The Blue Eye

Last updated
The Blue Eye
The Blue Eye cover.png
Author Roderick Hunt
Illustrator Alex Brychta
LanguageEnglish
Series Oxford Reading Tree
Genre Adventure
Children's
Publisher Oxford University Press
Publication date
2001
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Pages32
ISBN 978-0-198-45287-4

The Blue Eye is a 2001 children's adventure book by author Roderick Hunt and illustrator Alex Brychta that is part of the Oxford Reading Tree series. The book depicts the travels of two children, Biff and Wilf, in an unnamed Middle Eastern country as they help the princess Aisha regain a valuable stone called the Blue Eye.

Contents

In March 2022, The Blue Eye was withdrawn from sale by its publisher Oxford University Press following criticism and accusations of Islamophobia on social media.

Plot

Whilst cleaning the house, Biff and her friend Wilf discover an old case of toys belonging to Biff's father, including a bag of marbles. Biff and Wilf examine the marbles more closely. When Biff touches a large blue marble, the magic key (an artifact that sends the children on magical adventures) begins to glow.

Biff and Wilf are transported to a foreign town that appears to be in the Middle East. [1] [2] They hide from a loud group of men who break into a nearby house. A woman jumps out of an upstairs window and runs from the men, dropping a package behind her. Biff and Wilf open the package, which contains a glowing blue stone called the Blue Eye.

In search of the woman, Biff and Wilf enter a large, bustling marketplace. They are confronted by the woman, whose name is Princess Aisha, in disguise. She tells them that the Blue Eye was stolen from her father and she needs the stone to become queen.

The group of men finds Princess Aisha, and she runs away together with Biff and Wilf. Biff throws marbles from her bag onto the ground, causing the men to fall down. The men catch up and corner the trio in a dead end, but Biff distracts them by throwing them the blue marble, which looks similar to the Blue Eye.

The trio flees on Princess Aisha's motorbike, with the men pursuing them in a jeep. Princess Aisha cuts the rope on the side of a lorry, causing hay to spill onto the jeep and block the men's way. Biff, Wilf, and Princess Aisha reach Aisha's aeroplane and climb aboard. The jeep tries to block their takeoff, but they escape.

During the flight, Princess Aisha shows Biff and Wilf her kingdom below them. When they land, they are greeted by a cheering crowd. Biff and Wilf are invited to a special feast, where Princess Aisha tells them that she can now become queen. The key begins to glow again, indicating that the adventure is over. Biff and Wilf are transported back to Biff's room. Biff suggests playing with the marbles outside, but she notices that there are only a few marbles left in the bag.

Background

The Blue Eye is part of Oxford Reading Tree, a series of hundreds of children's books by author Roderick Hunt and illustrator Alex Brychta. The series has been translated into over 15 languages and used in over 130 countries to teach reading skills to millions of children. [3] The "Biff, Chip and Kipper" titles in the series, which portray the adventures of the titular children, were used as the basis for the television programme The Magic Key. [4]

Publication history

The Blue Eye was originally published in 2001. [5] [6] In 2012, Oxford University Press revised a line of dialogue in the book's marketplace scene. Biff's remark "Let's stay together. The people don't seem very friendly," was changed to "Let's stay together. It would be easy to lose each other in such a crowded place." [5] [6]

Reception

The book's marketplace scene The Blue Eye marketplace.jpg
The book's marketplace scene

In 2022, screenshots of the book's marketplace scene, which included illustrations of men wearing turbans and a woman wearing a niqāb, circulated on Twitter. Critics took issue with Biff's statement that "the people don't seem very friendly" and Wilf calling the town "scary". Some described the scene as "inappropriate" or called it Islamophobic. [2] [7]

Others claimed that the critics were taking the scene out of context, saying that the language was used to describe the book's villains or that the children were scared of their unfamiliar surroundings. [1] [6] The Spectator noted that Biff and Wilf receive a warm welcome in Princess Aisha's kingdom from people also wearing Islamic clothing, arguing that the children "have simply stumbled on a town that isn’t particularly friendly." [8]

In April 2022, Oxford University Press said that it had taken The Blue Eye out of print the previous month after an "independent review", destroying its remaining stock. OUP added that it would continually work to "remove any products that are no longer appropriate" and revise its list of titles to be "diverse, inclusive and reflective of the world we live in". [2] [5]

The Telegraph reported that Brychta was "profoundly upset" by the allegations of Islamophobia, stating that he was married to a Muslim woman of Iraqi origin and that he made regular trips to the Middle East to give book readings to children. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kipper</span> Whole cold-smoked herring

A kipper is a whole herring, a small, oily fish, that has been split in a butterfly fashion from tail to head along the dorsal ridge, gutted, salted or pickled, and cold-smoked over smouldering wood chips.

Pulp magazines were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 until around 1955. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed due to their cheap nature. In contrast, magazines printed on higher-quality paper were called "glossies" or "slicks". The typical pulp magazine had 128 pages; it was 7 inches (18 cm) wide by 10 inches (25 cm) high, and 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) thick, with ragged, untrimmed edges. Pulps were the successors to the penny dreadfuls, dime novels, and short-fiction magazines of the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Seymour (actress)</span> British actress (born 1951)

Jane Seymour is a British actress. After making her screen debut as an uncredited extra in the 1969 musical comedy Oh! What a Lovely War, Seymour moved to roles in film and television, including a leading role in the television series The Onedin Line (1972–1973) and the role of psychic Bond girl Solitaire in the James Bond film Live and Let Die (1973).

<i>The Oblongs</i> Adult animated sitcom

The Oblongs is an American adult animated sitcom created by Angus Oblong and Jace Richdale. It was Mohawk Productions' first venture into animation. The series premiered on April 1, 2001 on The WB, and cancelled due to low ratings on May 20, leaving the last five episodes unaired. The remaining episodes were later aired on Cartoon Network's late-night programming block Adult Swim in August 2002, with the series premiering on the network in production order. The series is loosely based on a series of characters introduced in a picture book entitled Creepy Susie and 13 Other Tragic Tales for Troubled Children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blond</span> Human hair color

Blond or blonde, also referred to as fair hair, is a human hair color characterized by low levels of eumelanin, the dark pigment. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some yellowish color. The color can be from the very pale blond to reddish "strawberry" blond or golden-brownish ("sandy") blond colors. Occasionally, the state of being blond, and specifically the occurrence of blond traits in a predominantly dark or colored population are referred to as blondism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Clunes</span> English actor (born 1961)

Alexander Martin Clunes is an English actor, director and television presenter. He is best known for portraying Dr Martin Ellingham in the ITV comedy-drama series Doc Martin, Gary Strang in Men Behaving Badly, and William Shawcross in William and Mary. Clunes has narrated a number of documentaries for ITV, the first of which was Islands of Britain in 2009. He has since presented a number of documentaries centred on animals. He has also voiced Kipper the Dog in the animated series Kipper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marble (toy)</span> Small spherical toy

A marble is a small spherical object often made from glass, clay, steel, plastic, or agate. They vary in size, and most commonly are about 13 mm in diameter. These toys can be used for a variety of games called marbles, as well being placed in marble runs or races, or created as a form of art. They are often collected, both for nostalgia and for their aesthetic colors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant</span> Heir apparent to the Belgian throne (born 2001)

Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant, is the heiress apparent to the Belgian throne. The eldest child of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, she was elevated to the duchy after her grandfather Albert II abdicated on 21 July 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiction House</span> American publisher of magazines and comics

Fiction House was an American publisher of pulp magazines and comic books that existed from the 1920s to the 1950s. It was founded by John B. "Jack" Kelly and John W. Glenister. By the late 1930s, the publisher was Thurman T. Scott. Its comics division was best known for its pinup-style good girl art, as epitomized by the company's most popular character, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sayeeda Warsi, Baroness Warsi</span> British-Pakistani lawyer and Conservative politician

Sayeeda Hussain Warsi, Baroness Warsi, is a British lawyer, politician, and member of the House of Lords who served as co-chairwoman of the Conservative Party from 2010 to 2012. She served in the Cameron–Clegg coalition, first as the Minister without portfolio between 2010 and 2012, then as the Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as the Minister of State for Faith and Communities, until her resignation citing her disagreement with the Government's policy relating to the Israel–Gaza conflict in August 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Princess Aisha bint Hussein</span> Jordanian royal

Princess Aisha bint Al Hussein is the sister of King Abdullah II of Jordan and is the twin sister of Princess Zein. Her parents are Princess Muna and King Hussein.

Joseph Quincy Krumgold was an American writer of books and screenplays. He was the first person to win two annual Newbery Medals for the most distinguished new American children's book.

<i>Milkshake!</i> British television block for children, broadcast on Channel 5

Milkshake! is a British children's television programming block on Channel 5 and is currently aimed at children aged 2 to 7.

The Magic Key is a British educational animated television series based on the "Biff, Chip and Kipper" stories from the Oxford Reading Tree published by Oxford University Press, originally written by Roderick Hunt and illustrated by Alex Brychta. The series is a co-production between Collingwood O'Hare Entertainment Limited and HIT Entertainment, in association with the BBC and aired within the BBC Schools strand on BBC Two from 2000 until 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglas Murray (author)</span> British author and political commentator (born 1979)

Douglas Murray is a British author and conservative political commentator, cultural critic, and journalist. He founded the Centre for Social Cohesion in 2007, which became part of the Henry Jackson Society, where he was associate director from 2011 to 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Action Bronson</span> American rapper (born 1983)

Ariyan Arslani, professionally known as Action Bronson, is an American rapper, songwriter, chef, wrestler, and television presenter. Born and raised in Queens, New York, he released his debut mixtape Bon Appetit ..... Bitch!!!!! in January 2011 and independently released his debut album, Dr. Lecter, in March 2011. In August 2012, Arslani signed his first major-label deal with Warner Bros. Records, but was later moved to the Atlantic Records-distributed label Vice Records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jenna Marbles</span> American YouTube personality (born 1986)

Jenna Nicole Mourey, better known as Jenna Marbles, is an American YouTuber. Over the span of ten years, her YouTube channel has accumulated approximately 1.8 billion video views and, at its peak, over 20 million subscribers. After apologizing for a series of accusations involving offensive content in her older videos, Marbles announced her indefinite hiatus from the platform in 2020.

Alex Brychta is a British illustrator. He has collaborated with Roderick Hunt MBE on a series of children books for the Oxford Reading Tree, The Magic Key, which had an animated spin-off. There were 30 books in the first Oxford Reading Tree pack, and there are now over 400 total. They are used by over 80% of British primary schools to help children learn to read, as well as in schools in more than 120 other countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hijabophobia</span> Fear or hatred against Muslim women who wear hijab

Hijabophobia is a type of religious and cultural discrimination against Muslim women who wear the hijab. The discrimination has had manifestations in public, working and educational places.

The Oxford Reading Tree is a series of books published by Oxford University Press, for teaching children to read using phonics. The series contains over 800 books.

References

  1. 1 2 Singh, Anita (26 April 2022). "Biff, Chip and Kipper book pulped by Oxford publishers in racism row". The Telegraph . Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 Shaffi, Sarah (27 April 2022). "Oxford University Press pulps 'no longer appropriate' Biff, Chip and Kipper book". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 28 April 2022. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  3. "Biff, Chip and Kipper books: 30 years of teaching children to read". BBC . 30 June 2016. Archived from the original on 23 July 2024. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  4. Johnson, Amy (15 June 2021). "CBeebies unveils first look at live-action 'Biff & Chip' series". Yahoo! Entertainment . Archived from the original on 23 July 2024. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  5. 1 2 3 Mehta, Amar (27 April 2022). "Biff Chip and Kipper book that described foreign land as 'scary' pulled by Oxford University Publisher". Sky News . Archived from the original on 23 July 2024. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  6. 1 2 3 Woolcock, Nicola (27 April 2022). "Biff, Chip and Kipper books pulped amid Islamophobia concern". The Times . Archived from the original on 23 July 2024. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  7. Evans, Alice (27 April 2022). "Biff and Chip: Publishers pull 'no longer appropriate' book". BBC News . Archived from the original on 23 July 2024. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  8. "Why is the BBC trying to cancel Biff, Chip and Kipper?". The Spectator . 28 April 2022. Archived from the original on 23 July 2024. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  9. Sawer, Patrick (29 April 2022). "Biff, Chip and Kipper illustrator 'profoundly upset' to be cancelled in Islamophobia row". The Telegraph . Archived from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 23 July 2024.