This week in Ladybird Tuesday, let’s go On the Farm!
At 19 months old, my youngest is now obviously destined to be a book worm. Since as soon as she was able to hold a book she loves looking at them, and now that her language is starting to develop words are coming thick and fast and she loves pointing at things in the pictures and saying what they are. Amazingly she has already mastered the art of making sure the book is the right way up – although she’s not yet as gentle as I’d like her to be with some titles. And let’s not mention the bite marks in a couple of her board books!
We’re at the stage though where I’m starting to brave letting her have paper books when reading with me. Strictly only board books when on her own though! This week I’ve started to introduce her to some of the titles from the Ladybird Toddler Books series from the 80s, and in particular, On the Farm.
The Ladybird Toddler books have featured on Ladybird Tuesday before. My Day made an appearance when Master C was approaching his second birthday, nearly 6 years ago.
These books were part of series 833, a series designed to educate and amuse little ones with things that they would find familiar. I’ve only ever managed to find three titles from the series (My Day, On the Farm, and On the Move) but I should make a real effort to find the others before Tube Stop Baby is too old to appreciate them. I think there were seven titles in total – so four more to try and find once the charity shops re-open. The missing ones from my collection are Puppies and Kittens, Going to Playgroup, Looking at Animals and Look at Me.
On the Farm takes a lovely look at all the different aspects on life on a farm. From the early mornings, through to the milk tanker arriving to collect the day’s milk, crops growing in the fields and the sheepdog rounding up the sheep. It’s more than so many farm books that only seem to feature farm animals and nothing further.
The illustrations (by Pat Oakley) are lovely in style in the way that they are realistic, but child friendly at the same time. Nothing too stylised and abstract. The text is relatively simple, with an average of four lines for each double page spread, and often includes a question prompt to encourage small fingers to point things out, or even count things in the pictures.
I know 80s Ladybird books aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I’ve developed a soft spot for this particular series. Maybe it’s because I see how much my children enjoy them? Whatever the reason, I’m definitely going to try to complete this series in my collection as soon as I can.
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.
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