A key part of all childhoods (whether they were in the 80s or not) are storybooks. We all have vivid recollections of parents and teachers reading to us, and as we got that little bit older, these tended to be the kind of books that encouraged us youngsters to try and read along, teaching us how to do it.
How many of the following leard-to-read books do you remember, and which was your very favourite?
10. One, Two, Three And Away!
You may not recognise the book series that went by the name ‘One, Two, Three and Away!’, but if we give you some of the names of the characters that featured in the series, then we suspect that the memories will come flooding back rather quickly.
The characters included Roger Red-hat, Billy Blue-hat and Jennifer Yellow-hat, and book titles included Roger and the Little Mouse, Jennifer Yellow-hat Went Out in the Sunshine, and Billy Blue-hat and the Duck Pond. Does it ring any bells now?
9. Ladybird Well-Loved Tales
The Ladybird ‘Well-Loved Tales’ series of books gave us new versions of timeless and classic stories, and if you didn’t read at least one of them as a child then we’d be extremely surprised.
Examples of books in the series include The Enormous Turnip, Chicken Licken, The Magic Porridge Pot, The Gingerbread Boy, The Elves And The Shoemaker and The Three Billy-Goats Gruff. How many of them do you remember reading?
8. Ladybird Key Words
Those of you who are slightly older (or who’s school hadn’t updated their learn to read books in a while) may remember another series of Ladybird books called ‘The Ladybird Key Words Reading Scheme’.
One of the books in the series was called We Have Fun, and some featured the adventures of Peter and Jane. Do you remember them?
7. The Ginn Reading Programme
Another series of books that helped our teachers teach us how to read in the 1980s went by the name of ‘The Ginn Reading Programme’.
Do any of you remember reading one of these when you were at primary school?
6. Spot
Titles in the Spot series of books by Eric Hill included Spot’s Fun in the Sun, Spot Loves His Mommy, Spot Says Goodnight – and of course Where’s Spot?, which was the first book in the series.
We remember having to open flaps in an attempt to find the cheeky little pup, only to discover a variety of other animals instead!
5. There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly
Many of you will know the ‘There was an old lady who swallowed a fly’ rhyme, but how many of you remember reading the book that visualised the old lady’s disgusting culinary habits.
We remember reading it at school, and the fact that it was so grisly was the reason that it was one of our very favourites!
4. Peepo!
Peepo!, written by Janet and Allan Ahlberg, was called Peek-A-Boo! in the US, and is a classic picture book that was aimed at babies and toddlers.
We’ll be extremely surprised you don’t at least slightly remember the distinctive front cover!
3. Mr. Men
Everybody has their favourite Mr. Men book, whether it was Mr. Happy, Mr. Bump, Mr. Nosey, Mr. Small, Mr. Tickle… the wonderful list goes on.
Then, of course, there was also the Little Miss series, also created by writer and artist Roger Hargreaves.
2. The Owl Who Was Afraid Of The Dark
We know that many of you are big fans of The Owl Who Was Afraid Of The Dark by Jill Tomlinson, and we bet that a good number of you read it at school.
In case you’ve forgotten, The Owl Who Was Afraid Of The Dark is about a young barn owl called Plop who is of course scared of the dark.
1. Topsy And Tim
Created by Jean and George Anderson, the Topsy and Tim books date all the way back to the early 60s, and have remained hugely popular among young readers to this day.
These days, a lot of younger viewers are even more familiar with Topsy and Tim as they have their own live-action TV series on CBeebies.