Figure 1.--This was the Ladybird book on "The Story of Clothes and Costume". The book very nicely summarized major trends in fashion so that young children could understand. It was part of the achievements series.
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Figure 1.--This was the Ladybird book on "The Story of Clothes and Costume". The book very nicely summarized major trends in fashion so that young children could understand. It was part of the achievements series. |
The best known series was the Ladybug books, comparable to the Little Golden Book series in America. In England from the 1950s onwards a series of children’s books appeared in the bookshops. The series was published under the title of Ladybird Books. They
were written for boys and girls. They were slim books and easy to carry because they could fit in the blazer pockets. The books were well produced. They had about 50 pages.
The text was uncomplicated but well written and factual. The printing was on good quality paper. All the books had full page, attractive colour illustrations on every other page. They were widely available and could be bought in almost every type of shop. The books were good value for money because they were inexpensive.
The best known series was the Ladybird books, comparable to the Little Golden Book series in America.
In England from the 1950s onwards a series of children’s books appeared in the bookshops. The series was published under the title of Ladybug Books.
They were written for boys and girls. There not only were many different subjects, but editions written at a variety of reading levels. It was common practice in my home to be given a small amount of pocket money on a Friday evening. This amounted to a shilling and was supplemented by money making schemes. These included running errands for
family and neighbours, doing odd jobs like digging gardens and returning pop bottles to the shop for the deposit. Over the weekend the money was used up. One item I could afford was a Ladybird book. The title I bought was one I had seen on previous visits to the
shops. Birthdays and Christmas were other occasions when you might be given a Ladybird book as a present. Some times my aunties and uncles would buy me a Ladybird book as a treat.
They were slim books and easy to carry because they could fit in the blazer pockets. The books were well produced. They had about 50 pages. The printing was on good quality paper. All the books had full page, attractive colour illustrations on every other page.
The text was uncomplicated but well written and factual. It was in large letters reflecting the presentation for younger readers.
One of the most appealing aspects of the Ladybug books is of course the wondeful illustrations. We still have limited information on the illustrators. There were several, but a few illustrators worked on a large number of the different titles. One interesting aspect of the Ladybug books is that because they were published over several decades, that the editors decided to update the illustrations over time. This was especially true of the various reading scheme books which sought to depict the every day life of the children actually learning to read. As a result, some of the updated illustrations provide interesting examples of changing fashion trends.
The subject of the books covered many area of general knowledge. History, nature and science were the main topical categories which the books covered. The books
were continually reviewed. New titles were added and others were deleted.
Muriel Goaman wrote the book called ‘Through the Ages
– Transport.’ It was illustrated by Frank Hampson..
The book covers the history of transport from the
coracle to Concorde. The books often referred the
reader to other, similar Ladybird titles. The book was
published in 1970. The retail price of the book then
was 24p.
‘Great Civilisations Egypt’ is 1 of 45 titles dealing
with historical societies and famous people. The
deputy Keeper of the Department of Archaeology at
Birmingham City museum assisted the publishers in the
books preparation. It was written by E.J. Shaw and was
illustrated by Jorge Nunez. The book was published in
1973.
There were also books about the history of sport. The
Story of Cricket is a very informative story about the
development of this game. It is a colourful and
illuminating story about how this English game
developed. A few pages show children playing cricket.
Children can be seen being coached in the game wearing
white cricket wear, caps white shorts or long trousers
and a sleeveless white jersey.
Ladybird Books also produced a reading scheme. It was
highly praised in the 1950’s because the books were
available from many outlets. Parents who wanted to
help in the teaching of reading to their children had
easy access to an excellent reading resource.
It was written by an headmaster called W. Murry. He
said, ‘The full colour illustrations have been
designed to create a desirable attitude towards
learning… this attractive reading scheme embraces …the
natural interests and activities of happy children.”
It was one of the first reading schemes which was
about the everyday life of primary school children.
The characters were a boy and girl called Peter and
Jane. They were about 9 and 10 years old. The family
had a pet dog called Pat.
They were happy children, leading a care free life.
Peter was Cub Scout but the only reference to this was
his cup scout cap featured in one of the early books.
They lived in a detached house which had a large
garden.
The children were dressed in a variety of contemporary
clothing. These were casual clothes such as jeans and
t- shirt worn by both Peter and Jane. Sometimes Jane
wore a dress. At the seaside Peter wore shorts and
Jane wore a colourful casual dress. Winter clothing
was never worn because the story took place in the
spring and summer months.
There is hardly a rainy day. The climate is always
dry, warm sunny.
They did ordinary every day activities such as going
shopping for their mum. They travelled on public
transport. Often they travelled alone but they went
further a field with their parents. Their dad had a
car and he some times took them to their state primary
school. In some books the children went to the seaside
but mostly the happenings were around their home town
somewhere in England. I always suspected that the town
was near a famous seaside town called Brighton. Some
of the seaside stories appear to have a pier similar
to the one at Brighton. The books often contained
pictures showing a display of Ladybird books.
Ladbird books were pimarily non-fiction books. We note thatt these days ‘Ladybird Books deal with abridged children’s classic stories such as The Railway Children, Treasure Island, and Black Beauty.
They were widely available and could be bought in almost every type of shop. The books were good value for money because they were inexpensive. The books were displayed on a rotating stand. This was placed in front of the shop counter and these books were one of the few items which could be handled without asking the shop assistant for them. This was inviting to children who played with the display and as it rotated saw the books that could be bought. In this way you often saw a book you might wish to buy.
English children's books were widely circulated in the British Commonwealth and te Ladybug books were no exception. Often these books had prices written for Canada and Australia. These editions were identical to the British editions. Thy may have even been printed in Britain. The Ladybig books were some of the many British books distributed in this way. They were not, however, widely distributed in America. I'm not possitive why this was. Pehaps there wa a concern that younger children would be confused by th difference between American and British spellings. Some Ladybug books were translated into foreign languages. Here we do not have details in the foreign lanbguage editions. We do note that their were some translations in South Africa into Afrikaans. We do not know if there were any translations into African languages.
Ladybird was also well known for its clothing line. It was a line for younger children, both boys a girls, on the lower range of the price line. Some of their items are archived un the HBC catalog section, such as the Freemans 1974 catalog. I'm not sure which was the more important part of the business--the clothes or books. All of their items were sold with the lottle red ladybug to help identify the company.
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