Written by Fiona Melhuish, UMASCS Librarian

If you are passing the University Library on the Whiteknights campus, please do have a look at our new exhibition in the display cases on either side of the lifts in the Library foyer. Come to the farm : children’s books on farming is a celebration of books on farms and farming for children selected from the Children’s Collection, part of the University of Reading rare book collections, and the library of the Museum of English Rural Life.

The exhibits range from an early nineteenth century book on farming and ‘rural economy’ for children [see item on the left in image above] to a twentieth century pop-up book of a Victorian farmhouse [see image below]. The exhibition also features a selection of Ladybird books on farms and farming from our Ladybird collections. Look out for the pop-up book farmhouse, complete with a tiny washing line on a piece of thread [see image below]!