Your favourite series, set, or themes in Ladybird books

Which are your favourite series, sets of books or themes in Ladybird children's books?

There is a set of 4 nature books by E .L. Grant Watson What to look for in spring, summer, autumn and winter that I have very fond memories of from the mid 60s.

Other favourites include an assortment of arts and music titles such as The Story of Music (History of the Arts) by George Brace.

I learned to read at home with Janet and John, a series I no longer have.

Do tell about your Ladybird collections...

Hi there, I don't have a Ladybird collection anymore. My mum gave it away to my younger cousin when I was about 13. I so wished she hadn't done so, I loved those books! They were bought between 1978 and 1982 so some must have been in the old 60s style. I fondly remember Mick the Disobedient Puppy! The Garden Gang series was my favourite though

Hmmm, that's a tough question! I guess my Ladybird nature books are my favorites, though I have an old one of flags and also one of church artifacts. In the nature line, I love Watson and Tunnicliffe's "What to Look for in Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter" series. I love observing nature. While I live in the US, we share a lot of nature with Britain. And since I read a lot of British novels, I enjoy reading about hedgerows and the like. I will mention one wonderful title though: Nature Takes Shape. I first discovered the idea of geometric shapes in nature through a Dover book, which I can't lay hands on at the moment. It introduced me on laymen's terms to the Fibonacci sequence and maybe to fractals, and this Ladybird one is along these lines, though simpler. I also love The Stars and Their Legends for its succinct stories of Orion and our other friends up in the sky. Scott's Pond Life has also been a favorite, since my inlaws bought a property in Northeast Connecticut with a beaver pond on it. I spent a couple of lovely nights once sleeping on a cot in the gazebo on the pond, safe from mosquitoes and enjoying the night sounds. My sister-in-law now owns that property.
A last word, not about Ladybirds, but related to the Watson and Tunnicliffe. Over the years I've had to develop a strategy for second-hand bookstores, rather than trying to look at everything. I now browse the childrens', the literature, and the nature sections, and in the last I look for lovely older (prewar) British nature books with illustrations, which are often by Tunnicliffe. I have three short shelves of nature books now, and several are treasures. I haven't yet tagged all my books on LT, but when that's done will be able to find things more easily. Thanks for starting this group, and very best wishes!
Hmm -- I see that using the brackets to creat Toustones is imperfect.

Inspired by seeing we are now three, I've been looking at some more of my Ladybirds, and have fallen in love again with the Ladybird book of London from 1961 series 618. If you imagine one of those black and white early 60s travelogue films with commentary written down that's it to a T - charming. Unfortunately the map on the inside front covers of mine has been disfigured by my homemade library date page and book card holder!

I loved the history ones, in particular the two volume set on Kings of England and Britain since Alfred the Great. When I read or think about any of these monarchs, I often have in my mind's eye the relevant Ladybird picture, where I can recall it.

I have picked up Ladybirds whenever possible, but only older ones - not the popular culture ones. Boring!
Some of my favorites (I have 48) include Alexander the Great, Naaman and the Little Maid, What to Look for Outside a Church, and The Story of Our Churches and Cathedrals. I also have Ballet, Pond Life, and Plants and How they Grow.

They're hard to come by, though. I hadn't thought of trying to collect an entire series, or of tagging them with their series information. Hmmm.

My most recent find is Brownie Guides by Nancy Scott. It looks like I have that entire series, #706, which is comprised of the books Cub Scouts, Scouts, and Brownie Guides.

>6 SaintSunniva: Alas, series #706 includes a fourth volume "Girl Guides" :(

>6 SaintSunniva:, 7 Thanks for letting me know about Girl Guides.

Someone started putting the series info on their Ladybirds...and not knowing that, (they were doing it very neatly) I started the same, with mine. Now I'm trying to decide if I should redo every one that I did, to match up with theirs.

Somehow they seem to have made a Series with a Sub-series, if that makes sense.

See The Story of Radio: A Ladybird 'achievements' book, to get an idea.

>8 SaintSunniva: Do you mean that the book is part of two series? If so, those series aren't directly related. This happens quite a bit - look at some of the Discworld books, for example.
If you scroll down the other person's series on the right you'll see that Thruston has been doing that work.
It would be a shame if you and Thruston both spent time on the same series. So it could be worth while getting in touch with him about this. Divide & Conquer and all that.

Well! I have done a LOT of most enjoyable work, following rabbit trails of authors, series names, etc. of the Ladybirds, and adding Common Knowledge for each one. Has anyone noticed yet? There are now 239 titles listed, under a number of different series:

http://www.librarything.com/series/Ladybird+Books

I was looking at this yesterday as a matter of fact.
I came across a stray Ladybird and had a look round one of the series and then this master list.
Good work!!

>3 janehyde: Nature Takes Shape sounds too good to be without. I've bought a copy but it'll take a while to get to me.

Nature Takes Shape arrived...with a nasty mold/mildew smell. Argh! I'll add it to my library, but won't be able to keep it with my other books.

(Does anyone know a simple treatment for the problem?)

In the hope of reviving this dormant group, I will say that I got rid of Nature Takes Shape, as I could not get the smell out of it. (>13 SaintSunniva:)

Now I'm culling my books a bit and getting rid of the Tasseltip stories, which don't appeal to me at all. And I thought of passing on or selling six Ladybird Fiction titles I have until I noticed again their beautiful endpapers!

No space is wasted in these elegant small books. Love that.

If you have a moment, look inside the cover of The Magic Paintbrush, a read it yourself reading level 5 Ladybird. Wow. A peacock fills both pages, and the purplish brown background is filled in with dozens of brightly colored butterflies.