Non Fiction

Ladybird Tuesday – Exploring Space

April 6, 2021 by penny Leave a Comment

As I stood infront of my Ladybird collection this morning trying to decide what to write about today I paused for a moment to think about which of my Ladybird books has been most relevant lately based on what we’ve been up to and what we’ve been watching and reading elsewhere. It’s hard when we haven’t really been anywhere, but also because much of what I’ve been reading and watching has been set post-Ladybird. Modern dystopian fiction, a book about the “nanny state” (more about that excellent book by Stuart Maconie later) and also America during the Vietnam War (The Trial of the Chicago 7 – an excellent film that’s well worth watching and available over on Netflix). There was one film that we enjoyed with the kids though that did fit in perfectly with one Ladybird title: Hidden Figures.

Now, if you haven’t seen the film Hidden Figures then I urge you to do so. It beautifully tells the story of three of the black women who worked for NASA in the 1960s and their key roles in the race for space. As well as helping to educate the kids about the roles America and Russia had in exploring space, it also shows what it was like for black women in a mainly male white work environment in a segregated American state. It had both kids (now aged 8 and 10) asking questions about segregation, why it happened, how it was overthrown and racism today.

Ladybird certainly didn’t publish any books about racial segregation, their Achievements series (series 601) did include a title about Exploring Space. Published in 1964 this book includes mention of John Glenn who we saw in Hidden Figures, as well as mention of the Russians launching the first earth satellite in 1957.

Exploring Space concentrates much more on the technology behind man’s attempts to explore space than the politics and the “race” between the two countries. It was also of course written before man went to the moon, and that omission really makes it feel very of its time as we look back at it. The book talks about why man would like to visit the moon, and what it might be like, but of course this was all based on theories at the time.

With so much more known about space now, it is almost strange to think back to when we knew so little. When everyone would have to go round a neighbour’s house to gather round their TV (or one in a shop window) to follow launches and NASA’s progress. Now there are YouTube live feeds of pretty much everything, in amazing quality and with multiple camera angles. It’s lovely though to be able to show the kids what it was like and what we did know and understand at the time. If we were still home schooling you could say that Exploring Space would have hit perfectly together with Hidden Figures as part of a science lesson about the race for space.

Exploring Space was first published in 1964 as part of Series 601, the Achievements Series. It was written by Roy Worvill MSc with illustrations by B. Knight.

About Ladybird Tuesday

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.

Around the World in 80 Trains – Monisha Rajesh

February 22, 2021 by penny Leave a Comment

The idea of being able to dive into a book and so escape on a trip around the world by train sounds like my idea of heaven. Especially when we’ve been stuck at home for months and the furthest I’ve been since early December is the supermarket and to collect the kids from their Dad’s house. Monisha Rajesh’s story of her trip on 80 separate trains around the world is a lovely travel fix, but at the same time left me feeling strangely flat.

Around the World in 80 Trains - Monisha Rajesh. A photograph of the book cover.

The whole train twist on Around the World in 80 days is nice but I sadly had a gripe as soon as I opened this book. No where do you get a map showing the journey taken. How is that even possible???

The kids and I have been recently enjoying MG Leonard and Sam Sedgman’s Adventures on Trains series, and when they’ve spoken about the books and the wonderful work of their illustrator Elisa Paganelli one of the things that they focus on is the value of maps at the start of each book showing the train journey. The fact that Around the World in 80 Trains misses this out seems like a major omission. I spent quite a while whilst reading looking at my big world map on the wall and trying to plot the route on it myself.

I understand that Rajesh is a journalist by background and I have to say that some of the chapters in the book did feel quite journalistic in style. They contain fantastic information, and some lovely stories, but they didn’t absorb me in the way that some travel writing does. It just didn’t quite feel like I was always there with Monisha, and her now husband Jem, which is what I need right now during lockdown.

There is no doubt that the journey undertaken was fascinating, and there are certain parts of the book that have me wanting to find out so much more about where she went, the history (both ancient and modern) of some of the places, and also to find more travel writing about them. The 10 days that they spent on an organised train tour of North Korea make me want to do similar, but I’m also intrigued to learn more about Tibet and also Xinjiang and Kazakhstan. Any recommendations of follow on books gratefully received if you an leave them in the comments down below.

There were also parts of their journey that I wish more had been written about. I was hugely disappointed with their time in Russia. It was as if they didn’t really want to be there and hence hardly anything was written about Moscow in particular. One review I have read online (since finishing the book) talks about how it only really comes alive in the North Korea and Tibet chapters and I have to say that I totally agree. If there had only been the same level of detail about Russia and other places that they visited it would have been so much better. I was amazed that in some places she just wrote about how they got there and went straight to their hotel and watched a film on Netflix. I know the book was about train travel, but I just felt that saying nothing about some of their key destinations was wrong.

Around the World in 80 Trains was Rajesh’s second book after a first in which she travelled Around India in 80 Trains. With her family having previously moved from Sheffield to Madras for two years in hope of making India their home, I’m keen to learn not only about the trains of India, but also about how she describes the country and the experiences she has en route. I hope that the places she visited have the North Korea and Tibet levels of detail rather than that on Tokyo or Moscow!

Around the World in 80 Trains is available to buy online here.

Disclaimer: The links in this post are affiliate links and if you use them to buy anything I will receive a small commission whilst it will cost you no more than usual. Thank you for any purchases made. Your support is very much appreciated.

Ladybird Tuesday – Christmas Customs

December 1, 2020 by penny Leave a Comment

I’m making a massive effort to get onto my 2021 resolutions early with a determination to get Ladybird Tuesday back on track. I’ve said that several times over the last few years, but life has that annoying habit of getting in the way. With a toddler who now occasionally lets me get my laptop out and doesn’t try to sit on it when I do, I’m a tad more hopeful that I was on previous attempts.

With today being the 1st of December I’m also determined to dig out some festive titles from my Ladybird collection. These might not be the oldest books in my collection, but they’re certainly appropriate for this time of year.

Christmas Series

I’m starting off with Christmas Customs, a title that was published in 1988 as part of Series 8818. This isn’t a series that I’m very familiar with, as it’s a little later than most of my collection, but a bit of research suggests that there were a total of six titles in the series. Looking at Nicole’s amazing master list of Ladybird books (here is you’re not familiar with it) it lists the following as being published between 1988 and 1991:

Christmas Customs
Christmas Songs
The Christmas Mouse
The Christmas Story
Toad’s Christmas Party
Well Loved Carols

Only three of these titles are listed on the series list on the back of my book – Christmas Customs, Christmas Songs and Well Loved Carols – and that seems to fit with those three being the first titles published in the series.

What is lovely about Christmas Customs is that the book actually goes somewhat further than the title suggests. As well as covering the Christmas Story and the Christian customs that many of us are familiar with, the book also looks back at the Saturnalia which was celebrated by the Romans who honoured Saturn. They were the first to decorate their homes with evergreens (to remind Saturn to send crops and plants for food the following spring) and this tradition continued to celebrate the birthday of Jesus. The book looks at why holly, ivy and mistletoe were chosen to be used to do this.

The influence of the Victorians

Christmas Trees came over to England from Germany with Prince Albert in 1846, and whilst I knew that I have to admit that I wasn’t totally familiar with the original story of Martin Luther’s tree.

Ladybird Christmas Customs Victorian Traditions

The Christmas Tree wasn’t the only Christmas Custom that was introduced in Victorian times. It was also when the first Christmas cards were sent, and the first Christmas Crackers pulled.

This morning my children opened the first door on their advent calendar, and I suppose it’s a bit disappointing that the book talks about these, but now where they came from. A quick search online suggests they were first used by German Lutherans in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Christmas around the world

Christmas Customs can vary from country to country and as well as introducing us to Santa Claus the book also talks about St Nicholas (or Sinterklaas as he is known in The Netherlands), Christkindl (Germany’s Christ Child) and Befana who delivers gifts to Italian children on 6 January each year.

For many people food traditions are an important part of their Christmas celebrations. But why do we eat mince pies, turkey and Christmas puddings? It’s worth reading to find out.

What’s in a name?

Many children wonder why Boxing Day is called what it is. Some think of people donning boxing gloves for the day, whilst others think about all the boxes that their gifts came in the day before. The real reason for the name comes from medieval times, when alms boxes were placed at the back door of every church to collect money for the poor. These boxes were always opened on 26th December and so that is why the day became known as Boxing Day.

I’ve actually learnt quite a few new facts from reading this book. I wasn’t aware before that the word pantomime means “all mime” and that the first pantomimes were acted out entirely through dancing and mime. They’ve become such a huge Christmas tradition that I know many of us will miss this year in particular.

It can be so easy to be caught up in the commercialism of Christmas, but even if you’re not religious yourself, it’s lovely to try to understand some of the Christmas customs, why we do them and when they originated. Christmas Customs is actually a perfect way to start filling in some of the gaps in my knowledge.

About Ladybird Tuesday

AD: Chef Junior – 100 Super Delicious Recipes by Kids for Kids

August 18, 2020 by penny Leave a Comment

During lockdown there was a definite push to use that time at home with your kids wisely and try to teach them some of those lifeskill that you might not normally have time to work on. Many families used that time to cook together and I think it’s vital that we ensure that such skills aren’t forgotten when (or should that be if?) kids return to school. That’s where Chef Junior comes in.

100 Recipes

Containing 100 recipes that were all written by children aged 11 to 14, this is the perfect book to appeal to children who want to get busy in the kitchen, making the kind of food that they want to eat.

With the authors all hailing from North America, there is a definite American twist to many of the recipes, as well as standards like Mac ‘n’ Cheese and Burgers. Some of them may sound a little strange to us – Pizza Cauliflower soup has Little Miss C howling with laughter – but actually all of them look delicious in the accompanying photographs.

Recipes in the book are split as follows:

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Snacks
Dessert
Drinks

and each recipe is graded from Easy to Advanced so that you can see the skill level required to make it.

Background food and cooking tips

Before launching into the recipes the book has several introductory sections that cover things like Real Food, How to Use the Equipment in this Book, Using Knives Safely and How to Substitute Ingredients to Make Recipes Allergy-Friendly. Whilst the latter three sections make sense wherever in the world you are (possibly with a few names changed) the Real Food section is very North America specific. Rules around food labelling for instance are definitely different here in the UK and some of the advice given (for instance about using Price Look-Up Sticker codes to work out whether something is organic or not) simply doesn’t apply here.

When talking about organic food the book mentions about The Dirty Dozen and The Clean Fifteen as guides for fruit and veg that you should only ever buy organic as they are most likely to be contaminated with large amounts of pesticides, or ones that are most safe to eat when not organic. These aren’t terms I’ve ever come across in the UK before but a bit of research suggests that whilst they are US lists (and our farming methods are different) it is suggested that these fruit and veg are most susceptible to contamination regardless of the methods used.

Clear instructions and easy to follow recipes

The book as a whole features some really good clear instructions for children to follow. There are also extra useful hints like details on how to safely cut, peel, slice or scoop out an avocado. With the book being aimed at children it doesn’t assume loads of cookery knowledge or experience. That’s something I often find can be the stumbling block when you let a child loose with some adult cook books. I also like the really clear way that for each recipe it tells you both the active time and the total time for the recipe. It’s something that I think should be in all cook books.

I’m also pleased to report that the book contains some clear metric conversion charts at the back, which are necessary when you have American recipes measuring things in Cups. There’s also a short section on meal planning which after lockdown has to be one of my most detested jobs. Any book that can help children realise what there parents have been going through for all these years when it comes to meal planning is a wonderful thing.

So far we’ve only had time to try out the pizza recipe in the book, but it was a huge success and I for one am eyeing up the Cheeseburger Casserole and Banana Bread recipes. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Buying Chef Junior

Chef Junior is published in September 2020 by Sterling Epicure. Hardback RRP £16.99 ISBN 9781454933618 It can be purchased online *here.

Disclaimer: We were sent a copy of Chef Junior for the purposes of this review. All opinions remain my own. Any links marked * are affiliate links and if you make a purchase through them I receive a small commission whilst it costs you no more than if you’d gone to the site on your own. Thank you for any purchases you do make.

Coming to England – Floella Benjamin

June 27, 2020 by penny Leave a Comment

I’ve been meaning to write about Coming to England for ages, but the BBC showing again a film adaptation of it recently (currently still available on iPlayer here – but not for ever!) has prompted me into action.

The cover of Coming to England by Floella Benjamin

When I first spotted Coming to England on the shelves in a local bookshop I was initially drawn in because I’m such a huge fam of Floella Benjamin. As a child of the 80s she was one of the main faces of Children’s television, and ever since then she’s just been one of those constant people. A voice of comfort and common sense.

With the responses across the world to the killing of George Floyd, her story of coming to England as a child of the Windrush generation takes on additional significance in educating all of us.

Floella’s story

Floella was born in Trinidad and started her childhood there with her brothers and sisters and parents. that happy settled childhood was not to continue though. Her father soon started talking about going to England. A country she had learnt so much about at school. A country that so many West Indians were encouraged to move to to help rebuild the country after the Second World War.

Initially Floella’s father travelled over on his own, and then after nearly a year her mother went to join him. They did not have the money to take all six children with her, so four of the children stayed behind in Trinidad whilst the youngest two joined their mother on the voyage.

True to their promise Floella and her sister and two brothers were eventually brought over from Trinidad, but not after an uncomfortable period living with “relatives” who basically treated them as servants.

The two-week sea journey from the Caribbean to England was an experience in itself, but once they reached England the country, and their living condition were not as they expected. Nor were the attitudes of neighbours and other school children.

What is so clear in Coming to England, is Floella Benjamin’s amazing ability to talk to children. What she describes in heart-wrenching in parts, but she so expertly demonstrates what it was like to experience everything firsthand, as a child. The book somehow manages to combine being an important historical account, with also being an enjoyable read for a child.

Educational value of Coming to England

My (then) nine year old daughter read the book first and it enabled us to have some wonderful conversations about all the emotions that Floella would have experienced as a child, and how the reactions of other children made her feel. Having also read The Boy at the Back of the Class recently, it gave us a wonderful opportunity to compare the two books and the attitudes of some of the children in them, as well as that of the adults. To talk about where things had changed, and where things sadly hadn’t.

I hadn’t previously been aware of the film version of the book, but someone on Insta Stories happened to mention it last week and we all sat down to watch it together after school one day this week. It’s an excellent adaptation of the book, narrated by Floella herself, and for children who might not be ready for the book it’s an excellent way of getting the story over and initiating conversations about race with them.

Where to buy or watch Coming to England

Coming to England is available to buy online on Amazon *here or, if you prefer to shop independently via Hive here. If you are buying from Hive, I strongly recommend you sign up to *TopCashBack first as you can nearly always find cashback on there fore Hive.co.uk – at the time of writing a whopping 13.2% on books!

Coming to England the film version is currently on BBC iPlayer here.

Disclaimer: All links in this article marked * are affiliate or referral links. If you purchase something through them then I receive a small amount of commission, whilst it costs you no more than if you had arrived at the site on your own.

Ladybird Tuesday – Ladybird Toddler Books – On the Farm

June 16, 2020 by penny Leave a Comment

This week in Ladybird Tuesday, let’s go On the Farm!

At 19 months old, my youngest is now obviously destined to be a book worm. Since as soon as she was able to hold a book she loves looking at them, and now that her language is starting to develop words are coming thick and fast and she loves pointing at things in the pictures and saying what they are. Amazingly she has already mastered the art of making sure the book is the right way up – although she’s not yet as gentle as I’d like her to be with some titles. And let’s not mention the bite marks in a couple of her board books!

Ladybird Toddler Books On the Farm - photo shows teh front cover of the book featuring a sheep and two lambs

We’re at the stage though where I’m starting to brave letting her have paper books when reading with me. Strictly only board books when on her own though! This week I’ve started to introduce her to some of the titles from the Ladybird Toddler Books series from the 80s, and in particular, On the Farm.

The Ladybird Toddler books have featured on Ladybird Tuesday before. My Day made an appearance when Master C was approaching his second birthday, nearly 6 years ago.

These books were part of series 833, a series designed to educate and amuse little ones with things that they would find familiar. I’ve only ever managed to find three titles from the series (My Day, On the Farm, and On the Move) but I should make a real effort to find the others before Tube Stop Baby is too old to appreciate them. I think there were seven titles in total – so four more to try and find once the charity shops re-open. The missing ones from my collection are Puppies and Kittens, Going to Playgroup, Looking at Animals and Look at Me.

A page from Ladybird Toddler Books On the Farm showing a milk tanker filling up on a dairy farm

On the Farm takes a lovely look at all the different aspects on life on a farm. From the early mornings, through to the milk tanker arriving to collect the day’s milk, crops growing in the fields and the sheepdog rounding up the sheep. It’s more than so many farm books that only seem to feature farm animals and nothing further.

The illustrations (by Pat Oakley) are lovely in style in the way that they are realistic, but child friendly at the same time. Nothing too stylised and abstract. The text is relatively simple, with an average of four lines for each double page spread, and often includes a question prompt to encourage small fingers to point things out, or even count things in the pictures.

A double page from the Ladybird Toddler Book On the Farm featuring a pig sty full of a pig and her piglets

I know 80s Ladybird books aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I’ve developed a soft spot for this particular series. Maybe it’s because I see how much my children enjoy them? Whatever the reason, I’m definitely going to try to complete this series in my collection as soon as I can.