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.
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The first 10 stories , which were originally
published with dust-wrappers, were written by Noel Barr
and 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.
The
first edition issue points for the first 10
books in series 497 (the
dust-wrappered editions)
A good way to identifying a first edition
Ladybird book from series 497 is to check
that it matches the following issue points:
| 1. |
Your
book should have a dust-wrapper |
| 2.
|
Your book should
have a small picture pasted on the front
board - the illustration is the same
image that appears on the dust-wrapper. |
| 3.
|
Your book should
be the last title listed on the rear
flap of the dust-wrapper, or not listed
at all |
| 4. |
Your book should
have black & white pictorial endpapers
(not patterned) |
| 5. |
The pages of
your book should be creamy in colour
and NOT white |
| 6. |
The text on
the spine of your book, of both the
book itself and it's dust-wrapper should
be written from bottom to top? |
| 7. |
Your book should
state "First published, 19XX"
on the front endpaper, or mention no
date at all |
| 8. |
Your book should
have a catalogue page, or pages, at
the rear of the book showing books in
other Ladybird series |
| 9. |
Your book should have the original.'open-winged'
Ladybird logo (see
Logos in the Book Formats section), or none at
all? |
If your book from series 497 matches the above
issue points then it is a first edition. |
<< back to all series |
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| Random
fact |
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From 1940 - 1965 Ladybird books were published with dust-wrappers - an exception to this are a few of the early Key Word Reading Scheme books, better known as the Peter and Jane books. |
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