ABANDONED. group of kids with secret language playing in a treehouse

[Stephanie]

I read this book in about 2001 - 2003.. I think that these books are a bit older though, if I remember correctly there were no cellphones or electronics as such. I was around 13-15 years old at the time of reading this, but the book have been for a younger audience as well.

It was about a group of kids playing in a tree house, they had their own secret language in which they spoke to each other or write notes. Think it was part of a series, in one of the books the books the kids were trying to get into an old man's house, trying to get something, a wooden box, I think it was. One of the kids might have also written letters to someone else, one of the friends that was not there, she/he had put them on the trail of this old man and what ever they wanted from him.

The secret language was something like this:
You take the first (few) letters from a word and put it at the back and then add either, -ang, -eng, -ing, -ong, -ung, which one to be used was determined by the first vowel in the word or the 2nd letter. instruction to this language was printed in the back of the book,

It might be that i am confusing two books with each other, if that is the case, my apologies.

Had asked around on FB groups and googled, some others even googled on my behalf but no luck.

TIA

[Rachel]

I'm sure I read this too, but that would have been in the mid 1990s, so I think you're right and it was published a few years before you read it.

Could it have been Something Really Dangerous by Colin Pearce? I can't find a detailed plot summary anywhere but I definitely read it when I was younger and think it could be the one. Can't find a Goodreads link for it but here's a link to it on UK Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Something-Rea...

There are a few others in the series, Something Really Terrible (which is about rescuing a goat) and Something Really Wild, which I don't remember much about.

[Stephanie]

Rachel wrote: "I'm sure I read this too, but that would have been in the mid 1990s, so I think you're right and it was published a few years before you read it.

Could it have been Something Really Dangerous by C..."

Can't confirm if it is this one, perhaps someone out there that owns the book or remembers more from it?

[Amanda]

Was it: Keeping Secrets- Sweet Valley twins #12?
Their father teaches them a secret language called Ithig.
Jessica lets slip to her best friend Lila, and soon the whole school knows it...
I remember reading this back in the late 1980's/early 90's

[Stephanie]

Amanda wrote: "Was it: Keeping Secrets- Sweet Valley twins #12?
Their father teaches them a secret language called Ithig.
Jessica lets slip to her best friend Lila, and soon the whole school knows it...
I remembe..."

No not that one

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Stephanie, are you still looking for this or did you find it?

[Amena]

Enid Blyton's "Secret Seven" had a treehouse, but I'm not sure about a secret language. Astrid Lindgren's "Bill Bergson" has a secret language, and I remember a girl being held captive in a place that might have been a tree house.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Lobstergirl wrote: "Stephanie, are you still looking for this or did you find it?"

No response, moving to Abandoned.

[Becca]

I know this is abandoned, but in case Stephanie comes back, or it helps anyone else, the Naitabal Mystery series by David Schutte look like a match. The first book is Danger, Keep Out!. There's a page in each book with 'Rules for speaking Naitabal language'

Words beginning with A: add “ang” to the end.
e.g. apple = apple-ang. The word "a", however, is just "ang".
Words beginning with B, C or D: move the first letter to the end of the word, then add “ang” to the end.
e.g. banana = anana-bang; catapult = atapult-cang; disaster = isaster-dang.
Words beginning with E: add “eng” to the end.
e.g. elephant = elephant-eng.

...etc.