Identical Storyline

[Shanku]

Hello everyone,

I have come across two stories with identical storylines with different characters and with minor changes.

I was going through my shelf to select some books to take to Moonface's EB evening and came accross a Dragon's 1970 edition of ' A Book of Naughty Children'. (link to the Cave of Books http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book ... y+Children)

This has a story called 'The Magic Biscuits' which is about a pair of young children who find a bag of alphabet biscuits. The girl, whose name is Cathy, eats C A T to try and spell her name but begins to change into a cat before she can finish the eating all the letters in her name. After someone's suggestion her brother feeds her the remaining letters in her name and she returns to being Cathy again. Moral of the story: It is wrong to steal.

I distinctly remember reading a similar story in another book, also in the late 70s or early 80s. Here the pair find a bag of toffees or perhaps chocolates and the boy named Harry eats, quite randomly, H E N and begins to turn into a hen. His sister remembers that his name is Henry and is only known as Harry so feeds him R Y and he returns to normal again. Moral of the story: It is (still) wrong to steal.

Now the second story has been hounding me for months and could not remember which book it was from. Does it ring a bell, anyone?

[Anita Bensoussane]

The story you're thinking of is 'The Magic Toffee,' Shanku, from Twenty-Minute Tales. Enid Blyton was quite fond of recycling story ideas in that way!

Edit: If you're thinking of the 1970s Dragon paperback version, they split Twenty-Minute Tales into two books - Twenty-Minute Tales and More Twenty-Minute Tales. 'The Magic Toffee' is in More Twenty-Minute Tales.

Anita

[Shanku]

Goodness me! Anita, you are a genius indeed. Thank you, I had completely forgotten about those two Twenty Minute Tales altogether. I saw the covers in the Cave and remembered having those as a child. Must look for them on ebay now.

I have recently purchased The Red Story Book, Yellow Story Book (I still have mine from the 60s but they are in no condition to be handled so bought the same editions for me to read), and the Stories for Bedtime.

[Rob Houghton]

Yet another similar story is in 'The Red Story Book', called 'The Tale of Chomp'. In it, Chomp is a greedy goblin who is always eating and stealing his neighbours food, or over-eating at parties, so the other villagers get together to think of a way to get rid of him.

After several attempts they decide to buy some magic biscuits and trick Chomp into eating three which spell 'Pig'. He immediately turns into a pig, and they decide they will only turn him back again (by giving him the letter-shaped biscuits spelling 'Chomp' when he is truly sorry!

Another story repeated time without number is the one where someone goes shopping and constantly brings home the item in the wrong way. (in a basket, under their arm so the ice-cream melts, etc) I think there's a Billy-Bob story about this, and also a Noddy story.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Isn't it lucky that Henry and Cathy have names which start with "Hen" and "Cat," thereby turning into living creatures which are capable of eating more biscuits? After all, they might well have been called Carey (like one of Enid's brothers) and Penny, and been transformed into a car or a pen!

Another story repeated time without number is the one where someone goes shopping and constantly brings home the item in the wrong way. (in a basket, under their arm so the ice-cream melts, etc) I think there's a Billy-Bob story about this, and also a Noddy story.

I have a feeling there's a Simple Simon story on the same theme too.

Anita

[Wolfgang]

Isn't it lucky that Henry and Cathy have names which start with "Hen" and "Cat," thereby turning into living creatures which are capable of eating more biscuits? After all, they might well have been called Carey (like one of Enid's brothers) and Penny, and been transformed into a car or a pen!

Anita

Who knows, if Penny had eaten fast enough, she might have turned into a penny instead...

I recently started reading those tales (most of them in German)and stumbled over similar storylines as well.
In the first story there are pixies who sell beans or something like that which makes birds sing. They hear that the birds of the king won't sing so they hope to get a reward if they mange to make them sing. But they get it wrong with the birdkeeper who cheats them of their reward. When they take revenge on him with some charms, the king is victim as well when he wants to praise the birdkeeper for making his birds sing, and he punishes all of them after learning the whole story.
In the other story there are carpenters who have to do some redecorating for some kind of minister. The pets of this minister ask them to get painted as well, and after some refusal they do so. Of course the minister isn't amused and doesn't pay them. So they take revenge on him with some charms, and the king is victim of those charms when he visits the minister. After learning the complete story he also punishes all of them.

[Moonraker]

And my old friend Wolfgang may have turned into a wolf - now that is scary!

[Anita Bensoussane]

I might have turned into a nit!

[Shanku]

With wolves and nits, Enid's story is taking a bizzare turn now.

[Moonraker]

Sounds more like a Stephenie Meyer story!

[Ming]

Not those werewolves and blood-suckers again.

[Rob Houghton]

I would have turned into a robe...

[Ming]

I wonder what I would have turned to? Can't think of anything with any of my names.

[Moonraker]

Well, my middle name would have made me a bit of a deity!

[Lucky Star]

My name is John. I dont think I would like to turn into a John (American slang). Though I might come in useful if I did.