New but not improved

 

What to Look for in... Elizabeth Jenner, illus. Natasha Durley. Ladybird Books

Library books

After my utter delight in the 1960s editions of the What to Look for books I was looking forward to comparing them with the 2020 editions and I was delighted when my library reservations came in so quickly.

Sadly that's pretty much my only delight where these books are concerned. Where as I've already used the 60 year old books to identify wildlife I've seen in the past month or so I really can't see myself saying the same for these books.

They are bright and colourful but none of the pictures are in context, they are just illustrations on a page - not part of a scene and this means you' can't actually tell where you'd see the bird/insect/flower and on top of that the scale of the images is often out of kilter. A wren is not the same size as a robin for instance.

Some of the text is really good - I especially liked the part that explains how tides work for instance (and I could have done with this as a child for it was only recently I've been convinced that the tide being out in Kent doesn't mean that it is high tide in France) - the tone really annoyed me, especially the use of quotation marks when describing things:

Once the vegetables in these beds have been picked, the allotment gardeners will break up the soils and remove any weeds, using a metal tool called a "hoe".

 What to look for in Autumn p.12

It is good to see that there are nature books for younger children still be produced but however fond I am of Ladybird books I'd really recommend either I-Spy or Usborne books over these. New definitely isn't improved. 

Double page spread from What to look for in Autumn showing both of my main problems with the books.