The company Ladybird, having taken a number of years to feel anything but embarrassment about the National Treasure status of old Ladybird Book imagery, has had a volte-face. In the last few years, especially at Christmas, an increasing range of nostalgia-fest products have been for sale: jigsaws, mugs, lunch-boxes, pencil-cases etc. Notebooks have been one of the more affordable products - Ladybird Book-proportioned soft-back notebooks (like the Shopping With Mother one above) destined for the Christmas stockings and the scribbles of the nostalgic baby-boomer.
Recently another sort of Ladybird notebook has appeared at Hertfordshire craft fairs this winter. These are actual old Ladybird Books which have been operated upon - they've been unbound, had the covers removed and then been re-bound with a strong spiral coil, and with the pages interleaved with blank pages.
Assuming the original books had major flaws - no spine, missing pages etc - I like the idea of re-purposing them in this way. You can buy these books (not just Ladybird Books but a range of others too) at this website:
Always assuming ...
