When you look at some of the old Ladybird series they just don't quite make sense. Series 682 was originally released to show children about domesticated animals, but as the series title suggests it ended up with only two titles, Dogs and Horses. Why it was not extended I have no idea. This book starts off by pointing out the vital role that horses played in life before other forms of transported were invented - one that many children may not think of. Starting with the basic anatomy of the horse, how they have evolved over time, along with their role, is described. Mr C has always ... read more

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

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

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

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

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

Whilst this is not one of the oldest of the Ladybird books in my collection is it one of my faviourites purely based on the subject: Brownie Guides. The uniform on the cover is exactly the one that I wore when a Brownie in the 1980s. The book was actually first published in 1978, but it seems that not much had chanegd by the time I joined. The book covers everything from how the Brownie Guides were created as a youth section of the Girl Guides and how they fitted in with the already formed Scout movement through to Brownie Guides around the world. The structure of the Guiding movement is ... read more

I'm going for a full on geek-out with this week's Ladybird Tuesday and a book that I'm pretty sure even Professor Brian Cox would approve of - 'How it works' The Rocket.  The 'How it works' series (series 654 in case you're wondering) was the perfect series for any little budding engineers. It basically explained exactly how objects worked and covered everything from the household television through to Farm Machinery. There's plenty of detail, but all written in a simple style so that children could easily follow it. Now, bearing in mind that I did ... read more