The Secret of Platform 13

The thing is, the doorway to the island only opens for nine days every nine years, and almost nine years ago, the baby prince was kidnapped by an obnoxious but wealthy woman. The time has finally come again for the portal (or gump) to open, and a SWAT team of magical folk has been assembled for the search and rescue mission.

This relatively simple expedition gets very complicated when they find that the prince doesn't live up to expectations, and isn't willing to return to the island. Fast moving, sometimes funny and always imaginative, you won't want to put this one down, even though you can figure out the plot "twist" very early on.

The Secret of Platform 13   May 31, 2004
 6 out of 13 found this review helpful

The Secret of Platform 13 is great, well, mostly I would precisely rate it at four and a quarter stars. Anyway to the 'Blurb'!!:
There is an island called (drum roll) the Island!! (LOL) The king and queen of this island have a little boy, aahh; named; actually I don't know, anyhowz three nurses are hired to look after him and take him to a gump (a place that transports stuff from one place to another and only does this every x amount of years) the nurses, stupidly take him through the gump (this one leads from the island to platform 13 @ Kings Cross Station) and go to a fish and chips outlet thingy.One nurse, however stays with da prince and accidentally lets someone steal him. The nurses go through the gump and out of shame start torturing themselves.

9 Years Later (The Gump Is Open Again)

The king et queen send a wizard, a hag, an ogre and a fey to retrieve the precious prince. They locate him at 'Trottle Towers' the home of a quad-multi-trilli-billionare (or sommat like dat) couple, who currently parent one Raymond Trottle (the prince). The rescuers come across a nice boy who lives there and mistake him for Raymond (the boy is actually named Ben) soon our rescuers are trying to persuade Raymond to come back to the island, and Odge, (the hag) gives him a mistmaker, a creature that releases mist when it heres something musical. But Raymond isn't persuaded so easily and they return to 'base' @ Kings Cross to mull over the situation.

Reviewed by Ebbson System Works 04204


I'd give it six stars if I could!   May 6, 2004
 2 out of 3 found this review helpful

Years before J K Rowling invented Platform nine and three quarters, Iva Ibbotsen created her wonderful book: 'The Secret of Platform 13,' about a secret portal beneath a railway station leading to a mystical island kingdom far, far away. Unfortunately, this portal (or gump) only opens briefly once every nine years ... and last time it opened the king and queen's newborn baby was stolen. Now the royal family send four islanders to rescue their son: An elderly wizard, a magical fey, an invisible ogre and a young hag. Unfortunately, the now nine-year-old prince doesn't want to be rescued.

The writing is a sheer delight, describing the fantastical characters with such charm that they are easy to visualise and become utterly believable. This book is perfect for 8 - 9 year-olds to read on their own - or would make a great bedtime story read nightly to 6 - 7 year-olds. It's exciting, magical, mysterious ... but best of all, there's nothing too frightening and plenty to make you laugh out loud!