Ladybird Books

Ladybird Tuesday – Learn to write book

October 8, 2019 by penny Leave a Comment

It can be hard to know which Ladybird book to choose from my collection to write about each week. There are some titles though that I’m so excited to tell you about. Last week’s addition to the collection is one such book – the Ladybird Learn to write book.

Ladybird Learn to write workbook series S812 Ladybird Tuesday

I was somewhat lucky to find this title as I’m trying to cut down on the amount I spend in charity shops and so have restricted myself to just looking for the familiar size and shape of Ladybird books and try to ignore everything else. Amazingly thought this was at the front of a stack in a local branch of Oxfam and the Ladybird logo on the cover caught my attention. Measuring 9 1/4″ x 7″ it’s a very different size to normal Ladybird books.

As well as the regular familiar Ladybird books there have been several other titles that they published over the years. In the 1980s they branched out into a series of workbooks to accompany all the Keyword reading scheme books and other educational titles that they published. I’d heard of these before by finding Learn to write was my first experience at seeing one in the flesh.

Published as part of series S812 Learn to write was I believe the first title in this series. The copyright date inside my copy is 1981, but I believe the book first appeared in a Ladybird catalogue in 1984 and that tallies with the date written on the front cover or my copy.

The style of the book is very obviously a workbook for children to work though as they develop their pen skills and writing ability. There’s plenty on letter formation in there that I recognise from the Ladybird Handwriting book, although drawing in the dragon’s teeth is a bit more modern in style.

When you look at some of the other titles in the same series though they appear more activity book like.

Learn to write
I can write
Crossword Book 1
Crossword Book 2
Puzzles Book 1
Puzzles Book 2
Sport Billy Activity Book
Major Tom’s Space Activity Book
Learn to Count
General Knowledge Quiz Book
Sports Quiz Book

What is quite wonderful about the copy of Learn to write that I picked up is that it’s not been used at all. There’s a name and the year 1984 written very neatly on the front cover, but inside all the pages are clean as it was when first printed. Quite how it has managed to remain intact for 35 years with no child deciding to have a go with a pen or wax crayon is some sort of a miracle.

From what I can gather from the pages of an old Ladybird catalogue that a collecting friend shared with me the same format and size was also used for four playbooks in series S703 and a series of colouring books in series S779. These apparently took pictures from other Ladybird titles and used them as inspiration for children colour in the same pictures. How I’d love to get hold of some of them.

I’m not totally clear if all the titles listed in the catalogue were actually published or not though as some don’t match with those on the back cover of Learn to write. I can see though that this opens up yet another whole area of Ladybird history for me to delve into. I always used to assume that what Ladybird got up to in the 1980s wasn’t as interesting or exciting as what went before. How wrong I was!

Ladybird Tuesday is a regular feature here on Penny Reads where I delve into my Ladybird book collection and choose a title to share with my readers. The weekly series originally started on my old blog, Being Mrs C, and I’m now in the process of moving all those posts over to Penny Reads and also adding titles that I have acquired since then. A list is currently being compiled here of all the titles I have in my collection.

Ladybird Tuesday – Climate Change. A Ladybird Expert Book

September 23, 2019 by penny Leave a Comment

As I sit here writing this week’s Ladybird Tuesday post one of the main news stories is around Greta Thunberg’s speech to world leaders at the United Nations climate change meeting in New York. Climate change has been headline news thanks to Greta Thunberg, but still there are people that deny it is real. People who say that Thunberg is an overexcited girl. People who say that she doesn’t understand and should be silenced. The problem is that there are people out there who still don’t understand climate change. People who deny that it is real.

HRH The Prince of Wales identified that people needed a plain English guide to climate change to help them actually understand it. He returned from the 2015 Paris Climate Change Summit and conversations he had made him realise just how valuable such a book would be.

The front cover of the Ladybird Expert book Climate Change

Prince Charles’ conversations led to the first title in the new Ladybird Expert series (more on that in a moment) – Climate Change. Written by HRH along with Tony Juniper and Emily Shuckburgh it aims to give adults an expert yet simple guide to this complicated subject. As I’ve said many times here on Ladybird Tuesday, Ladybird books in their heyday were known for teaching children about a wide range of subjects and that’s exactly what they are trying to do with this title for adults who maybe enjoyed the original books as children.

A page from inside teh Ladybird Expert book Climate Change showing a woman using a thermostat and a smart phone app to control the temperature

At a first glance you could be forgiven for thinking that the art work in Climate Change is actually taken from old Ladybird titles, but then you see a specific picture depicting something that simply wasn’t about back then and you realise that the whole book is full of new artwork that has carefully be created to look like the old Ladybird style. Illustrator Ruth Palmer has done a fantastic job.

Starting the series with a title as potentially controversial as Climate Change means that Penguin (who now own Ladybird) were determined to get things right with this book. It was extensively peer reviewed, both by the Royal Meterological Society and also a number of academics.

The book takes the reader through from a general understanding of the earth’s climate, through the data on how temperatures and sea levels have been changing and the effects these are having on people, wildlife, business and communities. Man’s impact on the environment is clearly laid out alongside the data evidence and how it was gathered.

A picture from teh Ladybird Expert book Climate Change showing a hunter with a spear pointing at a woolly mammoth

The book isn’t all doom and gloom though. It presents solutions to try to limit climate change going forwards. In just the two years since it was published change has taken place and Greta is responsible for helping to bring about so many of the conversations that people are having about climate change, especially children. I sadly still see and hear people who claim that it is all a figment of our imagination and I just hope that the book helps people generally understand the situation better so that they can help try to make others understand and make changes.

What I hadn’t realised until I sat down to research this particular title is that Ladybird have continued to release titles in this Ladybird Expert series since this title was published. There is now a wide range of books for adults available that cover everything from Homer to Quantum Mechanics. All written to educate rather than amuse (like the comedy titles that we’ve seen recently) these are actually little gems that would make excellent gifts. I guess it’s Ladybird going back to their roots and trying to reach some of the people that learnt from their books as children. And it adds yet another series to the list I need to look out for!

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you buy anything having clicked through on them I receive a small amount of money (not even enough for a coffee most of the time) but it costs you nothing extra.

Ladybird Tuesday – Come to Denmark

September 16, 2019 by penny Leave a Comment

This week’s Tuesday delve into my Ladybird collection brings us another ‘Easy-Reading’ book, but one very different from last week’s offering on the Public Services. Instead we’re being instructed to “Come to Denmark”.

Come to Denmark was the second title in Series 606G which was a series of Travel titles. The three books published in this series invited readers to come to Denmark. France and Holland. I’m not entirely sure why though!

Originally published in 1971 I suppose foreign travel was still a relatively new thing but the mix of countries chosen for this series intrigues me. Why Denmark? I need to obviously research this further, but maybe there was someone working at Ladybird who had a certain passion for the country? Who knows. It’s somewhere I’ve been quite a lot lately but I don’t know many people that consider it a tourist hot spot.

Come to Denmark does show its age a bit as a book and some of what it covers seem a little strange in a children’s book. There is obviously a large section on Copenhagen, with a page on the Little Mermaid, another on Tivoli and mention of some of the famous buildings in the country’s capital city. There is also talk of tours around the Carlsberg and Tuborg breweries. Not really children focussed attractions! The book then goes on to talk about seeing horse drawn brewery carts around Copenhagen.

A couple of pages in the book are devoted to farming in Denmark and I did have to smile when the paragraphs about how popular Danish bacon is around the world was accompanies by a laughing farmer holding two smiling pigs!

There’s no doubt that Come to Denmark is an informative little book – and one that I will consult again before my next trip there – but it still does seem a tad strange as a choice for a children’s book. I think there must have been a certain breed of Ladybird children who were educated in somewhat unexpected subjects thanks to their reading habits in the 60s and 70s.

Ladybird Tuesday – ‘The Public Services’ Electricity

September 9, 2019 by penny Leave a Comment

The Public Services Electricity originally appeared on Ladybird Tuesday back in 2012, which shows you just how long I’ve been collecting Ladybird books. It still remains a bit of a favourite though, mainly as it’s just such a geeky read for children!

Ladybird Tuesday The Public Services Electricity

Just the title of this book has a vintage feel about it: “The Public Services” Electricity. It’s been a fair while since electricity generation was a public service here in the UK, but when series 606E was published about the public services in the late 1960s it was a very different situation. This particular book was published in 1966 with ones about Gas and Water Supply following it.

The map inside the front and rear covers (yep – same in both – why?) shows how things were at the time – very different to the commercial companies all fighting for our custom today.

Whilst this book is described on the cover as being a Ladybird Easy Reader there is no doubt that books of the day went into a fair bit of technical detail for their young readers with history of electricity as well as details as to how atomic, hydroelectric and coal-fired power stations work.

Some things haven’t changed since the 1960s though and one of those is the iconic sight of pylons across the country. It’s something I always fine comforting familiar when returning to the UK after time abroad. Somehow other country’s pylons just aren’t as good looking as ours are.

It’s still the case that in times of a power surge (like at the end of a particularly gripping edition of a soap opera or half time in an international football match) we do “borrow” electricity from France much as we used to do. From what I remember from a documentary I watched a few years back I get the impression we’d be completely stuck if we couldn’t borrow electricity in this way as there is no way to meet the peak demand in the UK when it happens so quickly – like at the start of an advert break. Obviously how things are generated has changed a bit since then as the book has no mention of wind power and if it were to be rewritten today it would surely include pictures of wind turbines that you now see dotted all over the country.

Despite coming with a safety warning of “you must never touch any of these” at the top the book didn’t skimp on the detail of how writing in the house works. The wire colours may have changed since the 1960s but the basics are still the same and I’m sure there must have been a few fathers of the time (because back then those jobs were nearly always left to the men!) who used this book as a bit of reference if they ever needed to change plugs or similar – especially when they were not used to electrical wiring in the homes.

I’m always amazed at just how many technical books Ladybird had in their series and in addition to this one I somewhere have a second book all about the history of nuclear power. And they say children were more educated in years gone by – certainly if you go by Ladybird books alone I can see where they got much of that education from!

Ladybird Tuesday – In The Train with Uncle Mac

September 3, 2019 by penny Leave a Comment

It seems right to kick off the return of Ladybird Tuesday with what is probably the best Ladybird book in my whole collection. One which my husband bought me as a recent birthday present after I made a comment about not having any of the Uncle Mac series in my Ladybird collection. I’m proud to say that I now have three titles, but my favourite has to be In The Train with Uncle Mac.

You might be wondering just who Uncle Mac was. And why there was a series of Ladybird books in his name.

Uncle Mac was otherwise known as Derek McCulloch, star of the BBC Radio Programme Children’s Hour. In fact, he went on to be head of Children’s Broadcasting at the BBC from 1933 to 1951. Ladybird teamed up with him for series 455 as they could see the value of working with someone as high-profile as he was and a “trusted”name and voice in many households.

In The Train with Uncle Mac was actually the last book to be published in series 455. The series started in 1945, but by the time In the Train was published it was 1955. Written by Derek McCulloch, this book was illustrated in a photographic style by W. C. Watson. In fact, it appeared to outlive the other titles in the Uncle Mac series and the copy I have (with a dust jacket) only has the one title in the series listed on the inside endpaper.

Bob and Betty, and their dog Trigger, were introduced in the “beside the sea” with Uncle Mac book and they reappear to take a train journey with Uncle Mac in In The Train. The journey starts though with them travelling alone from Newtown to London, where they meet with Uncle Mac, take the Underground across London before boarding another train at Waterloo to their destination of Sandbay.

In The Train follows their journey, with each page pointing out various features of their journey and the runnings of the railway. It covers everything from stoking the engine, to the guard who looks after them when they travel alone, and level crossings that the train goes over. The London Underground also features as the children use it with Uncle Mac to get from one London mainline station to another.

The book is incredibly of its time in so many different ways. There’s the obvious steam train on the cover that features in the mainline sections of their journey, but also the simple fact that children of Bob and Betty’s age travel alone, and are well behaved enough to have been bought tickets to take dinner in the train’s dining car. Nowadays you’d be hard pushed to find a train in the UK with a dining car of the sort where you can order a three course meal at your table which is beautifully adorned with a white table cloth.

My love of old fashioned train travel and the London Underground means that combining these together in a vintage Ladybird book is simply my idea of perfection. A gorgeous look back at the 1950s in Ladybird-land.

Recollecting my Ladybird Collection and relaunching Ladybird Tuesday!

August 19, 2019 by penny Leave a Comment

Before moving house a couple of years ago my Ladybird book collection was in pretty good shape. I had an accurate written record of what I owned, the condition it was in and useful things like prices, tally numbers etc. I also knew where they all were. Beautifully arranged on shelves outside my bedroom so that I could stop and admire then whenever I walked past.

Fast forward two years, and following two house moves and a period in storage I’m only just starting to get my Ladybird collection back in order. I’ve not stopped collecting in that time, but I haven’t really been collecting in an organised manner. In an attempt to get so much of my life back on track this is another area that needs to change.

Once again I’m trying to use my blog as a way of forcing myself to do something.

For years I ran a little feature called Ladybird Tuesday over on Being Mrs C. I used to really enjoy sitting down once a week and pulling out a Ladybird book and writing all about it. I tried to move the feature over to here, but got rid of the regular posting. That was a bit of a failure. It seems I’m a creature of habit who needs to be forced to do things on a regular basis.

Therefore I’m pleased to announce that from next Tuesday, Ladybird Tuesday will return. I’ll be honest and say that I have absolutely no recollection as to why it was Tuesdays that I chose to share my Ladybird collection with readers, but it seems silly to get rid of the name when people are familiar with it. And it saves me the stress of trying to make a decision as to which day of the week I should post on!

Ladybird Tuesday will be a collection of new posts and also some re-edited ones from my old blog that I will move over. I’m also in the middle of creating a new spreadsheet containing all the books that are in my collection. I can’t commit to having it complete by the time Ladybird Tuesday re-launches, but I am hoping to make a start to the list I keep on this site.

For now though let me whet your appetite with a glimpse at a few things that have come into my collection recently.

Firstly – an utterly gorgeous selection of Uncle Mac books. I always wanted to find an Uncle Mac title in one of my charity shop trips, but I’ve never been that lucky. Instead, I am lucky enough to have a wonderful husband who listened to me telling someone about my love of the Uncle Mac titles and managed to find these for my birthday.

Second up is something a little bit bigger than a regular Ladybird book. The story of Jayne Fisher’s Garden Gang series is something of a legend to Ladybird collectors. I knew there was a larger Garden Gang book once published, but I’d never seen a copy in the flesh. Until one day I was busy looking at something else in a charity shop and spotted it looking down at me from a top shelf. Far more than I would usefully pay for a Ladybird book, but far less than they seem to be going for on eBay. This is a book that I simply had to make mine.

I look forward to sharing these treasures and so much more from my Ladybird collection with you. I just hope we can make it a regular date.