The Mixed Mine

Parents/Adults
Need something to occupy the kids for an upcoming roadtrip, or perhaps just a potential rainy day?

This series of short stories are all written in code, along with a code key of course. It will occupy your child (and possibly you too) for ages decoding it.

At the end of the book, you'll have a story in English to use as a bedtime story.

Get this book now. You need it.

Okay, adults stop reading here.


I live in England. Land of Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses. Wherever you are in England, you’re never too far from a castle. That pleases me greatly. I am, after all, a Professor of Antiquities at Ellbookley Castle.

When I’m not at Ellbookley Castle, I really rather enjoy exploring old, dusty bookshops. It was at one such bookshop during a recent trip that I discovered a most odd book. I had written down the title of the book but my Neice, bless her, had written something else on the page and taken it with her when she left.

As I started to take the book from the shelf, the whole bookcase turned and opened like a big door, revealing a secret passage.

I followed the stone steps down a spiral staircase. Us English aren’t afraid of ghosts and mummies. Okay, I was a little bit scared.

At the bottom of the staircase was an old trunk. If you can imagine a pirate chest, it looked just like that.

I opened the lid, expecting to find a skeleton that would look rather nice at Ellbookley Castle. Instead, what I found were some old, hand written papers. All in code.

Since I’m jolly clever, I’ve managed to crack the code. There are so many pages to decode though. Can you help?