Ladybird Books

Ladybird Tuesday – You Must Be Joking!

January 27, 2020 by penny Leave a Comment

In an attempt to curb my Ladybird collection in some way I don’t normally pay much attention to the ones with glossy covers. It’s just my way of trying to reduce the number that come home from the charity shop with me. That plan doesn’t always work though, and in the case of You Must Be Joking! I’m glad it didn’t.

I suppose the glossy Ladybirds that I keep an eye out for are the non-fiction ones. The titles that were released as some sort of a special edition. You Must Be Joking! is a collection of children’s jokes in aid of Save the Children. Released on 1986 the book has a forward by HRH The Princess Anne as HRH The Princess Royal was known then (she became Princess Royal in 1987). For those of you that remember the 80s, this was a year before she appeared on the, ill-fated, Royal version of It’s a Knockout representing the charity.

All the jokes in You Must Be Joking! were submitted by children of the Ladybird Book Club, and inside the back cover is a list of the schools that they attended. Inside the front cover is a page of photographs showing the work of Save the Children and a description of the work that they do, both overseas and here in the UK.

The book is split into different categories, with pages of Knock, Knock jokes, Doctor, Doctor ones, Limericks and Cross the Road jokes in addition to more general pages of jokes. All pages are illustrated in a bright, eye-catching way, an the credit for the design, illustration and calligraphy is given to Judith Wood and Michael Nicholls of Hurlston Design Ltd.

Working out what series Ladybird books of the 1980s belong to isn’t easy. There is one list that I often use, but I have previously found that this doesn’t contain everything. You Must Be Joking! doesn’t appear on the list and to be honest I”m not totally sure which series it belongs to. It sometimes is listed online with Hobbies written in brackets after the title (as also appears in the British Library Cataloguing section inside the front of the book), suggesting that it might belong to the hobbies series, but it’s not totally clear if it is or not. Yet another ladybird book to investigate further. There’s certainly a theme here when it comes to Ladybird books!

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 this post originally appeared on there. 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 – The Story of Newspapers

January 20, 2020 by penny Leave a Comment

This week’s Ladybird Tuesday looks back at a book that was originally featured over on Being Mrs C – The Story of Newspapers.

Ladybird Tuesday The Story of Newspapers

The story of Newspapers is the sort of Ladybird book that I really love. It really shows its age, yet I love that glimpse into this frozen period of time. Published in 1969 this book explains how newspapers came into being and also how they were produced and run at the time of publication.

It’s fair to say that the newspaper industry has changed a crazy amount since this book was published. Broadsheet newspapers have slimmed down, internet based news has changed how newspapers work, there are daily freebie papers available across the country and then there’s all the more recent news surrounding the Leveson Inquiry and the closure of the News of the World. Whilst some things have stayed the same, it’s fair to say that you could easily fill another Ladybird book with changes that have taken place.

All the illustrations in The Story of Newspapers are done by Ron Embleton and they are beautifully detailed, having a great 60s look about them. They all seem to really easily take the reader back to that time.

The one above showing the Evening Standard being delivered to a London street corner really does just speak volumes to me of London rush hour back then.

As was the case with many Ladybird books from this era there is a clear reflection of what the role of women at the time was. This meeting if newspaper management deciding what should be going in the next morning’s edition features just one woman and it’s pretty clear that she’s there as a secretary, rather than an editor.

There’s one thing that’s a bit strange with this particular Ladybird book though – you don’t see many children’s books with a copy of Playboy on the front cover, but if you look closely below that’s exactly what there is!

Now, I’m told (not being an expert on this subject myself!) that Playboy was a different kind of publication in those days – possibly more like GQ today – but I can’t say that that stops me being surprised though.

Ladybird Tuesday – Cub Scouts

January 14, 2020 by penny Leave a Comment

The very first sentence in the Ladybird Cub Scouts book gives away just how out of date it is.

“A Cub Scout is a boy between eight and eleven years old.”

Quite what the author would have made off the fact that my nine year old daughter is currently a Cub I have no idea! I think if I called her a “Cub Scout” she’d also give me a weird look. As far as she’s concerned she’s a Cub. Also, the idea of her having to wear a cap, shorts and knee high socks seems as alien to her as not being allowed to be a Cub because she’s a girl.

As a woman who was only able to be a Brownie and a Guide as a child, some of the history of the Cub Scouts is actually quite interesting, and puts lots of things into context for me. I had never understood before as to why all the leaders were characters from the Jungle Book (starting with Akela who in my daughter’s case happens to be one of my friends – I’d just never dared admit that I didn’t know why!)

Baden-Powell had realised that boys that weren’t yet old enough to be Scouts (aged 12 and up then) needed something similar to join. He found the right background for what they wanted in the Jungle Book where Mowgli, the man cub, is growing up in the jungle with wolves, in particular obeying Akela, the wise old wolf. He also was taught the law of the jungle from Baloo the bear, Bagheera the panther, Kaa the snake, Chil the kite and Raksha the mother wolf. This led to the Wolf Cub part of Scouting being started in 1916, with the Wolf part of the name eventually dropped.

As much as Scouting has moved on since 1970 when this book was written (50 years ago – let that just sink in…) there are some elements that are still reassuringly familiar. Things like the Cub Scout promise, motto, handshake and salute are used today (or at least are in my daughter’s experience).

Ladybird Cub Scouts Picture of Cub Scouts at a meeting

An outline programme of a typical pack meeting also looks familiar with the Grand Howl, Flag-break and Flag-down and Inspection are all part of the weekly meeting that LMC knows. The badges may have changed and been updated somewhat (although I must admit that I much prefer the look of the old badges!) but the general idea behind them remains the same, and children still feel the same level of pride when they wear them on their uniforms.

Ladybird Cub Scouts Cub Scout Proficiency Badges

I do love reading the requirements though for the Arrow badges. They are just so of their time. Things like knowing how to behave when National Anthems are played in public and having to make a scrap book on the Royal Family almost seems comical in 2020.

From a Ladybird book perspective, the Cub Scout book, like the others in the Scouts and Guides series (series 706) is packed full of relevant information for any boy (as it was only boys then!) who wants to join Cub Scouts, or has already done so but wants to be the absolute best Cub he can be. In the way that Ladybird did so well, at the end of the book is a list off other Ladybird titles “which Cub Scouts may find particularly helpful in their training”. Some great titles are on the list, including some of the Junior Science series, nature books and titles from the How it Works series. Also on there is A First Book of Saints and books on Stamp Collecting, Coarse Fishing and Cricket and Football. Unsurprisingly for 1970 they don’t seem to think that the Ladybird book of Knitting or the similar book of Sewing are of interest to Cub Scout boys!

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 – Helping at Home

January 6, 2020 by penny Leave a Comment

I feel like I say this rather a lot – but Ladybird Tuesday is back. Again. Let’s call it a new year and a new start eh and not talk about all the other false starts here on Penny Reads? I’m jumping straight in though with what is probably one of my favourite Ladybird books of all time – Helping at Home.

Now, most of my Ladybird books are picked up in charity shops or at car boot sales, but sometimes there’s one that I’m so keen to get my hands on that I’ll actually go searching for it on that well known internet auction site – and that’s exactly what happened with Helping at Home.

Originally published in the Learning to Read series (series 563) Helping at Home has a special vintage magic to it simply because it provides such a lovely insight into family life in the early 1960s.

Being completely fascinated in the 1950s in particular (and Helping at Home just being published in 1961) I found myself staring for ages at all the illustrations in this book, trying to take in all the minute detail of their homes. For anyone who has started watching the latest series of Call the Midwife, you’ll know that it is now up to the mid 1960s (Churchill’s funeral in the first episode of the new series was 1965) so it’s fascinating to compare what you see in the illustrations with how they have dressed the sets for the programme.

In Helping at Home, the accompanying text explains all the things that the children are helping their parents to do around the house and garden. As with the Ladybird Keyword Reading Scheme books the text tries to feature repeated words and also works in conjunction with the pictures to help children work out what all the words are.

What I think I’m somewhat in awe of is just how much these children do around the house to help their parents. Maybe I just need to try harder with my elder two, or make housework into more of a game or fun activity for them. At the moment housework and jobs like these featured end up being things I have to do when I either get a moment’s peace, or once they’ve gone to bed!

As with so many Ladybird books from this period, the male-female role split is very clear. All the jobs at home like making the bed, dusting, cooking, washing up are done my mummy, whilst outside jobs like mending the fence and digging potatoes become daddy’s role. Even shoe cleaning is led by Daddy, pipe in mouth. A role which I can always remember being my father’s when I was a child, yet something that I did for my kids just this evening before their return to school tomorrow. It’s definitely the case that things would be much more mixed up if this book were to be written today!

This era of Ladybird books really had to be my favourite and Helping at Home is a perfect example of “Ladybird Land” at its finest. I know so much has moved on since then, especially in terms of equality, but there’s still part of me that I would love to be able to go and live in Ladybird Land, even if only for a day or two. Please tell me I’m not the only one!

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 – 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!

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.

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