Do you have any Ladybird books at home that you no longer want to keep or that your children no longer read? Would you like to help contribute to a display in the new galleries at The MERL?

We are looking for Ladybird books to form part of a duplicate set of the books which we will use as part of a display in the new galleries.

We have quite a few duplicates already – over 200! – but there are some titles in particular that we are looking for, and if you would like to donate these for the display, we would be very pleased to hear from you!

We are looking for any editions of the following titles:

• British birds and their nests, by Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald, colour illustrations by Allen W. Seaby.
• The story of printing, by David Carey ; with illustrations by Robert Ayton.
• The elves and the shoemaker, retold by Vera Southgate; with illustrations by Robert Lumley.
• Exploring space, by Roy Worvill and illlustrated by Bernard Herbert Robinson and B. Knight (or any of the Ladybird ‘Achievements’ books).
• Any recently published (in the last twenty years) Ladybirds (but not the recent adult parody versions!), especially children’s film tie-ins and reprinted fairy tales.

Please contact Fiona Melhuish (f.h.melhuish@reading.ac.uk) or Erika Delbecque (e.delbecque@reading.ac.uk), the UMASCS Librarians, if you have any Ladybird books you would like to donate, ideally by Friday 7 October 2016.

We are always pleased to hear from anyone who would be interested in donating their Ladybird books to us for our main Ladybird Collection as well, held in the rare book collections.

We look forward to hearing from you!