Have you noticed that Ladybirds books are cropping up as the nostalgia read? I keep seeing them in shops that are not books shops. I picked this up one up in a trendy gift shop. Though I do wonder what kind of person I'd need to be to be 'gifting' a silicone copy of a cassette tape that is actually a coin purse or a teabags that hang off the edge of the cup with an image of Karl Lagerfeld holding them in place. I have seen Ladybird books in a shop that specialises in selling handmade scrubbing brushes and those white enamel bowls and mugs with the dark blue edges, so that people can relive that utopian Albion that was the 1940s. Even my very good food market , with the best fresh fish, meat and vegetables and gorgeous cupcakes for miles around, has a stall that sells second hand Ladybird books. And just recently I spotted in our 'right-on' bookshop, that it is possible to buy brand new box sets of Ladybird books. There is obviously a growing desire to be around the ordered 'sunshiny world' of Peter and Jane.
Along with 70% of the adult population of the UK, I learned to read from these books. Peter and Jane and their dog called, Pat were some of the earliest fictional characters that I encountered. In fact I think that the reason that I use the end diminutive of my given name - Patricia, rather than the more usual early part, is because of that particular dog. I did not want to be Pat. In my primary school we went through the reading scheme pretty methodically, taking it turns to read in pairs to one another, while one member of the class was reading to the teacher. It worked, we became confident readers.
The original reading series was launched in 1964, and is based on the theory that young children only needed a starting foundation of 100 words in order to become fluent readers. It was called the 'look and say' method, by recognising and remembering the simple 'keywords', while new words were introduced and repeated overtime. As you progressed from 1a through the 36 books, grouped into a, b and c, the sentences became more complex as Peter and Jane carried out a range of stereotypical middle class activities with their parents. Peter doing masculine man-making activities with his father, while Jane carried out would today be called domestic goddess functions in the home with her mother. Even as a sheltered five-year old, with both parents working full-time, I understood the world of Peter and Jane to be pure fiction.
The original preface for teachers and parents stated: "The full-colour illustrations have been designed to create a desirable attitude towards learning – by making every child eager to read each title. Thus, this attractive reading scheme embraces not only the latest findings in word frequency, but also the natural interests and activities of happy children." Its difficult to disagree with that sentiment, and remember this in their mind, was a pre-multicultural time.
The Ladybird business model was that schools would buy the series of books in batches and classes would work through them systematically as the children progressed through the school. They were printed in a way that kept paper wastage to an absolute minimum and for decades the price in old (pre-decimal) money, two shillings and sixpence (2'6d), was actually printed on the front cover.
Discussing the books with a friend who is 10 years younger than me and grew up in the north of England, he explained that his school could not afford all the books, and so it was dispiriting to see the less able with a higher number Ladybird book just because there were not enough to go round. I don't remember this being the case at my school, but I do remember the ambition to progress through the numbers, it was less about the content, just the satisfying need to be on a higher number. Now, I wonder if that's why many UK adults prefer not to read for pleasure as they recall this early competitiveness.
I bought this book for two reasons, the first, is that I loved the title. It encapsulates what this blog is about. I'm pretty sure that I believed that books were exciting as a youngster and even more so now. The second, of course is the cover. What I wanted to know is going on here on the cover of 11c? This is a book for older primary school children - the 8-12 year olds. In it Peter and Jane are being encouraged to select books for themselves. We see them and a slightly older couple, Rita and Tim, going into a library, visiting bookshops and choosing books that they want to read and keep for their own pleasure. In doing so a whole adventurous world is opened up to them and so they get to learn a little about things from other parts of the world, though tellingly no mention is made of the people. So there is chocolate production in Ghana, coal and gas production, protecting the land from forest fires in Australia.The book ends with a section on how paper is produced and how books are made.
In this cover image, they are finding out about nature, it's supposed to be the South Sea Islands, and Peter and Jane, learn that apparently the Islanders would drop a person into the water and in splashing around, he'd aggravate an octopus (also known to the Islanders as a devil fish - according to Ladybird 11c) and it would wrap its tentacles around the torso, while the other person pulled him and the octopus out of the water. Yes, that is right, this Ladybird book is saying that they are octopus fishing. Well, I have had this book a few months now, and periodically I'd Google variations of 'octopus fishing in the South Seas' or analyse the fish techniques section of Wikipedia, and try as I might I cannot find any evidence that this is how octopus fishing was ever done in the South Seas. I am pretty sure that if I'd read this at school, I would have remembered it. I am glad I never did, I would feel awful now to think that as an impressionable youngster I might have actually believed this story.
While the Ladybird learn to read scheme is no longer as popular as it once was in UK schools, it is still available and people do still have great memories of the books, which is why they are popping up in the wide selection of shops that I mentioned at the start of this story. I actually won a set of of them as a merit/most improved award in my junior school and I loved the history ones - Richard the Lionheart, David Livingstone and William the Conqueror and they inspired a love of history. However, I'd not be giving any of those titles as presents to anyone now - they'd not bear scrutiny on so many fronts, I do still love my well battered copies, though. So this is not a knocking piece of the Ladybird series, I am just not quite so nostalgic about them as many others appear to be. By the way they no longer have this cover on the current edition of 11c. Books are still exciting though!
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