There are some Ladybird books that I keep looking out for. Titles that I really wish I'd had as a child and dream of owning now. It's rare that I find them when searching the shelves in charity shops, but sometimes you do get lucky and today was one of those lucky days. Series 634's Learnabout... Knitting is probably up there with Learnabout... Sewing as two of the books i most want to own in the whole Ladybird back catalogue and I was so pleased to find a copy of it on the shelves of my local charity shop for just 33p! If you're new to knitting this really is the perfect ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: Some Great Men and Women
When choosing a book to cover each week here on Ladybird Tuesday I often find myself realising just how little I really know and this week is yet another example of that. Some Great Men and Women is actually part of the Ladybird Key Words East Readers series (641) and contains a series of double page spreads on various men and women from history. Some of them were inventors, others adventurers and some military personnel. They certainly all have a place in history and I do recall learning about many of them at junior school. However, there are some people featured in this book that I have to ... read more
Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn
The speed at which I get through books has decreased so much since I had Master C. Being exhausted, combined with no longer having pregnancy insomnia means that my "to be read pile" is growing faster than I can read and writing up what I've read on here is also no where near as fast as it used to be. It's therefore quite telling that I've only just finished Mummy Barrow's Book Club book for February - Gone Girl. Well, at least I managed it before we got into May! I've always loved a good bit of crime fiction and that's exactly what this is. What was slightly ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: Indoor Gardening
Yes, I know it's Thursday, but sometimes you just have one of those weeks. Better late than never and all that... So let's talk about Indoor Gardening. Doesn't the title alone just age this book? Does anyone even talk about indoor gardening any more? I see plenty of references in modern day to houseplants and possibly herbs in the kitchen, but not much more than that. Indoor Gardening appeared as part of Ladybird series 633 which was entitled Early Learning, but actually featured a number of crafts and hobbies. As a series it's one I'd really like to find more of, ... read more
Review and Competition – Red Ted Art: The Book
I know I'm not the only person who let out a small squeal of delight when I heard that there was going to be a book version of Red Ted Art. Maggy Woodley's popular children's craft blog, Red Ted Art, has won awards and for many parents it is the first place they go when they are looking for craft projects to do with their children. Maggy's projects have also appeared elsewhere, both online and in print, and for her readers it seemed natural that the next step would be a book and finally the waiting is over. The subtitle of Red Ted Art the book is Cute and Easy Crafts for ... read more
Princess Evie’s Ponies: Confetti the Magic Wedding Pony
Simon and Schuster have sent me several Princess Evie books to review in the past and I have to admit that as I've not really liked the look of them much before (too much pink for my liking) I've not sat down and read them properly with Little Miss C and not reviewed them on here. This week Confetti the Magic Wedding Pony arrived and Little Miss C pounced on it as soon as she saw it. It seems she's got a bit of a pony obsession that I hadn't even realised - sorry! In each of the books (eight in total now) Princess Evie goes off on an adventure with one of her magical ... read more
Ping and Pong Are Best Friends (mostly) – Tim Hopgood
Who can resist a couple of penguins called Ping and Pong? Not me that's for sure! Basically, Ping and Pong are friends, best friends, but whenever Ping tries his hand at something he finds that Pong can already do it, but a million times better. Haven't we all had a friend like that? The question though is whether or not it is worth losing friends over. I'm not going to spoil the ending, but I have to say that it's wonderful to see a children's book addressing both the good and bad things about friendships as it's something that is so important to children. Little Miss ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: The Story of Furniture
Sorry, but I admit this has to be one of the least inspiring book titles ever and I struggle to imagine many children rushing out to buy this with their hard-earned pocket money! The Story of Furniture is part of the Ladybird Achievements series (601) and sits rather strangely alongside The Stories of Radio, the Motor Car and Flight. Others in the series do include Churches and Cathedrals, Clothes and Costume and also Arms and Armour - slightly less thrilling than Exploring Space that's for sure! I'm amazed how much there is to say about furniture and this book covers everything from ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: We like to help
In the months that I've now been running Ladybird Tuesday here on Being Mrs C I've not touched much on the huge number of learning to read books that they published. The Keywords reading scheme (series 641) was vast and many, many children remember learning to read with these "Peter and Jane" books. I've not as yet tried to list all the books from the series that I have in my index, mainly because I have so many, but also as I'm trying to collect sets with each of the different cover styles - the ones that they were launched with and the later style which I remember ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: The Story of Radio
We're going all geeky and technical again today on Ladybird Tuesday with what was one of my first vintage Ladybird purchases: The Story of Radio, A Ladybird 'acheivements' book. The whole of series 601 was based around the "history of" various things, ranging from Railways, to Oil, to Plastics. First published 1968, the Story of Radio starts off by describing how communication over distances was done using semaphore before radio's invention. Range was obviously limited and even when telegraph and telephone cables were laid on the ocean beds these were expensive and ... read more