Homourous rhyming stories - one for each different mode of transport - characters include:
Tootles the taxi - Oompus the omnibus - Tony the tractor - Archie the Ambulance - Stumbles the steam-roller - Larry the lorry - Co-Co the caravan - Binkie the bicycle - Maurice the motor - Minnie the milk-float - Monty the motor coach - Roy the removal van - Colin the cattle truck - Mickey the mail van - Willie the water cart - Ronnie the railway dray - Timbo the trolly-bus - Cuthbert the coal cart - Billy the baker's van - Minkie the motor-bike - Biffo the bull-dozer - Ike the ice-cream van - Flashy the fire-engine - Terry the tanker
Opening
text
I'm Tootles the taxi I'll give you a ride Put up your hand Then jump inside Just watch the meter You'll see the fare Distance no object Go anywhere!
Characters
and Keywords
Tootles the taxi - Oompus the omnibus - Tony the tractor - Archie the Ambulance - Stumbles the steam-roller - Larry the lorry - Co-Co the caravan - Binkie the bicycle - Maurice the motor - Minnie the milk-float - Monty the motor coach - Roy the removal van - Colin the cattle truck - Mickey the mail van - Willie the water cart - Ronnie the railway dray - Timbo the trolly-bus - Cuthbert the coal cart - Billy the baker\'s van - Minkie the motor-bike - Biffo the bull-dozer - Ike the ice-cream van - Flashy the fire-engine - Terry the tanker
First
edition
issue points for collectors
Hardback book issued with dust-wrapper. Original price 2'6. Light-pink boards with line illustration. Catalogue page at the rear of the book shows Puppies and Kittens from series 563 as the last title listed. Tootles the Taxi is the last title listed on the rear flap of the dust-wrapper. Brown open-winged endpapers.
The dust-wrapper should have the waving dog but without a lead - also there should be no pavment visible.
More information
When Ladybird's factory in Loughborough came to a close in 1999 the last book that was produced in the bindery was 210 copies of a hand-made version of Tootles the Taxi, one of Ladybird's most loved titles.
John Muschialli, the bindery manager for 20 years at Ladybird spoke to us a little about this limited edition.
"I worked for Ladybird for 40 years training as a bookbinder. I was on the staff for 30 years, 20 of which was as bindery manager, and technical manager.
The last book to leave the factory was a remake of Tootles the taxi with brown cover and dust jacket. We made 210 only - a lot of the work done by hand. numbered from 1 to 210 - one for each of the staff made redundent, (your number dependent on your length of sevice), mine was number six."
Printing differences to the front cover
On later dust-wrapper editions a pavement was added and a lead put on the dog. The reason for the changes was to fall in line with health and safety standards, which at the time was being strongly emphasized throughout schools and nurseries. On later matt editions that carried an original price of 15p or more, the dog on the front cover was completely removed - the face of the bus is also given more lighter tones (on the original the face is almost blocked in dark green) - many other parts of the cover image have also been lightened.
Early matt editions that carry an original price of 2'6, have the same cover as the original printing, with the dog still seen flagging Tootles with the children. These 'flagging dog' matt editions are quite scarce as there was only a small print-run before Ladybird staff spotted the mistake.
Tootles Registration Plates and Dinky Toys
John Harrison, whose interests include collecting model cars and vehicle registrations, writes an interesting article about “Tootles the Taxi”.
Ladybird kept all the original illustrations produced by
artists until the early 1970s when a change in legislation meant
that they all had to be sent back to the original artists.
