If you look at all the Ladybird titles originally published what really stands out to me is the number of natural history books that there were. They were not all confined to Ladybird series 651 (Ladybird Natural History Books) but that series is where this particular book sits – Learning about Insects and Small Animals.
First published in 1972 and written by Romola Showell this books concentrates on those smaller creatures that small children seem so fond of finding in their back gardens or whilst out and about.
The level of detail in this books is vast and covers everything from stick insects, caterpillars, moths and spiders through to water snails, grass snakes and mice. I'd like to think that those people behind Springwatch and Autumnwatch were once in their bedrooms with book like this trying to identify what creatures they'd brought in from the garden. In Chris Packham's case I could really believe this to be true!
As I sat down to write this review I kept finding myself being pulled in to reading more. Once Little Miss C is a bit older I can definitely see us looking to do some of the projects referred to in here as a way of teaching her more about the natural world. I remember building a wormery at school as part of a lesson about worms and I'd love to think of her doing the same one day. Master C too – but based on current behaviours I think he'd be more likely to eat them than look at them!
The book contains some lovely illustrations – all by Ronald Lampitt – all providing budding David Bellamys with a great level of detail to compare their finds against. Combined with some of the other books that Ladybird published on the subject you can create a fantastic library of natural history information with just a handful of books. I hope to include several more over the weeks to come here on Ladybird Tuesday.
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!