Ladybird Key Words with Peter and Jane 36 Books Box Set (HB)

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This change was considered so imp ortant that even Murray’s text – so carefully wor ded and so rarely tampered with – was adapted in the revised books. ) And Daddy was expected to play more of a role in Peter and Jane’s affairs. Whereas in the 1960s version he might watch with detached indulgence the scenes involving Mummy and the children, in the 1970s version he participtes more actively. Here you can see the old Daddy looking on and the new Daddy helping out. Don’t strain yourself Daddy! The books were designed as materials for teaching a small child to learn to read, using a system of key phrases and words devised by teacher William Murray. Murray was an educational adviser at a borstal and later headmaster of a "school for the educationally subnormal" in Cheltenham. From research undertaken in the 1950s by Murray with Professor Joe McNally, an educational psychologist at the University of Manchester, Murray realised that only 12 words account for a quarter of the vocabulary used in normal speaking, reading and writing in the English language, 100 words for half, and 300 words for three-quarters. Spoof Ladybird books target adult market". BBC News Online. 12 October 2015 . Retrieved 12 October 2015. Peter and Jane’s world is familiar to children today. As your child learns the Key Words and follows Peter and Jane on their various adventures, they’ll get to know the words they’ll use most in everyday life. By reading the books through from 1a to 12c, children can return to a cast of characters they’ll love and a world they’ll want to explore!

As I say, the first and best known of Ladybird Reading schemes is the Key Words to Reading series, which first appeared in 1964. I believe a structured, comprehensive reading scheme on this scale this was something of a 1st in British education. The books which had been extensively read in schools before the appearance on the the scene of Peter and Jane were the Janet and John books. In origin, J & J are not from these shores. Effectively the readers were imported – via New Zealand I think, but widely used here in the late 1950s, early 1960s. The Key Words Reading scheme – or “Peter and Jane” booksFor one reason or another, people seem to mix up the characters ‘Janet and John’ with ‘Peter and Jane’. ( I think the late lamented Terry Wogan had a hand in adding to the confusion). You see the pictures on the right? Not Ladybird. The two children in the best-known Ladybird reading scheme were Peter and Jane. I just thought I’d clear that up from the start. And suddenly it has become a green-grocer’s (who has lost the collar and tie but is resplendant with quiff and impressive sideburns) and the children have transferred their enthusiasm to apples. (Did children do that in the 70s?) Two more characters, Simon and John, were introduced further into the series, as the books developed in length and detail to become targeted at growing children who had developed further reading skills. These two characters are cousins of Peter and Jane.

joint venture with Funk & Fernsehen Nordwestdeutschland, Antenne Niedersachen and Niedersachsen Radio. And she’s right. Her satire – a combination of original painting and mixed media – perfectly encapsulates the conceptual vacancy that is, unfortunately, at the heart of many of our arts institutions. She explains: Tens of millions of Britons learnt to read with the Peter and Jane books. In her second piece for The Dabbler, Ladybird expert Helen Day examines how the books – and their revisions – reflected British middle-class life, or an ideal of it… Flood, Alison (20 November 2014). "Ladybird drops branding books 'for boys' or 'for girls' ". The Guardian . Retrieved 24 November 2014. Apart from the disappearance of the ‘Hornby’? train sets, you might notice that the golly, on the top row of the 1960s book, has been airbrushed out in the 1970s version.

joint venture with Leonine Holding, The Walt Disney Company, Bauer Media Group and Hubert Burda Media. Ladybird: A Cover Story: 500 iconic covers from the Ladybird archives. London: Ladybird. 2014. ISBN 978-0-71819-391-1. The first books were issued in 1964. Ladybird employed a number of different artists to bring to life Murray’s text: Harry Wingfield , Martin Aitchison, Frank Hampson, Robert Ayton and John Berry. These artists all had very different painting styles (Aitchison and Frank Hampson had previously worked on the classic comics The Eagle and The Marvel) but the brief was to produce appealing, naturalistic artwork and obviously the main characters, Peter and Jane, had to be recognisable throughout. Penguin’s publication of a set of satirical spoofs on its classic Ladybird books will no doubt attract a lot of attention from anyone who grew up with them in the 60s, 70s and 80s. With titles such as The Shed; The Wife; The Husband; and The Hipster, Penguin’s tongue-in-cheek “adult” Ladybirds should find a ready market among those who were given the originals as a way of teaching them to read. Current edition, with cover styling updated in 2004 and the more contemporary late 1970s underlying artwork History [ edit ]

So all very systematic and methodical. Basically the child is expected to learn through repetition of exposure to recognise these words on sight – and word flash-cards were a key component of the Key Word reading scheme. This is what’s known as the “Look and Say” method. You often hear people in the media today discussing the best way to teach reading and contrasting: “Look and Say” with “Phonics” where a child is helped to work out or ‘decode’ the sound of the word by building up an awareness of the patterns. This debate is not a new one, and Murray was familiar with it in the 1960s. He says, Jump to navigation Ladybird books updated: Spot the difference in these Peter and Jane illustrations Ladybird began publishing books in other formats in 1980. Most of the remaining titles in the classic format were withdrawn in 1999 when their printing facility in Loughborough closed.And that’s just the books. The ‘childen’ will, of course, be even older since they were meant to be between 5 and 10 years old when they were created, in 1964. This will be a worrying thought for most of us Brits aged between 30 and 45 (and a good many younger) who will remember Peter and Jane as childhood aquaintances who where charged with the task of teaching us to read.

I wonder if the original target audience were aware of the nostalgic, retrospective feel to the Peter and Jane books when they first came out? This, I think, is one of the most interesting aspects of this series, because you can immediately see the point. The softly luminous, idealised pictures of Peter and Jane’s home life and activities have their roots firmly in the 1950s and before.Skip this bit if you don’t plan to collect the books) Basically there are 3 sets of books to collect: The books were first published in 1964, with a firmly 1950s feel to the illustrations provided by the furniture and clothing depicted, and the social context reflecting the life of a white, middle-class family. The books were revised and updated in 1970, and again in the late 1970s, to reflect changes in fashions and in social attitudes. For example, golliwogs were airbrushed out; Daddy takes a more active domestic role; and Jane moved out of skirts and dresses into jeans, and abandoned her dolly for rollerskates. However, Peter still goes out to help Daddy, or actively plays with a ball, while Jane stays indoors to help Mummy, passively watches Peter, or plays with her doll. As well as the Key Words, the stories gradually introduce phonically levelled vocabulary. This combined approach of Key Words and phonics sets children up to become fluent readers and supports the way that they learn to read in school. More about the stories