Animal Stories 22 titles published
between 1940 and 1980
Ladybird
series 497 contains 22 titles prior to 1980, and like series
401, were stories about animals.
The first title, The Inquisitive Harvest Mouse, was
originally published in 1949 and had a deep maroon dust-wrapper
which in later editions was changed to red. The tenth title,
The Sleepy Water Vole, was the last in this series
to carry a dust-wrapper and was published in 1955.
The first 10 stories , which were originally
published with dust-wrappers, were written by Noel Barrand illustrated by P B Hickling.
Perhaps the most popular title, and by far the best seller of
the series, is The Wise Robin, which was a Christmas
story about two robins who desperately want to decorate their
nest with silver tinsel.
After The Sleepy Water Vole there was a 20 year resting
period for this series, and it wasn't until 1975 that Tasseltip
and the Boozle was published in matt boards. Tasseltip,
a mad rabbit, had originally belonged to series
474.
These revised Tasseltip stories used the original artwork
by Ernest
A Aris which was 'updated' by Roy Smith, and
all six stories were re-written by Sarah Cotton - "Flickerdick",
for example, becomes "Tasseltip and the Boozle"
Books in series 497 The entries below describe the first edition
of each title.
4 titles from the 401 series were never reprinted at matt editions (without dust-wrappers) - these were: Jeremy's Day in the Country - Pippety's Unlucky Day - Jonathon's Shopping Day and High Tide
