Wikipedia

Ladybird Books

Ladybird Booksis aLondon-basedpublishingcompany, trading as a stand-alone imprint within thePenguin Groupof companies.[1]The Ladybird imprint publishes mass-marketchildren's books.

Ladybird Books
Parent companyPenguin Random House
Founded1867;157 years ago(1867)
Loughborough,Leicestershire,England
FounderHenry Wills
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Headquarters locationLondon
Publication typesBooks
Fiction genresChildren
Official websitewww.ladybird.co.uk
Angel Yard, Loughborough.
Ladybird Books green plaque, Angel Yard, Loughborough.

It is an imprint ofPenguin Random House,a subsidiary of German media conglomerateBertelsmann.

History

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The company traces its origins to 1867, when Henry Wills opened a bookshop in Loughborough, Leicestershire. Within a decade he progressed to printing and publishingguidebooksandstreet directories.He was joined by William Hepworth in 1904, and the company traded as Wills & Hepworth.

By August 1914, Wills & Hepworth had published their first children's books, under the Ladybird imprint.[2]From the beginning, the company was identified by aladybirdlogo,at first with open wings, but eventually changed to the more familiar closed-wing ladybird in the late 1950s. The ladybird logo has since undergone several redesigns, the latest of which was launched in 2006.

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'sKey Words Reading Scheme(launched in 1964) was heavily used by Britishprimary schools,using a reduced vocabulary[3]to help children learn to read.[4]This series of 36 small-format hardback books presentedstereotypedmodels of British family life: the innocence ofPeter and Janeat play, Mum thehousewife,and Dad thebreadwinner.[5]Many of the illustrations in this series were byHarry Wingfield,John Berry,Martin Aitchison,Frank HampsonandCharles Tunnicliffe.

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 thePearson Groupin 1972. However, falling demand in the late 1990s led Pearson to fully merge Ladybird into itsPenguin Bookssubsidiary in 1998, joining other established names in British children's books such asPuffin Books,Dorling KindersleyandFrederick Warne.[6]The Ladybird offices and printing factory in Loughborough closed the same year, and much of the company's archive of historic artwork was transferred to public collections.

In November 2014, Ladybird signed up to theLet Books Be Bookscampaign 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 titlesThe Hangover,Mindfulness"Peter Fingers Jane"DatingandThe Hipster,and were written by television comedy writersJason HazeleyandJoel Morris.They were published on 18 November 2015.[11]The series follows a trend of other spoof Ladybird books includingWe Go to the GallerybyMiriam Eliawho had previously been threatened with legal action by Penguin.[12]On 5 July 2016, Touchstone Books, animprint of Simon & Schuster,announced that they would publish American adaptations of the Ladybird Books for Grown-ups, called The Fireside Grown-Up Guides.[13]

Ladybird Expert(Series 117) was launched in January 2017 following the success of Ladybird for Grown-Ups. The books in this series are not parodies, but instead use the classic format to serve as clear introductions to a wide variety of subjects, generally in the fields of science and history.[14]The first book published and the inspiration for the series isClimate Changebythe Prince of Wales,Tony JuniperandEmily Shuckburgh.[14]Four more titles were released in 2017 byJim Al-Khalili(Quantum Mechanics),Steve Jones(Evolution),James Holland(The Battle of Britain) andBen Saunders(Shackleton).[14]The line was expanded with fifteen further books in 2018 and more titles were published in 2019.

The classic Ladybird book

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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, 40inchesby 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 twoshillingsandsixpence(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.[15]The book featured stories in verse written by W. Perring, accompanied by full-colour illustrations by A. J. (Angusine Jeanne) MacGregor. The appeal of Bunnikin, Downy Duckling and other animal characters made the book an instant success. Later series included nature books (series 536, some illustrated by, for example,Charles TunnicliffeandAllen W. Seaby) and a host of non-fiction books, including hobbies and interests, history (L du Garde Peachwrote very many of these) and travel.

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

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In 2014, the artistMiriam Elia,along with her brother, Ezra Elia, producedWe go to the gallery,a satire on modern art in the form of a Ladybird book. The book drew a threat of legal action fromPenguin Groupfor breach of copyright, and some changes were made to the names of characters and logos, so it could be published as a parody.[16][17]In 2015 Penguin released their own series of satirical adult-oriented Ladybird books written byJason HazeleyandJoel Morris.[18]

References

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  1. ^"LADYBIRD BOOKS LTD. – ARCHIVE AND LIBRARY".University of Reading.Retrieved16 March2024.
  2. ^Johnson, Lorraine;Alderson, Brian(2014).The Ladybird Story: children's books for everyone.London:British Library.p. 13.ISBN978-0-7123-5728-9.
  3. ^"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.
  4. ^Skelton, C. (1997). Revisiting gender issues in reading schemes. Education 3-13, 25(1), 37–43. Chicago
  5. ^Whiting, D. S. (1981). "Sex Role Stereotyping and Ladybird Books". InForum for the Discussion of New Trends in Education(Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 84–85). Chicago
  6. ^"Ladybird Books to close Loughborough plant".30 November 1998. Archived fromthe originalon 27 September 2003.Retrieved24 February2014.
  7. ^Flood, Alison (20 November 2014)."Ladybird drops branding books 'for boys' or 'for girls'".The Guardian.Retrieved24 November2014.
  8. ^"Ladybird drops gender-specific children's book titles".BBC News.21 November 2014.Retrieved24 November2014.
  9. ^Sally Wecksler. International Literary Market Place: ILMP 1994. R R Bowker. 1994. pp 443, 493 & 508.Google Books.
  10. ^ILMP: International Literary Market Place: 1999. Bowker. 1999. p. 594.Google Books.
  11. ^"Spoof Ladybird books target adult market".BBC News Online.12 October 2015.Retrieved12 October2015.
  12. ^Armistead, Claire(22 September 2015)."The flyaway success of the Ladybird art prank".The Guardian.Retrieved20 August2016.
  13. ^"Touchstone to Publish an American Version of the Ladybird Books for Grown-Ups Series".AdWeek.5 July 2016.Retrieved5 August2016.
  14. ^abcLisa Campbell and Katherine Cowdrey (15 January 2017)."Prince Charles pens climate change book for new Ladybird Expert series".The Bookseller.Retrieved2 January2019.
  15. ^ab"Company History".Ladybird Books.Retrieved6 May2015.
  16. ^"Spoof artist takes her revenge | The Times".The Times.15 September 2014.Retrieved30 December2015.
  17. ^Armitstead, Claire (22 September 2015)."The flyaway success of the Ladybird art prank".The Guardian.Retrieved30 December2015.
  18. ^Gani, Aisha (12 October 2015)."Ladybird books introduce Peter and Jane to hipsters and hangovers".The Guardian.Retrieved30 December2015.

Further reading

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  • Boys and Girls: A Ladybird book of childhood.London: Ladybird. 2007.ISBN978-0723259718.
  • Ladybird: A Cover Story: 500 iconic covers from the Ladybird archives.London: Ladybird. 2014.ISBN978-0-71819-391-1.
  • The Ladybird Story: Children's Books for Everyone.London: The British Library Publishing Division. 2014.ISBN978-0712357289.
  • Ladybird by Design.London: Ladybird. 2015.ISBN978-0723293927.
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