What are Ladybird books?
Ladybird books are a publishing company based in London. They are part of the parent company Penguin Group, publishing children’s books. Ladybird books have been published for over 150 years. They were founded in Loughborough, Leicestershire by Henry Wills.
Ladybird Books In Schools – Reading
In 1964 the company had produced a series of books called Key Words Reading Scheme. These books were used to aid the teaching of reading to Primary school children during the 1960’s and 1970’s. In the series there were 36 books based on stereotypical British family life. Peter and Jane were two well behaved children. Mum stayed at home to look after the children and the house. Dad would go to work. The criteria in these books were to use visual representation and reduced vocabulary to guide children with the understanding of reading the English language.
Ladybird Books In Schools – Maths
In addition to the Key Word Reading Scheme books, Ladybird published books to assist with Maths. These books were a kind of text book, to help children understand mathematic terminology. The series of books provided basic maths. Whether for the pre-school child learning to count or the older child learning their times tables, these books were the staple of the primary school book shelf. Ladybird had come along way from a small book shop in the 1900’s producing and selling guidebooks and street directories.
Ladybird Books In Schools – Religion
Ladybird produced various series of books. One series was the Learnabout series produced in 1960’s. This was aimed at children and adults to demonstrate how to knit, cook, woodwork etc. There was a series in this same era to teach children about Christianity. The books illustrated well known Bible stories and made for easy reading to inform children of the meanings of these stories. Ladybird books were being widely used in schools and were popular until the early 1990’s.
Where to find us
Currently here at Wildcard we have a large selection of Vintage Ladybird books we have recently acquired in stock. Once these have been catalogued they will be available for sale on our website.
Wildcard Curiosities is based in Freemen’s Common Antique Centre, 8 Counting House Road, Leicester, LE2 7LT.
The centre is open from Tuesday – Saturday 10am-5pm and Sunday 10am-4pm.
There is a café and toilets on site
We also have an online shop