The
Key Words Reading Scheme is a series of 36
English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
early readersBasal readers are textbooks used to teach reading and associated skills to schoolchildren. Commonly called "reading books" or "readers" they are usually published as anthologies that combine previously published short stories, excerpts of longer narratives, and original works...
children's booksChildren's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve and is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes exclude young-adult fiction, comic books, or other genres. Books specifically for children existed by the 17th century...
, published by the
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
publishing company,
Ladybird BooksLadybird Books is a London-based publishing company, trading as a stand-alone imprint within the Penguin Group of companies. The Ladybird imprint publishes mass-market children's books.-History:...
. The series are also often referred to as
Peter and Jane, the names of the main characters.
The first book in the series, Ladybird series 641, was published in 1964, and the series was completed by the first publication of the 36th book in 1967. Over 80 million books in the series have been sold worldwide, and the books remain in print in 2006.
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-Nobility:*William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield , British jurist*William Murray, 4th Earl of Mansfield and Mansfield , British nobleman*William Murray, 8th Earl of Mansfield and Mansfield -Nobility:*William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield (1705–1793), British jurist*William Murray, 4th Earl of...
.
The
Key Words Reading Scheme is a series of 36
English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
early readersBasal readers are textbooks used to teach reading and associated skills to schoolchildren. Commonly called "reading books" or "readers" they are usually published as anthologies that combine previously published short stories, excerpts of longer narratives, and original works...
children's booksChildren's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve and is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes exclude young-adult fiction, comic books, or other genres. Books specifically for children existed by the 17th century...
, published by the
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
publishing company,
Ladybird BooksLadybird Books is a London-based publishing company, trading as a stand-alone imprint within the Penguin Group of companies. The Ladybird imprint publishes mass-market children's books.-History:...
. The series are also often referred to as
Peter and Jane, the names of the main characters.
The first book in the series, Ladybird series 641, was published in 1964, and the series was completed by the first publication of the 36th book in 1967. Over 80 million books in the series have been sold worldwide, and the books remain in print in 2006.
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-Nobility:*William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield , British jurist*William Murray, 4th Earl of Mansfield and Mansfield , British nobleman*William Murray, 8th Earl of Mansfield and Mansfield -Nobility:*William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield (1705–1793), British jurist*William Murray, 4th Earl of...
. Murray was an educational adviser at a
borstalA borstal was a specific kind of youth prison in the United Kingdom, run by the Prison Service and intended to reform seriously delinquent young people. The word is sometimes used, incorrectly, to apply to other kinds of youth institution or reformatory, such as Approved Schools and Detention...
and later headmaster of a "school for the educationally subnormal" in
CheltenhamCheltenham , or Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, England with a population of 110,013 at the 2001 census. The inhabitants are known as "Cheltonians". Its motto is: Salubritas et Eruditio ....
. From research undertaken in the 1950s by Murray with Professor Joe McNally, an educational psychologist at Manchester University, Murray realised that only 12 words account for ¼, 100 words account for ½, and 300 words account for ¾, of the words used in normal speaking, reading and writing in the
English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
.
Starting with book 1a, a budding reader of primary school age, from 3 to 5 year old, is introduced to brother and sister Peter and Jane, their dog Pat, their Mummy and Daddy, and their home, toys, playground, the beach, shops, buses and trains, and so on. The first book uses the 12 key works which are used repeatedly ("Here is Peter", "Peter is here", "Here is Jane", "Jane is here", "I like Peter", "I like Jane"). Additional words are introduced gradually, page by page, to expand the reader's reading vocabulary, with the new words on each page set out in a footnote. The reader can consolidate their learning with books 1b, or practise writing in book 1c, all with the same vocabulary; or progress to book 2a (and 2b and 2c), and so on, with 12 sets of three books in all.
All of the books are small, thin hardback volumes with 56 pages, measuring 112×170 mm. Each book has text on a left page and an illustration on the facing right page, drawn by artists
Harry WingfieldJohn Henry "Harry" Wingfield was an English illustrator, best known for his drawings that illustrated the Ladybird Books Key Words Reading Scheme in the 1960s through to the 1980s, and which sold over 80 million copies worldwide.Wingfield was born in Denby, near Derby, where his father worked at...
,
Martin AitchisonMartin Aitchison was an illustrator for the Eagle comic from 1952 to 1963, and then one of the main illustrators for Ladybird Books from 1963 to 1990....
,
Frank HampsonFrank Hampson was an illustrator and is best known for being the creator and artist of Dan Dare and other characters in the British boys' comic, the Eagle, to which he contributed between 1950 and 1959...
, Robert Ayton and
John BerrySir John Berry was a English naval officer of the Royal Navy, and was in 1675 the captain of the annual convoy to Newfoundland that took place during the years of the colony's founding....
. The illustrations vary in style from books to book, depending on artist, but Peter and Jane are recognisable throughout. The clear sans serif
typefaceIn typography, a typeface is a set of one or more fonts, in one or more sizes, designed with stylistic unity, each comprising a coordinated set of glyphs. A typeface usually comprises an alphabet of letters, numerals, and punctuation marks; it may also include ideograms and symbols, or consist...
used in the books starts at a large size and gradually becomes smaller as the reader progresses through the books. The sentence structure also becomes gradually more complex.
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, it remains notable how often Peter goes out to help Daddy, or actively plays with a ball, for example, while Jane stays at home to help Mummy, passively watches Peter, or plays with her doll.
Few changes have been made to the books since the 1970s, and they may be considered a source of
social historySocial history is an area of historical study, considered by some to be a social science, that attempts to view historical evidence from the point of view of developing social trends...
. The books make use of the whole word or "look and say" technique which is generally considered outmoded as a method of
reading educationReading education is the process by which individuals are taught to derive meaning from the visual notation of speech which in our culture is called text....
when not used in conjunction with
phonicsPhonics refers to a method for teaching speakers of English to read and write that language. Phonics involves teaching how to connect the sounds of spoken English with letters or groups of letters and teaching them to blend the sounds of letters together to produce approximate pronunciations of...
. Nevertheless, the books remain on sale in 2006, priced relatively cheaply at around
£The pound sterling , often simply called the pound, is the currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctic Territory...
2.50 per book.
In some Asian countries, particularly those which are also part of the British Commonwealth, the books are still widely used as a teaching aid in nurseries, preschools and kindergartens.