OH MY GOD, the British Wild Animals are so achingly familiar, every picture. I don't know Tootles the taxi at all, but we had Red Riding Hood and Bunnikins Picnic party as well. Dude.

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Achingly familiar is a great way of putting it.

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I didn't think I knew Tootles the Taxi, but I recognise the cover. I recognise lots of those pictures. Especially the elves from The Elves and the Shoemaker.

What I'm finding from looking at them is that I have very mixed feelings - they are both comfortably familiar and also a little dark and disturbing. I'm not sure what that's about.

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I've just been looking at What to look for in Spring - beautiful pictures. I might buy some of these for my wall.

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I wonder if you could have a book encouraging children to get into random cars that stop for them today.

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Only if the cars have nice friendly faces on.

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Oh, how wonderful! We had lots of those, too. I still have "Learn to Knit" around here somewhere.

My parents had "Bunnikins" china, which I remember using when we were children. I bet they still have it.

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They were really very well produced, with high quality pictures. I'm going to get posters for my brothers and sisters I think.

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I remember some of the historical ones... The First Queen Elizabeth. They probably brought that out around 1953. And then there was a series that was sort of geography as fiction, about two children who flew to exotic places with their father. I definitely had one about them going to the Holy Land (sic), but I think they went to Australia and lots of other places too. That must have been a long time ago, I remember them crossing into the Jordanian bits of Jerusalem and the stress on how friendly the locals were.

This must be from the geographical series. I also recognise the covers of Alfred the Great and Alexander the Great. And some of the Peter and Jane pictures.

Edited at 2009-07-24 03:35 pm (UTC)

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I think we had 'Flight three:USA'.

My daughter tells me she had a history elesson about how the Ladybird book of Richard the Lion Heart was wrong. Obviously still rankles with the teacher.

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I had another look at "Sleeping Beauty" and "Cinderella". I remember being disappointed that Cinderella wore a white dress on the final night instead of the stunning blue gown. Sadly they only have the cover of "Florence Nightingale" up.

Some day I will find more Hilda Boswell art too.

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I didn't recognise the name Hilda Boswell so I looked her up. I do know her work, though they weren't books we had when I was a child. This is a beautiful one I think

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Oh her illustrations to that poem are one of my favourites!

Thank-you for finding that link.

As a child we had the "Treasury of Poetry" from which this comes and also "A Child's Garden of Verses". Her mixture of good naturalism and a hint of fairy has been instrumental in my mental development.

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