Whoops - it appears to be Tuesday again, despite me spending the morning convinced it was Monday. And worst still, last week's Ladybird Tuesday appeared to go AWOL. Apologies. But, this is the last Ladybird Tuesday of the summer holidays here (noted by the torrential rain falling outside) so let's celebrate with a spot of Party Games from the Ladybird Learnabout series 634. And first thing's first - you can't have a party without party hats. Party Games was probably one of the last new titles in the Learnabout series that was published with a matt cover, coming quite late in ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: The Story of Saint Paul
There's nothing like a Ladybird book for making you realise just how little you know! That's certainly the case with the second of my finds from our Cornwall holiday - The story of Saint Paul. I was rather pleased with this find as it's my first book from their Religious series (series 522), but when I came to read it I soon discovered how much of my Religious Education from school I've either forgotten, or was never taught in the first place. Now St Paul was actually born around the same time as Jesus and as a child was called Saul. He was the son of two prominent Jews in the Mediterranean ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: The Story of Houses and Homes
So, away I came on holiday totally forgetting to schedule a Ladybird Tuesday post before I left, and also without a single Ladybird book to be able to blog whilst away. Luckily the Ladybird gods were looking after me though and thanks to the wonderful secondhand books shops that so so many National Trust properties have these days I'm now sat here with a selection of six new titles (none costing more than 60p and one from a series that I didn't previously have any books from!) to choose from. Seeing as I'm away from my home right now I'd decided to go with The Story of Houses and Homes from ... read more
Summer 2014: Day 8 – Mummy daughter day
I find it difficult sometimes ensuring that I still get one on one time with Little Miss C now that her brother's here, and especially since he naps less. I know that she misses that attention, and I've realised that some of her bad behaviour can stem from not having that time with me. During the school holidays I'm making a real point of making sure that we do something special together on the days when Master C is in nursery. This week we were busy getting ready for our holiday and trying to sort out laundry and packing, so I asked LMC what she would like to do for lunch. Her choice was to ... read more
Summer 2014: Day 6 – Birthday party, upcycling and vintage sewing patterns
As I feared, time is starting to run away from me somewhat and I'm already starting to wonder what it was we did a couple of days ago. After the excitement on Luton on Monday, Tuesday was intended as a bit of a quieter day at home, punctuated by a lunchtime birthday party for both children at the kind invitation of one of Little Miss C's school friends. The party was held in a Scout hut in a part of St Albans that I'm not at all familiar with (and hence I discovered a fantastic new playground next door too), and as we were still blessed with gorgeous hot weather here it was particularly ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: Lost at the Fair
We're jumping about a bit between the years here on Ladybird Tuesday as we're going from the 1980s last week to a book that was first published in the 1940s - 1948 to be precise (although this is a 1970s reprint I think). Lost at the Fair is part of the Animal Rhymes series (series 401) which was a set of lovely stories, all written in verse, making them perfect to be read out loud to young children. Lost at the Fair is the story of two little dormice whose mother is woken one morning by Mr Squirrel telling her that the fair has some to town. She wakes up her chidden and as soon as they ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: my day
I'm going through an 80s phase with Ladybird books at the moment. After ignoring all the glossy covered ones for years I'm suddenly finding some absolute gems in charity shops and in a big pile that a friend passed on recently. I thought I'd got my collecting habit nicely limited, but it seems maybe not. Series 833 was called Toddler Books and they're just perfect for Master C now that's heading towards his second birthday. Now I think there were seven books in this series, but I have to admit that I'm not totally sure. I originally picked up one of these for 20p when Master C showed an ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: The Frozen Planet of Azuron
Let's be totally honest about this post upfront. I'm no science fiction fan at all and this is actually the kind of book I normally avoid. But, it is a vintage Ladybird book so when I found it in a charity shop it came home with me and it's certainly part of Ladybird history. The Frozen Planet of Azuron was first published in 1982 as part of series 823. The series contained a total of 4 science fiction titles (The Energy Pirate, The Frozen Planet of Azuron, The Giants of Universal Park and The Planet of Death) and each book contains a short story. The Frozen Planet of Azuron was written ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: Talkabout going into hospital
When it comes to my Ladybird collection I tend to go for the older books with the matt covers as these are the ones that I remember most clearly from my own childhood. These matt covered seemed to be produced until some time in the 1980s when they instead moved over to the glossy covers that are most commonly found in charity shops today. In an ideal world I'd collect both, but it's fair to say that Mr C already thinks that our house is overrun with books and I don't really fancy divorce right now. Too busy with a million and one other things for a start. Some glossy covered books do sneak ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: Snow-White and Rose-Red
When you ask people which Ladybird books they remember best from their own childhood so many people recall the Well-Loved Tales series and being read the books as bedtime stories on many occasions. Strangely I don't actually remember many of them at all from my own childhood, yet I'm pretty sure I can't have avoided them all completely. So many people know the story of Snow-White from the Disney film, yet the story of Snow-White and Rose-Red was completely new to me when I found this book from the Well-Loved Tales series (606D) in a local charity shop. It's rather a strange story if the ... read more