Ladybird Books

[Juliatoo]

I remember the Peter and Jane books, and being made to read them to my Mum.

Peter did exciting things with Dad, and Jane stayed home to bake with Mum,,,, Times have changed for the better!

Julia

[Blue Jeans]

Re: Ladybird books,

I remember them from my school days, they were beautifully illustrated. Many years later, I bought a large collecton of them from a jumble sale, I still have them.
I have copies of the original Peter and Jane books and some that were reprinted years later. A sign of the times, was that certain items in a toy shop window, were erased in the reprinted editions. If it is allowed, I will post examples of them.

[George 1978]

Re: Ladybird Books

I had quite a few Ladybird books when I was younger - I got a lot of them from school jumble sales and the like.

I remember having some of the Read it Yourself range, and the Telling the Time book, telling us what people do between 8.00 am and 8.00 pm, but overlooking 9.00 pm to 7.00 am for some reason. There was the Talkabout series, and I had the Shopping and Starting School books.

The Garden Gang stories that nine year old Jayne Fsher wrote and coloured in - wonder what happened to her? Cue a lot of felt-tipped illustrations of cartoon fruit and vegetable caricatures, probably trying to make readers feel as they are committing cannibalism if they eat fruit or veg. One of the characters was called Casper Carrot which sounds to me as being too similar to Jasper Carrott!

Re: Ladybird Books

they're great moogleymog.

[moogleymog]

Re: Ladybird Books

Some from my collection.

[darren]

Re: Ladybird Books

AND THE OTHER 2 IN THIS 4 SCI FI ONES FROM 82.

MUST ADMIT THEY SOUND GOOD FROM MALCOLM AND SHELDON REVIEW.
AND I LOVE SCI FI.

NICE ARTWORK TOO,

[darren]

Re: Ladybird Books

My favourite Ladybird books were the four science fiction ones released in 1982 and written by Fred and Geoff Hoyle - and yes, that's the same Fred Hoyle as the famous astronomer.

They were truly strange - hence why I enjoyed them so much. All the stories centred around a boy called William and his friends Professor Gamma and his daughter, whose name was something like 'Kyril' (can't quite remember it, tbh). Professor Gamma was a Dr Who like figure who smoked an enormous pipe which was both a raygun and a communication device which allowed him to contact these space robots who could facilitate travel around the universe along these energy pathways. There were always hints in these stories that Gamma and his daughter weren't entirely human - one that particularly sticks in the mind was when Gamma moved around, his back sometimes made strange snapping sounds. In any case, the stories were quite amazingly trippy:

The Energy Pirate - All of earth's sugar gets harvested by an alien energy pirate named Zuchario, and William, Gamma & Kyril have to put a stop to his fiendish plans. Zuchario and his cohorts appear as giant flying hats - yes, really!

The Giants of Universal Park - During an eclipse, the sun gets stolen by an alien raider called Lighto. When William and pals investigate, they discover that it's been nicked to use as a floodlight in a sort of alien football game between one team of giants who can shapeshift into things like giant football boots, and another team of midgets - who all have tam o'shanters and mutton-chop whiskers - who sort of jump up and explode in order to move and split this light beam...thingy. I know...this one's really weird.

The Planet of Death - Earth is being ravaged by a super virus. Professor Gamma suspects it's the work of a villainous former schoolfriend called Viro (there's definitely a theme to the names of these baddies, ain't there), who curates a planet of diseases - the titular Planet of Death. This is a more straightforward (read: relatively less trippy) adventure, save for the appearance of Viro itself (in this tale, Gamma took great pains to assure William that Viro was most certainly an 'it', as opposed to a 'he' or 'she'): a thoroughly Lovecraftian composite of black glistening sludge upon which roamed glowing pink balls, each of which bore what appeared to be two glowing yellow eyes.

The Frozen Planet of Azuron - My favourite of the bunch. Earth is in the grip of a worldwide super-winter. Gamma suspects it's the world of an intergalactic rogue called Absolute Zero - or 'Abe' for short. Unfortunately, before they can all go off to sort Abe out, Gamma's house is attacked by a huge ice-hound with hypodermic syringes for teeth (yes, really!) which bites Kyril and freezes her as a result. Then along comes Abe, carrying a large carpet bag which contains a pocket universe - into which he imprisons Kyril. Gamma laters returns, and he and William set off to rescue Kyril and save the Earth from a frozen death. It has to be said, the artwork in this one in particular (the same artist worked on all the books in this series) is incredible: both fantastical and haunting at the same time, as illustrated by such scenes as Gamma's house alone in a vast, icy plain, and another scene where a Abe, as a tiny, distant silhouette, can be seen approaching, carpet bag in hand, along a starlit, wintry landscape.

So as I said - extremely strange. But pretty bloody brilliant with it. What I liked so much about this series was the funny, surreal little details that somehow stuck in the mind. I already mentioned the thing about the professor's back snapping. The one, however, which fascinated me the most was a small detail about Gamma's house - a gabrelled cottage called 'Witz End', set in an overgrown wood: whenever William visited it, he could never quite remember how he got inside or how he exited the place. He always told himself that he would definitely make sure to remember next time - yet he never could.

Bizarre.

Just what the hell was Fred smoking?

[darren]

Re: Ladybird Books

[MalcolmAndSheldon]

Re: Ladybird Books

My favourite Ladybird books were the four science fiction ones released in 1982 and written by Fred and Geoff Hoyle - and yes, that's the same Fred Hoyle as the famous astronomer.

They were truly strange - hence why I enjoyed them so much. All the stories centred around a boy called William and his friends Professor Gamma and his daughter, whose name was something like 'Kyril' (can't quite remember it, tbh). Professor Gamma was a Dr Who like figure who smoked an enormous pipe which was both a raygun and a communication device which allowed him to contact these space robots who could facilitate travel around the universe along these energy pathways. There were always hints in these stories that Gamma and his daughter weren't entirely human - one that particularly sticks in the mind was when Gamma moved around, his back sometimes made strange snapping sounds. In any case, the stories were quite amazingly trippy:

The Energy Pirate - All of earth's sugar gets harvested by an alien energy pirate named Zuchario, and William, Gamma & Kyril have to put a stop to his fiendish plans. Zuchario and his cohorts appear as giant flying hats - yes, really!

The Giants of Universal Park - During an eclipse, the sun gets stolen by an alien raider called Lighto. When William and pals investigate, they discover that it's been nicked to use as a floodlight in a sort of alien football game between one team of giants who can shapeshift into things like giant football boots, and another team of midgets - who all have tam o'shanters and mutton-chop whiskers - who sort of jump up and explode in order to move and split this light beam...thingy. I know...this one's really weird.

The Planet of Death - Earth is being ravaged by a super virus. Professor Gamma suspects it's the work of a villainous former schoolfriend called Viro (there's definitely a theme to the names of these baddies, ain't there), who curates a planet of diseases - the titular Planet of Death. This is a more straightforward (read: relatively less trippy) adventure, save for the appearance of Viro itself (in this tale, Gamma took great pains to assure William that Viro was most certainly an 'it', as opposed to a 'he' or 'she'): a thoroughly Lovecraftian composite of black glistening sludge upon which roamed glowing pink balls, each of which bore what appeared to be two glowing yellow eyes.

The Frozen Planet of Azuron - My favourite of the bunch. Earth is in the grip of a worldwide super-winter. Gamma suspects it's the world of an intergalactic rogue called Absolute Zero - or 'Abe' for short. Unfortunately, before they can all go off to sort Abe out, Gamma's house is attacked by a huge ice-hound with hypodermic syringes for teeth (yes, really!) which bites Kyril and freezes her as a result. Then along comes Abe, carrying a large carpet bag which contains a pocket universe - into which he imprisons Kyril. Gamma laters returns, and he and William set off to rescue Kyril and save the Earth from a frozen death. It has to be said, the artwork in this one in particular (the same artist worked on all the books in this series) is incredible: both fantastical and haunting at the same time, as illustrated by such scenes as Gamma's house alone in a vast, icy plain, and another scene where a Abe, as a tiny, distant silhouette, can be seen approaching, carpet bag in hand, along a starlit, wintry landscape.

So as I said - extremely strange. But pretty bloody brilliant with it. What I liked so much about this series was the funny, surreal little details that somehow stuck in the mind. I already mentioned the thing about the professor's back snapping. The one, however, which fascinated me the most was a small detail about Gamma's house - a gabrelled cottage called 'Witz End', set in an overgrown wood: whenever William visited it, he could never quite remember how he got inside or how he exited the place. He always told himself that he would definitely make sure to remember next time - yet he never could.

Bizarre.

Just what the hell was Fred smoking?

[lemonlime]

Re: Ladybird Books

We had some in the 1970s.

The Carnival
Undersea Exploration
The Three Little Pigs
On The Railways



Undersea Exploration had quite a few scary pictures, to a child anyway.

Hey kids, being an undersea robot suit operator is fun! Our people are always happy and smiling!






This picture below captured my imagination. Of course underwater you wouldn't be able to see a ship with such clarity, but I'll grant them some artisitic licence...



Lost them years ago when moving house, but thanks to a little site called ebay I now have them again. And all for the sake of nostalgia.

Unfortunately when I read the text again I had a nagging suspicion that a bit of innuendo was slipped in on occasion. hey my mind isn't really that dirty, but still.

[staffslad]

Re: Ladybird Books

I agree about the artwork. It was always of a very high standard in the volumes that I read.

[darren]

Re: Ladybird Books

These are wonderful.

The artwork on these is just incredible nothing has changed there over the yrs.

a few that i have from when i was a kid.

Re: Ladybird Books

a few that i have from when i was a kid.

[staffslad]

Re: Ladybird Books

It was the Ladybird educational books that kickstarted my interest in history. Our junior school library had a fair few titles and I got some as birthday/Christmas presents. Henry V, Nelson, Warwick the King-Maker and many more great books.

[amethyst]

Re: Ladybird Books

i remember a few yrs ago going into a charity shop and they had tons of them must have been at least 60 or 70 of them.
Some pretty old some in good condition some in bad nick some wrote all over.

Many a time I have seen them in a row on the shelf in a charity shop