Have Ladybird books gone down the pan since I was young, or am I just wearing rose-tinted glasses?

[Twinklemegan]

From what I can see the prose and illustrations are much less charming than they used to be. In fact they are completely unengaging, and much better story books can be found. I loved my old Ladybird books as a child, but unfortunately my parents got rid of them all so I'm just relying on memory. Can anyone back me up or tell me I'm wrong?

No you are not wrong. I have very vivid and fond menories of Ladybird books as a child and they are not the same now.

I wonder if anyone on here works for Penguin and can tell us why on earth they changed them. It's so sad.

I don't know.. this one is quite original

link

Although aren't they reprinting some of the originals?

But there are so many and such varied ladybird books some are quite good and some are pants. DD has some awful ones but some that are OK.

I think the ones I'm really talking about are the fairytales - I think it was the Well Loved Tales series. I've just been looking them up on the web and even seeing images of the front covers brought back a wave of nostalgia. The new ones just don't cut the mustard IMO. I'm really cross with my mum for throwing mine out - grrr.

They were banned by ROsPA and greenpeace.

Princess and the Pea: Hardly safe is it? Walking up to a strange house and sleeping on a 10ft bed?

The magic porridge pot: It's now no longer acceptable to pollute a town with poridge. What does this say to your children??

Cinderella: deemed a violation of her human rights

The elves and the shoemaker: contravenes slave labour legislation

The three pigs: offensive to vegetarians

Jack and the beanstalk: classic child abuse

and don't get me started on The Wolf and the seven Kids!!!

my specs must come from the same place as yours Twinkle

I think a lot of this is rose-tinted specs. I saw som eof the old ones again, as an adult. I remmebered teh pictures very fondly. The actual story writing was pretty dull.

I am always surpirsed how many people recommend books from their childhood to children today. I presume it's because they don't know much about what's available nowadays as quite a few mentioned were very yawnsome for a young child - and I was a keen reader.

yy pointy. ladybirds were dull as fuck then and haven't got any better. i do keep looking for the computer one though as it is worth squillions

yes, illustrations were lovely. I remember certain princess's dresses. There is a link on this site to a discount on reprints of some of the images, which are so evocative and nostalgic.

Mabanana - do you mean Mumsnet, or did you forget to insert the link??