read, and I really enjoyed it. The basic plot is one I’ve read lots of times before, which isn’t a bad thing – it means the story is popular with children and easy to relate to, and therefore exactly the kind of book I imagine they’d love to star in. (Actually, it’s the kind of book I’d like to star in, so it’s kind of a shame I don’t.)
But in some respects, this book is
different from all the others I’ve read with a similar plot. Just when you
think you know exactly what’s going on, writer Virginia Gray takes the book off
in an unexpected direction. It’s always great to find a writer who can keep you
guessing, and the book really is a lot of fun, even for someone as ‘grown-up’
as me.
The
Secret Code also, without being the least bit
preachy, has a strong message about the importance of friendship. All the
children in the book are great characters – very distinctive, and even the
horrible ones have a certain charm. All classes have horrible children, after all,
but very few (if any) are evil through and through, and The Secret Code shows that all children have their strengths as
well as weaknesses. I like that Tuppence and Tommy are generous and kind
without being unrealistically perfect (I think I’d have found school much less
of an ordeal if they’d been there).
Some adults might say that the thief’s
reasons for stealing aren’t very convincing – and in the adult world, it
probably wouldn’t have happened. But this is a book about children, and a lot
of children have a genuine terror of getting into trouble, and they will do
almost anything to avoid it. I’m an adult now, but I still have childlike
patterns of thought at times, and although I wouldn’t have done what the thief
did, I would have felt exactly the same way.
I am a bit surprised that a ride in a hot
air balloon is so readily available, and that a couple of kids could save up a
hundred dollars – my mum put her foot down quite firmly when my sister tried to
sell jam to the milkman. But personalised books are about dreams, and that
probably is the kind of adventure most children dream of. I love the idea of
the pet party (not an idea I’ve heard of before, but I really want to go to one),
and even though the mystery the children have to solve is very serious, The Secret Code was a very amusing book.
As for the secret code itself, it’s simple enough for readers to solve if they
want to, but difficult enough to require a bit of brain power. (If you can’t be
bothered with all that, all you need to do is jump to the translation in the
next paragraph.)
The other children mentioned in the book
are called Sassi, Dayna, Cora, Bram and Arlie, so it would be better not to
call the personalised children by any of these names. I’ve never known anyone
by any of these names (I know a Dana, but she pronounces it like darning
needles), but they seem relatively normal names, the sort of names children in
your class could easily have without standing out too much.
The only non-personalised adult character
is the teacher, Ms Aldwich, which was a great name as I immediately wanted to
know if she really was an old witch. She’s actually not a great teacher –
though she could be a lot worse – but I really like that as it makes her more
human. Teachers do seem like another species sometimes, so it’s nice to read
about one who makes mistakes and doesn’t always know what to do, but who is
still very clearly a good person.
