To ask you all what it was that the ladybird actually heard?

[toomuchtooold]

No kidding, I actually want to know! My kids got What The Ladybird Heard for their second birthdays from a friend of ours and somewhere in the last year and a half of moving house twice, one of them got a hold of it and ripped out the middle two pages. Then they got into storybooks, and found it again, and they love it, but it goes straight from "and she whispered it into each animal ear" to "and the farmer woke and said golly gosh" . I could get a new one but they quite like the story in its abridged form and I'm loath to mess with anything in the bedtime routine. But I'd love to know how Len and Hugh are foiled in their dastardly plan. Can anyone fill me in?

The ladybird heard the burglars plan to steal the prize cow. So she comes up with a plan and whispers it into each animals's ear. The burglars use the sounds each animal makes to find their way across the farm to the cow.

But each animal pretends to be something else so the burglars end up in the pond!

I really like that book. We have the version with the sounds down the side.

Thank you! That's been bugging me for months! It's quite a clever plan actually...

YANBU. Someone bought my daughter 'What the Lady Bird Heard Next' for her second birthday but we had never read the first one. Now we know!

She heard 2 men in black van with a map and a key and a cunning plan to steal the fine prize cow.

The ladybird heard the plan of the burglars, who were planning to steal the prize cow. You should already know that though if you have all of the pages up to "whispered into each animal's ear"

The pages you are missing read as follows:

"At dead of night the two bad men
(Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len)
Opened the gate while the farmer slept
And tiptoe into the farm they crept

Then the goose said, "NEIGH!" with all her might
And Len said, "That's the horse - turn right."
And the dainty dog began to QUACK.
"The duck!" said Hugh.
"We're right on track."
"OINK," said the cats.
"There goes the hog!
Be careful not to wake the dog."
"BAA BAA BAA," said the fat red hen.
"The sheep! We're nearly there," said Len.
Then the duck on the pond said, "MOO MOO MOO!"
"Two more steps to go!" said Hugh.
And they both stepped into the duck pond-
SPLOSH!!!

(Copyright Julia Donaldson, 2000 etc etc)

I love this story and used it to successfully gain a place on my PGCE course!

That's copyright 2009, not 2000!

This is one of my favourite books to read at library story time, along with 'the cow that laid an egg'

Ds loves this book so much, I've ended up memorising it!

Dammit that sounds really good samosa ! I might just buy a new copy, it'll be to the wee ones what the Dead Sea Scrolls were to Bible scholars

There's a SEQUEL????

YIPPPEEEEE!

I love that ladybird, she's a frickin' genius!

It is the most awesome live show too!

Can I just jump in here to say the Audio version is narrated and sung by Alexander Armstrong and his rendition of "and the cow said MOO..." is just brilliant. Full theatricals and deep booming voice ...

I adore these books. DD has both of them plus everything else Julia Donaldson has written. I'm a huge fan

DD went through a phase of insisting on having WTLH every single flipping night for about a month. Now we're doing the same with "Babies, Babies, Babies"

what RatO said.

Can also vouch for the live show. We still sing the songs 2 years later!