Being Mrs C

Ladybird Tuesday: 'How it works' The Aeroplane

Another opportunity for me to indulge my inner geek on this week's Ladybird Tuesday with 'How it works' The Aeroplane. Another book from series 654 which promises to explain exactly how things work in a way simple enough for a child to understand, but without being at all patronising.

All the basics of flight are covered, from how air pressure changes with altidude, lift and drag, airflow over wings, stability of the plane in flight and how it is controlled. How the plane takes off, reaches cruising altitude and then descends to land safely is all described in detail along with how the plane's jet engines or propellers allow them to do so.

In addition to all the descripions are some lovely pictures. Clear and easy to understand without the supporting text, these also have a nostalgic edge which makes them works of art in their own right.

If you have a collection of old Ladybird books then please feel free to join in with Ladybird Tuesday. There are no formal rules to follow, just leave a link to any post you write in the comments below and if you're feeling kind link back to my Ladybird Tuesday category here on Being Mrs C. Thanks!

Ladybird Tuesday: Horses

When you look at some of the old Ladybird series they just don't quite make sense. Series 682 was originally released to show children about domesticated animals, but as the series title suggests it ended up with only two titles, Dogs and Horses. Why it was not extended I have no idea.

This book starts off by pointing out the vital role that horses played in life before other forms of transported were invented - one that many children may not think of. Starting with the basic anatomy of the horse, how they have evolved over time, along with their role, is described.

Mr C has always feared that Little Miss C will become one of those little girls who dreams of horses and wants one of her own. I'm not too sure we can fit one in the garden for starters. Then there's the idea of vets bills and having to get up early every morning to do things like muck them out.

As agriculture developed, and the plough and other heavy farming tools invented, the horse's role also developed as perfect for helping farmers increase the amount of land they could work using machinery. Initially though the British horse was still too small for this new role and oxen were used instead. British horses breeding with other European breeds that were brought over produced the heavy horses that we traditionally know today.

Here in Britain horses are still a familiar site in many of the Royal events that we have seen in recent years. Even the recent funeral procession for Baroness Thatcher included horses at the centre of it. The police also still use horses when policing large crowds at events like protests or football matches and it's a role that I can't see disappearing any time soon.

Whilst this is an informative book I have to say that it doesn't exactly thrill me. Although I did ride as a child I was never horse obsessed in the way that many girls are. Also, a horse isn't exactly an achievable "pet" for many children, so whilst they may have an interest in horses or riding I would have actually though that a range of books on domestic animals that they can easily have as pets (cats, rabbits, hamsters etc.) would have been of more practical use. Yes, their changing role over time is useful and important but is it worthy of being half a whole Ladybird series? Not in my mind.

If you have a collection of old Ladybird books then please feel free to join in with Ladybird Tuesday. There are no formal rules to follow, just leave a link to any post you write in the comments below and if you're feeling kind link back to my Ladybird Tuesday category here on Being Mrs C. Thanks!

I've also compiled an index of all the vintage Ladybird books I own and everyone's Ladybird Tuesday posts to date - organised by series. It satisfies my inner geek and hopefully will also be of interest to others too.

Ladybird Tuesday: Learnabout... Knitting

There are some Ladybird books that I keep looking out for. Titles that I really wish I'd had as a child and dream of owning now. It's rare that I find them when searching the shelves in charity shops, but sometimes you do get lucky and today was one of those lucky days.

Series 634's Learnabout... Knitting is probably up there with Learnabout... Sewing as two of the books i most want to own in the whole Ladybird back catalogue and I was so pleased to find a copy of it on the shelves of my local charity shop for just 33p!

If you're new to knitting this really is the perfect book to use. Not only is everything compressed down into just 52 pages, but as it was originally written for children the language and instructions are very clear and easy to follow.

The illustrations, whilst a bit old fashioned in their style, are also easy to understand and copy.

They have also managed to cram a handful of projects into the 52 pages. You have to remember that this book was published back in 1972, before knitting became trendy again, so the projects have a certain old fashioned edge to them. Whilst a knitted purse is a nice idea for a child to make for themselves I pity the father who receives this knitted tie one birthday.

If you have a collection of old Ladybird books then please feel free to join in with Ladybird Tuesday. There are no formal rules to follow, just leave a link to any post you write in the comments below and if you're feeling kind link back to my Ladybird Tuesday category here on Being Mrs C. Thanks!

I've also compiled an index of all the vintage Ladybird books I own and everyone's Ladybird Tuesday posts to date - organised by series. It satisfies my inner geek and hopefully will also be of interest to others too.

Ladybird Tuesday: Indoor Gardening

Yes, I know it's Thursday, but sometimes you just have one of those weeks. Better late than never and all that...

So let's talk about Indoor Gardening. Doesn't the title alone just age this book? Does anyone even talk about indoor gardening any more? I see plenty of references in modern day to houseplants and possibly herbs in the kitchen, but not much more than that. 

Indoor Gardening appeared as part of Ladybird series 633 which was entitled Early Learning, but actually featured a number of crafts and hobbies. As a series it's one I'd really like to find more of, especially some of the craft books.

In the words of the book itself:

Indoor gardening fascinates children as well as adults, and this book shows how easily both can obtain endless interest and pleasure - as well as gratifying results.

I have to admit though that alongside all the practical information that this book has there are some great retro design ideas. Charity shops always have an assortment of glass bottles, jars and bowls and it would be relatively easy and cheap to buy a couple and try out some of the growing ideas in this book.

I'm not sure I've ever been somewhere where they grow snowdrops in a wineglass before, but there's a first time for everything!

Whereas now many of us go to garden centres, or even just supermarkets, and buy plants already grown, in 1969 it was much more the case that people grew things from seed, bulb or cuttings - partly because the choice of plants to buy just wasn't anywhere near what it is today and partly for financial reasons. Some of the ideas in this book of growing things from pip or cuttings would work well with children today though - especially if you're trying to find some cheap activities to do with them. 

The thing this book did more than anything else was make me yearn for a simpler life where children weren't so distracted by television, computers or toys that make lots of noise and instead spent time being thrilled about things growing. I feel a certain pride that Little Miss C today got really excited by showing the two friends that were here for a playdate that she had some sunflower seeds growing in a pot in the kitchen. I'm just hoping the weather allows us to start some outdoor gardening soon too.

If you have a collection of old Ladybird books then please feel free to join in with Ladybird Tuesday. There are no formal rules to follow, just leave a link to any post you write in the comments below and if you're feeling kind link back to my Ladybird Tuesday category here on Being Mrs C. Thanks!

I've also compiled an index of all the vintage Ladybird books I own and everyone's Ladybird Tuesday posts to date - organised by series. It satisfies my inner geek and hopefully will also be of interest to others too.

Ladybird Tuesday: The Story of Furniture

Sorry, but I admit this has to be one of the least inspiring book titles ever and I struggle to imagine many children rushing out to buy this with their hard-earned pocket money!

The Story of Furniture is part of the Ladybird Achievements series (601) and sits rather strangely alongside The Stories of Radio, the Motor Car and Flight. Others in the series do include Churches and Cathedrals, Clothes and Costume and also Arms and Armour - slightly less thrilling than Exploring Space that's for sure!

I'm amazed how much there is to say about furniture and this book covers everything from stone age benches through to what was modern in 1971 when this book was published. It's quite interesting to read about how furniture styles and purpose changed as lifestyles have done over time. It has actually got me thinking about how furniture (and home furnishings) have changed over time and with economic circumstances. Obviously during the war years when materials were scarce there was much more focus on make do and mend and - old things. If you see what many people are doing today there is a similar ethos. Vintage is very much in fashion but many people are also having to use older styles or re-purpose what they can afford to furnish their homes.

Talking about vintage take a look at what was the modern style when this book was published - 42 years ago! Pretty much everything in this picture is exactly what vintage lovers would snap up today and I've seen similar to many of these things for sale at our local vintage emporium. It really does just go to show how styles repeat over time. 

If you have a collection of old Ladybird books then please feel free to join in with Ladybird Tuesday. There are no formal rules to follow, just leave a link to any post you write in the comments below and if you're feeling kind link back to my Ladybird Tuesday category here on Being Mrs C. Thanks!

I've also compiled an index of all the vintage Ladybird books I own and everyone's Ladybird Tuesday posts to date - organised by series. It satisfies my inner geek and hopefully will also be of interest to others too.

Ladybird Tuesday: We like to help

In the months that I've now been running Ladybird Tuesday here on Being Mrs C I've not touched much on the huge number of learning to read books that they published. The Keywords reading scheme (series 641) was vast and many, many children remember learning to read with these "Peter and Jane" books.

I've not as yet tried to list all the books from the series that I have in my index, mainly because I have so many, but also as I'm trying to collect sets with each of the different cover styles - the ones that they were launched with and the later style which I remember being new when I was a child in the 1980s. The Key Word books were divided into 3 grades, a, b and c, with each grade having 12 books.

Little Miss C enjoys reading Peter and Jane books (or Peter and James as she likes to call them!) and they're often picked as bedtime stories. Some are longer than others and the early ones in the series can be quite tedious to read - there's only so many times you can read something as basic as "Here is Peter. Here is Jane. Here is Peter and Jane" before you get really bored.

We like to help is one that she pulls out regularly (maybe because we actually have two copies so it reaches the top of the pile more often?) and it's a funny little book.

Setting aside it's benefits in teaching children to read, the "story" is a series of examples about Peter and Jane helping people. It starts with them going on holiday to the seaside with their parents. Once there they go to see their friend Tom and help him with his boat. Now, looking at the pictures, Tom appears to be significantly older than Peter and Jane. They initially help Tom to paint his boat and then explore the inside of it. There's even an invitation from Tom to see where he eats and goes to bed. 

Now, maybe I'm reading too much in to all this, but doesn't it all sound a tad strange to you? Two children helping some old man with his boat. Their parents no where to be seen and him then offering to take them out on his boat. Whilst they're out on the boat they then spot another boy in the water, having fallen in from his boat. Once again, no sign of this boy's parents either, although he is eventually taken home to them.

I know that things have changed a lot since the 1960s when this book was published, but I'm still a bit surprised to see children helping an old man who then invites them to go on his boat with them without some mention being made as to how they know him or telling their parents where they were going.

Later on in the book Peter and Jane are back home and they are helping their parents, grandparents and neighbours and also playing wholesome games with their friends, like you imagine children in the sixties doing. No games consoles or television for them. Statements like "Grandmother and grandfather do not go out much because they are old" do make me smile though. How times have changed.

If you have a collection of old Ladybird books then please feel free to join in with Ladybird Tuesday. There are no formal rules to follow, just leave a link to any post you write in the comments below and if you're feeling kind link back to my Ladybird Tuesday category here on Being Mrs C. Thanks!

I've also compiled an index of all the vintage Ladybird books I own and everyone's Ladybird Tuesday posts to date - organised by series. It satisfies my inner geek and hopefully will also be of interest to others too!

Ladybird Tuesday: The Story of Radio

We're going all geeky and technical again today on Ladybird Tuesday with what was one of my first vintage Ladybird purchases: The Story of Radio, A Ladybird 'acheivements' book. The whole of series 601 was based around the "history of" various things, ranging from Railways, to Oil, to Plastics.

First published 1968, the Story of Radio starts off by describing how communication over distances was done using semaphore before radio's invention. Range was obviously limited and even when telegraph and telephone cables were laid on the ocean beds these were expensive and affected by natural events like earthquakes.

When radio waves were first discovered and Maxwell tried to explain them, their properties and how they might be used ither scientists respended very sceptically. Sadly, it wasn't until after Maxwell's death that people realised that what he had been saying was correct. 

This book explains the physics of waves and how radio waves could be sent and received and made use of as a communications medium. The role of Induction is explained in terms of how it could be used to send radio waves over large distances without the need for connecting wires. Early experiments to the public failed when they realised that they required wires as long as the distance that they were trying to send messages over.

Marconi's discovery of the importance of an aerial-earth system made radio transmissions over long distances a reality and his 1897 trial transmissions convinced many of what he was doing. It was not plain sailing from there though as funding still had to be found to support further work. Finally though radio moved forwards and started becoming a vital part of communication systems, especially for ships at sea.

I'm a complete radio geek at heart (I even hold an amateur radio licence and have done since I was 14!) and find this book fascinating. It's hard to try to imagine a world without radio and all the further developments which have followed, but that's how life was before Marconi moved things forward. This book really does bring all these developments to life.

If you have a collection of old Ladybird books then please feel free to join in with Ladybird Tuesday. There are no formal rules to follow, just leave a link to any post you write in the comments below and if you're feeling kind link back to my Ladybird Tuesday category here on Being Mrs C. Thanks!

I've also compiled an index of all the vintage Ladybird books I own and everyone's Ladybird Tuesday posts to date - organised by series. It satisfies my inner geek and hopefully will also be of interest to others too!

Ladybird Tuesday: Brownie Guides

Whilst this is not one of the oldest of the Ladybird books in my collection is it one of my faviourites purely based on the subject: Brownie Guides. The uniform on the cover is exactly the one that I wore when a Brownie in the 1980s. The book was actually first published in 1978, but it seems that not much had chanegd by the time I joined.

The book covers everything from how the Brownie Guides were created as a youth section of the Girl Guides and how they fitted in with the already formed Scout movement through to Brownie Guides around the world. The structure of the Guiding movement is explained along with many of the small things that each pack does at its weekly meetings.

The book then spends a large amount of time discussing what it means to be a Brownie and all the good deeds that a Brownie does as part of their everyday lives. What makes this book somewhat different from the Brownie Guide Handbook which I have written about before, is that it doesn't say much about all the different badges that Brownies can work towards. This is one of the key things that I remember from being a Brownie yet there are only a couple of pages about it at the end of the book. Inside the back cover though there is a list of some of the Interest Badges that Brownies can work towards and for each badge a list of other Ladybird books that they might find helpful.

 

Looking back at my three years in the Brownies I can still remember some of the things that we did and the badges that I worked for. I almost wish that I could still work for badges today - it could be a great way of adults trying out new hobbies and maybe I could finally get the knitting badge that I never managed as a child!

If you have a collection of old Ladybird books then please feel free to join in with Ladybird Tuesday. There are no formal rules to follow, just leave a link to any post you write in the comments below and if you're feeling kind link back to my Ladybird Tuesday category here on Being Mrs C. Thanks!

I've also compiled an index of all the vintage Ladybird books I own and everyone's Ladybird Tuesday posts to date - organised by series. It satisfies my inner geek and hopefully will also be of interest to others too!

Ladybird Tuesday: 'How it works' The Rocket

I'm going for a full on geek-out with this week's Ladybird Tuesday and a book that I'm pretty sure even Professor Brian Cox would approve of - 'How it works' The Rocket. 

The 'How it works' series (series 654 in case you're wondering) was the perfect series for any little budding engineers. It basically explained exactly how objects worked and covered everything from the household television through to Farm Machinery. There's plenty of detail, but all written in a simple style so that children could easily follow it.

Now, bearing in mind that I did A-level physics a (cough) few years ago, and a whole degree in engineering, you really would have thought that I should have known most of what was in this book. But I'm ashamed to say that I didn't. Maybe that's just the dumbing down of the British education system since this was written in 1967, but I'm pretty sure that this book is somewhat more advanced that most physics GCSEs and A-levels. 

Whilst it's not fine-detail technology nor full of equations, there is a huge amount of description as to how (and why) the rocket works in the way that it does. Differences between aircraft and rockets are covered as background, along with Newton's third law of motion (To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction) before the book goes on to look at all the different elements that make up the rocket in turn. There are even comparisons with how things work in the motor car and a cross-reference to the book in the series covering the car. 

Once again I'm left blown away at just how much detail they've included in this book and also slightly worried at just how much I don't know. Yet another series that I think I ought to try to collect all of the kids to read when they're older. I'm sure the same information is probably out there on the Internet, but I'm still a paper lover!

If you have a collection of old Ladybird books then please feel free to join in with Ladybird Tuesday. There are no formal rules to follow, just leave a link to any post you write in the comments below and if you're feeling kind link back to my Ladybird Tuesday category here on Being Mrs C. Thanks!

I've also compiled an index of all the Ladybird Tuesday posts to date - organised by series. It satisfies my inner geek and hopefully will also be of interest to others too!

 

Ladybird Tuesday: 'People At Work' The Car Makers

Yes I have noticed it's Wednesday (and Wednesday evening at that!) but Tuesday this week vanished into a mix of trying to comfort a teething baby and preparing for Mr C's birthday. I had a Ladybird Tuesday post planned in my head though so I'm just pressing ahead a day late.

This week I have another book from the People at Work series (series 606B) and as I found with the In a Hotel book - it seems to be full of things that today would be considered sexist!

First published in 1968 The Car Makers describes the production of a car as it was then, from first designs to finished models. Whereas now robots are used to carry out many of the tasks it used to be men and woman who did so. "Moving tracks" were in use though to carry the car around the factory, and then this was then seen as a huge advance in manufacturing.

The book's sexist slant starts early. Whilst setting the scene of the factories where cars are made it continues as follows:

    As well as factories there are blocks of offices. Men and girls work in these, taking in orders for cars and planning the work in the factories. Their work is just as important as that of the men who make the cars.

Hang on a minute, "girls"? Whilst it was fair at the time to point out that it was only men on the factory floor whilst both men and women worked in the offices, why was it necessary to call those women girls? I'm guessing that it's because they were younger women, possibily before they got married and had children (when many women would have given up work) but this was only 1968!

Throughout the book the reference to girls continues. I get the impression that this was a common thing in this series of Ladybird books. I have seen a copy of the Customs Officer book which has a whole page devoted to the tea lady and her important role!

It's also interesting to see how the work environment has changed in terms of work hours. Many car factories now work 24/7 and the idea of an assembly line stopping for dinner time is funny. Whilst there are laws protecting workers in terms of breaks during the working day now, stopping a production line would cost money and that's not something that would be wanted today.

If you have a collection of old Ladybird books then please feel free to join in with Ladybird Tuesday. There are no formal rules to follow, just leave a link to any post you write in the comments below and if you're feeling kind link back to my Ladybird Tuesday category here on Being Mrs C. Thanks!

I've also compiled an index of all the Ladybird Tuesday posts to date - organised by series. It satisfies my inner geek and hopefully will also be of interest to others too.