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Ladybird Tuesday – Exploring Space

April 6, 2021 by penny Leave a Comment

As I stood infront of my Ladybird collection this morning trying to decide what to write about today I paused for a moment to think about which of my Ladybird books has been most relevant lately based on what we’ve been up to and what we’ve been watching and reading elsewhere. It’s hard when we haven’t really been anywhere, but also because much of what I’ve been reading and watching has been set post-Ladybird. Modern dystopian fiction, a book about the “nanny state” (more about that excellent book by Stuart Maconie later) and also America during the Vietnam War (The Trial of the Chicago 7 – an excellent film that’s well worth watching and available over on Netflix). There was one film that we enjoyed with the kids though that did fit in perfectly with one Ladybird title: Hidden Figures.

Now, if you haven’t seen the film Hidden Figures then I urge you to do so. It beautifully tells the story of three of the black women who worked for NASA in the 1960s and their key roles in the race for space. As well as helping to educate the kids about the roles America and Russia had in exploring space, it also shows what it was like for black women in a mainly male white work environment in a segregated American state. It had both kids (now aged 8 and 10) asking questions about segregation, why it happened, how it was overthrown and racism today.

Ladybird certainly didn’t publish any books about racial segregation, their Achievements series (series 601) did include a title about Exploring Space. Published in 1964 this book includes mention of John Glenn who we saw in Hidden Figures, as well as mention of the Russians launching the first earth satellite in 1957.

Exploring Space concentrates much more on the technology behind man’s attempts to explore space than the politics and the “race” between the two countries. It was also of course written before man went to the moon, and that omission really makes it feel very of its time as we look back at it. The book talks about why man would like to visit the moon, and what it might be like, but of course this was all based on theories at the time.

With so much more known about space now, it is almost strange to think back to when we knew so little. When everyone would have to go round a neighbour’s house to gather round their TV (or one in a shop window) to follow launches and NASA’s progress. Now there are YouTube live feeds of pretty much everything, in amazing quality and with multiple camera angles. It’s lovely though to be able to show the kids what it was like and what we did know and understand at the time. If we were still home schooling you could say that Exploring Space would have hit perfectly together with Hidden Figures as part of a science lesson about the race for space.

Exploring Space was first published in 1964 as part of Series 601, the Achievements Series. It was written by Roy Worvill MSc with illustrations by B. Knight.

About Ladybird Tuesday

Ladybird Tuesday is a regular feature here on Penny Reads, where I delve into my Ladybird book collection and choose a title to share with my readers. The weekly series originally started on my old blog, Being Mrs C, and this post originally appeared on there. I’m now in the process of moving all those posts over to Penny Reads and also adding titles that I have acquired since then. A list is currently being compiled here of all the titles I have in my collection.

Ladybird Tuesday – How it works… The Computer

March 9, 2021 by penny Leave a Comment

Trying to keep up with Ladybird Tuesday whilst homeschooling defeated me. Quite simply not enough hours in the day. My eldest two were waved off back through the school gates with a big smile yesterday morning though, so today I’ve finally had time to breathe again and spend some time looking through my Ladybird collection.

The most appropriate book to write about this week would probably have been Going to School, from Series 563. If only I’d had it in my collection.

Instead I’ve gone for a title that is wildly out of date, but one that covers what we’ve all been depending on for the last few months of homeschooling – The Computer.

Part of the How it works series (series 654) The Computer was originally published in 1971, but the version I have is actually dated 1979 inside. Whilst the book was written by David Carey, there is also a note inside my version stating that new material in this edition was prepared by James Blythe. Bearing in mind how many Ladybird books were previously changed in some way or reprinted without any further dates on them than the original copyright date it’s interesting to see this title treated differently.

So much of what is included seems historic now, but actually the book contains some excellent basics physics and also some information that I covered in my first year of a computer science degree course. Elements like shift registers, address systems, machine code and compilers are all basics that haven’t fundamentally changed, no matter how complex computers have since become.

The page on how magnetic tapes is perfect example of how the technology is no longer used at all, but it’s still one of those fundamental bits of physics that anyone working with computers should probably still learn about.

It’s almost comical to read the section talking about the different industries that computers are used in with no mention at all of education after millions of school children around the world have used it daily for their schooling for a large part of the last year. Also, the page that covers teleprocessing is as close as they got in 1979 to imagining how the Internet might be formed. Quite how we would have handled a global pandemic without the Internet is a sobering thought.

There’s a story that says that the Ministry of Defence ordered several hundred copies of The Computer to give to staff in the 1970s to help them understand this new technology. Apparently they were issued with all mentions of Ladybird removed so that staff weren’t upset about the idea of being given a children’s book to learn from. As far as I know, no versions have ever been seen. Does that mean it didn’t exist? Or maybe it’s sat in an MOD store somewhere?

About Ladybird Tuesday

Around the World in 80 Trains – Monisha Rajesh

February 22, 2021 by penny Leave a Comment

The idea of being able to dive into a book and so escape on a trip around the world by train sounds like my idea of heaven. Especially when we’ve been stuck at home for months and the furthest I’ve been since early December is the supermarket and to collect the kids from their Dad’s house. Monisha Rajesh’s story of her trip on 80 separate trains around the world is a lovely travel fix, but at the same time left me feeling strangely flat.

Around the World in 80 Trains - Monisha Rajesh. A photograph of the book cover.

The whole train twist on Around the World in 80 days is nice but I sadly had a gripe as soon as I opened this book. No where do you get a map showing the journey taken. How is that even possible???

The kids and I have been recently enjoying MG Leonard and Sam Sedgman’s Adventures on Trains series, and when they’ve spoken about the books and the wonderful work of their illustrator Elisa Paganelli one of the things that they focus on is the value of maps at the start of each book showing the train journey. The fact that Around the World in 80 Trains misses this out seems like a major omission. I spent quite a while whilst reading looking at my big world map on the wall and trying to plot the route on it myself.

I understand that Rajesh is a journalist by background and I have to say that some of the chapters in the book did feel quite journalistic in style. They contain fantastic information, and some lovely stories, but they didn’t absorb me in the way that some travel writing does. It just didn’t quite feel like I was always there with Monisha, and her now husband Jem, which is what I need right now during lockdown.

There is no doubt that the journey undertaken was fascinating, and there are certain parts of the book that have me wanting to find out so much more about where she went, the history (both ancient and modern) of some of the places, and also to find more travel writing about them. The 10 days that they spent on an organised train tour of North Korea make me want to do similar, but I’m also intrigued to learn more about Tibet and also Xinjiang and Kazakhstan. Any recommendations of follow on books gratefully received if you an leave them in the comments down below.

There were also parts of their journey that I wish more had been written about. I was hugely disappointed with their time in Russia. It was as if they didn’t really want to be there and hence hardly anything was written about Moscow in particular. One review I have read online (since finishing the book) talks about how it only really comes alive in the North Korea and Tibet chapters and I have to say that I totally agree. If there had only been the same level of detail about Russia and other places that they visited it would have been so much better. I was amazed that in some places she just wrote about how they got there and went straight to their hotel and watched a film on Netflix. I know the book was about train travel, but I just felt that saying nothing about some of their key destinations was wrong.

Around the World in 80 Trains was Rajesh’s second book after a first in which she travelled Around India in 80 Trains. With her family having previously moved from Sheffield to Madras for two years in hope of making India their home, I’m keen to learn not only about the trains of India, but also about how she describes the country and the experiences she has en route. I hope that the places she visited have the North Korea and Tibet levels of detail rather than that on Tokyo or Moscow!

Around the World in 80 Trains is available to buy online here.

Disclaimer: The links in this post are affiliate links and if you use them to buy anything I will receive a small commission whilst it will cost you no more than usual. Thank you for any purchases made. Your support is very much appreciated.

The Invisible – Tom Percival

January 31, 2021 by penny Leave a Comment

Children’s books can be some of the most powerful things that you read. Even as an adult. They give children access to other worlds. Worlds that they might never travel to outside their own imagination, and worlds that other children they know might already inhabit. Books can be a lifeline for so many children, and a way of learning so much more about what goes on in the world around them. They can also inspire alongside educating.

But not all children are fortunate enough to have access to books. Some children’s parents are struggling to put enough food on the table and to keep their children warm and fed. This was the case before Covid hit and sadly the situation has escalated further as adults have lost jobs or been furloughed by their employers.

The Children’s Society estimate that there are over 4 million children who live in poverty here in the UK. That’s a startling figure. Some attention may have been drawn to these children by the wonderful work done by footballer Marcus Rashford recently to ensure that all children entitled to a free school meal don’t go hungry whilst schools remain closed to most pupils and also during school holidays. Whilst these news headlines have made people think about the plight of some children, many more children and their families are left feeling invisible. Tom Percival’s wonderful new book The Invisible tells the story of one of these children – Isabel.

When they are no longer able to pay their bills, Isabel and her family have to leave the family home that they love and move across the city to somewhere completely new. When they do so Isabel starts to feel invisible; cold, sad and lonely. Then she starts to notice other invisible people around her. People who like her need help not to feel so invisible. So she stops to help, and doing so has amazing results.

The Invisible tells Isabel’s story beautifully – both through words and pictures. It shows that you can find beauty all around you if you look hard enough, and that you don’t necessarily need lots of material possessions to be happy. There are some lovely subtle messages in the illustrations where there are signs advertising to “buy stuff” and when you see these next to Isabel’s story it really makes you realise just how unnecessary some of that “stuff” is.

What Isabel wants is to not feel invisible and one key to doing that is by noticing everyone else around her, including those others who might feel invisible like her. Such an important thing for all children and adults to try to do.

The Invisible is published by Simon & Schuster and released on 4 February 2021. ISBN 978-1-4711-9130-5. Paperback £6.99. It is available to buy online here.

Disclaimer: We were sent a copy of The Invisible for the purposes of this review. All opinions remain my own. This post contains an affiliate link. If you follow this link and make a purchase I will receive a small commission. It will cost you no more than if you had visited the site independently. All purchases and subsequent commissions are very much appreciated. Thank you.

Three Things About Elsie – Joanna Cannon

January 11, 2021 by penny Leave a Comment

The last few weeks over Christmas haven’t quite turned out how I planned or hoped. Christmas Day saw me start with Covid symptoms and they in turn led to a positive test result and all of us having to isolate for nearly two weeks as first I and then Bonn had full blown Covid. I’m not a week out of isolation, but still not right again. It’s given me plenty of time for reading as although my body has needed sleep, it hasn’t always come easily. Instead I’ve found sanctuary in books in the early hours, even if my feverish mind hasn’t always managed to follow everything going on!

Three Things About Elsie is a book that I bought on a bit of a whim after seeing my dear friend Ruth talk about it on Instagram maybe a couple of years ago. Since then it’s sat in my growing to read pile until I picked up up over Christmas and started to lose myself in it.

Set in a retirement complex it was hard at times to not get a tad confused with The Thursday Murder Club which was the last book I read. I kept expecting some of the characters from that to turn up and try to make sense of what was going on. They’d probably have done a good job! I did warn you that my feverish mind didn’t always keep on top of what was happening.

What I did love about Three Things About Elsie was the characters that Joanna Cannon had created. I really liked Florence and found the writing style made me feel great empathy for what she was going through as the story progressed. It certainly makes you think hard about growing older and what it must be like for the millions of older people that have spent so much of the last year in isolation. There was also something about “Handy Simon” that I also found myself associating strongly with, I just can’t place my finger on what it is!

As for the story itself, there were a couple of times where I found myself making connections and almost jumping ahead of myself, but on the whole I really liked its slightly rambling nature and how the different lives came together. It was sort of relaxing, but at the same time had enough drama in it to keep me interested. I particularly enjoyed the section of the book set in Whitby. Possibly because it’s somewhere I know reasonably well and visited only a couple of years ago, meaning I was able to picture everything quite clearly as I read.

Joanna Cannon isn’t an author that I was really familiar with before Three Things About Elsie, but I’ll certainly keep my eyes open for more of her books. A gentle read, yet also one which helps you really feel for the characters in it. Exactly what my frazzled brain needed during some long sleepless nights.

Disclaimer: This book was bought with my own money. Links in this post may be affiliate links. If you buy anything via them it will cost you no more than if you arrived at Amazon on your own, but I will receive a small commission. Any purchases you make are greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Ladybird Tuesday – Christmas Customs

December 1, 2020 by penny Leave a Comment

I’m making a massive effort to get onto my 2021 resolutions early with a determination to get Ladybird Tuesday back on track. I’ve said that several times over the last few years, but life has that annoying habit of getting in the way. With a toddler who now occasionally lets me get my laptop out and doesn’t try to sit on it when I do, I’m a tad more hopeful that I was on previous attempts.

With today being the 1st of December I’m also determined to dig out some festive titles from my Ladybird collection. These might not be the oldest books in my collection, but they’re certainly appropriate for this time of year.

Christmas Series

I’m starting off with Christmas Customs, a title that was published in 1988 as part of Series 8818. This isn’t a series that I’m very familiar with, as it’s a little later than most of my collection, but a bit of research suggests that there were a total of six titles in the series. Looking at Nicole’s amazing master list of Ladybird books (here is you’re not familiar with it) it lists the following as being published between 1988 and 1991:

Christmas Customs
Christmas Songs
The Christmas Mouse
The Christmas Story
Toad’s Christmas Party
Well Loved Carols

Only three of these titles are listed on the series list on the back of my book – Christmas Customs, Christmas Songs and Well Loved Carols – and that seems to fit with those three being the first titles published in the series.

What is lovely about Christmas Customs is that the book actually goes somewhat further than the title suggests. As well as covering the Christmas Story and the Christian customs that many of us are familiar with, the book also looks back at the Saturnalia which was celebrated by the Romans who honoured Saturn. They were the first to decorate their homes with evergreens (to remind Saturn to send crops and plants for food the following spring) and this tradition continued to celebrate the birthday of Jesus. The book looks at why holly, ivy and mistletoe were chosen to be used to do this.

The influence of the Victorians

Christmas Trees came over to England from Germany with Prince Albert in 1846, and whilst I knew that I have to admit that I wasn’t totally familiar with the original story of Martin Luther’s tree.

Ladybird Christmas Customs Victorian Traditions

The Christmas Tree wasn’t the only Christmas Custom that was introduced in Victorian times. It was also when the first Christmas cards were sent, and the first Christmas Crackers pulled.

This morning my children opened the first door on their advent calendar, and I suppose it’s a bit disappointing that the book talks about these, but now where they came from. A quick search online suggests they were first used by German Lutherans in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Christmas around the world

Christmas Customs can vary from country to country and as well as introducing us to Santa Claus the book also talks about St Nicholas (or Sinterklaas as he is known in The Netherlands), Christkindl (Germany’s Christ Child) and Befana who delivers gifts to Italian children on 6 January each year.

For many people food traditions are an important part of their Christmas celebrations. But why do we eat mince pies, turkey and Christmas puddings? It’s worth reading to find out.

What’s in a name?

Many children wonder why Boxing Day is called what it is. Some think of people donning boxing gloves for the day, whilst others think about all the boxes that their gifts came in the day before. The real reason for the name comes from medieval times, when alms boxes were placed at the back door of every church to collect money for the poor. These boxes were always opened on 26th December and so that is why the day became known as Boxing Day.

I’ve actually learnt quite a few new facts from reading this book. I wasn’t aware before that the word pantomime means “all mime” and that the first pantomimes were acted out entirely through dancing and mime. They’ve become such a huge Christmas tradition that I know many of us will miss this year in particular.

It can be so easy to be caught up in the commercialism of Christmas, but even if you’re not religious yourself, it’s lovely to try to understand some of the Christmas customs, why we do them and when they originated. Christmas Customs is actually a perfect way to start filling in some of the gaps in my knowledge.