Ladybird Books
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Ladybird Books is a
It is an imprint of Penguin Random House, a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann.
History
The company traces its origins to 1867, when Henry Wills opened a bookshop in Loughborough, Leicestershire. Within a decade he progressed to printing and publishing
By August 1914, Wills & Hepworth had published their first children's books, under the Ladybird imprint.
Wills & Hepworth began trading as Ladybird Books in 1971 as a direct result of the brand recognition that their imprint had achieved in Britain. In the 1960s and 1970s the company's
In the 1960s, Ladybird produced the Learnabout series of non-fiction (informational) books, some of which were used by adults as well as children.
An independent company for much of its life, Ladybird Books became part of the
In November 2014, Ladybird signed up to the Let Books Be Books campaign and announced that it was "committed" to avoiding labelling books as "for girls" or "for boys" and would be removing such gender labelling in reprinted copies. The publisher added: "Out of literally hundreds of titles currently in print, we actually only have six titles with this kind of titling". Its parent company, Penguin Random House Children's division, would also be following suit.[7][8]
Imprints of Ladybird Books included Balloon, Paperbird, Sunbird,[9] and Disney.[10]
In October 2015, it was announced that Ladybird books would be publishing its first series of books for adults. The eight books, which parody the style and artwork of the company’s books for children, include the titles The Hangover, Mindfulness, Dating and The Hipster, and were written by television comedy writers
The classic Ladybird book
The pocket-sized hardback Ladybird measured roughly four-and-a-half by seven inches (11.5 cm by 18 cm). Early books used a standard 56-page format, chosen because a complete book could be printed on one large standard sheet of paper, a quad crown, 40 inches by 30 inches,[15] which was then folded and cut to size without waste paper. It was an economical way of producing books, enabling the books to be retailed at a low price which, for almost thirty years, remained at two shillings and sixpence (12.5p).
The first book in the line, Bunnikin's Picnic Party: a story in verse for children with illustrations in colour, was produced in 1940.
Ladybird began publishing books in other formats in 1980. Most of the remaining titles in the classic format were withdrawn in 1999 when their printing facility in Loughborough closed.
Cultural impact
In 2014, the artist
References
- ^ "LADYBIRD BOOKS LTD. – ARCHIVE AND LIBRARY". University of Reading. University of Reading. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
- ISBN 978-0-7123-5728-9.
- ^ "McNally and Murray (1968) claimed that while the average adult had a speaking vocabulary of about 20,000 words, an extremely large proportion of the language which people produced, and read, was made up of just 250 words. They then argued that if pupils were systematically taught these 250 words, they would be able to read the vast majority of any text they came across. The Ladybird Keywords reading scheme was devised to focus upon these keywords..." McNally, J. and Murray, W. (1968) Key Words to Literacy and the Teaching of Reading: a Basic Word List for Developing Early Reading and Writing Skills. London, Schoolmaster Publishing, cited in Janan, D., & Wray, D. (2012). Guidance on the principles of language accessibility in National Curriculum assessments: research background.
- ^ Skelton, C. (1997). Revisiting gender issues in reading schemes. Education 3-13, 25(1), 37–43. Chicago
- ^ Whiting, D. S. (1981). "Sex Role Stereotyping and Ladybird Books". In Forum for the Discussion of New Trends in Education (Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 84–85). Chicago
- ^ "Ladybird Books to close Loughborough plant". 30 November 1998. Archived from the original on 27 September 2003. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
- ^ Flood, Alison (20 November 2014). "Ladybird drops branding books 'for boys' or 'for girls'". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
- ^ "Ladybird drops gender-specific children's book titles". BBC News. 21 November 2014. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
- ^ Sally Wecksler. International Literary Market Place: ILMP 1994. R R Bowker. 1994. pp 443, 493 & 508. Google Books.
- ^ ILMP: International Literary Market Place: 1999. Bowker. 1999. p. 594. Google Books.
- ^ "Spoof Ladybird books target adult market". BBC News Online. 12 October 2015. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
- ^ Armistead, Claire (22 September 2015). "The flyaway success of the Ladybird art prank". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
- AdWeek. 5 July 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
- ^ a b c Lisa Campbell and Katherine Cowdrey (15 January 2017). "Prince Charles pens climate change book for new Ladybird Expert series". The Bookseller. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
- ^ a b "Company History". Ladybird Books. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
- ^ "Spoof artist takes her revenge | The Times". The Times. 15 September 2014. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
- ^ Armitstead, Claire (22 September 2015). "The flyaway success of the Ladybird art prank". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
- ^ Gani, Aisha (12 October 2015). "Ladybird books introduce Peter and Jane to hipsters and hangovers". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
Further reading
- Boys and Girls: A Ladybird book of childhood. London: Ladybird. 2007. ISBN 978-0723259718.
- Ladybird: A Cover Story: 500 iconic covers from the Ladybird archives. London: Ladybird. 2014. ISBN 978-0-71819-391-1.
- The Ladybird Story: Children's Books for Everyone. London: The British Library Publishing Division. 2014. ISBN 978-0712357289.
- Ladybird by Design. London: Ladybird. 2015. ISBN 978-0723293927.
External links
- Official website
- "Ladybird Fly Away Home". Collectors' site dedicated to old Ladybird books
- "Nicole's website for collectors". Collectors' site featuring over 3000 images of Ladybird cover art
- "Easy on the Eye". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 8 November 2006. Collectors' site
- "The Arran Alexander Collection". Vintage Ladybird Book Collectors' Information site
- "Old Ladybird Books". Ladybird Book Collectors' and discussion site
- "The Wee Web". Archived from the original on 26 December 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2014. A guide to Ladybird Books
- "Obituary: John Berry". The Daily Telegraph. London. 1 January 2010. Retrieved 24 February 2014.