Early Animal Fiction - series 401, 455 and 474 and 497
Series 401:
Original rhyming stories illustrated by Magregor such as 'Gingers Adventures', 'Piggley Plays Truant' and 'Smoke and Fluff'. The slideshow below shows the 14 main titles - although 18 were issued in total, between 1940 and 1956. You'll find all the books on the Series 401 page.
Series 417:
The Adventures of Wonk
Wonk was a kuala bear who had various adventures with his friend Peter. There were only 6 'Wonk' books published and they were never published after the 1950s. As a result they are among the harder-to-find Ladybird Books today and often command a high price at sales. The six books can be seen below. For further details and more pictures, click on the Series 417 link in the menu on the left of this page.
The six books in series 474. For a more detailed look at these series and more pictures, go to the Series 474 page
A total of 10 stories were originally published in series 497. All the stories were written by Noel Barr and illustrated by P B Hickling.
Where the 401 stories were written in verse and were intended for younger children, these stories were in prose and were for a slightly older age group. All the stories focus on a different animal and an adventure that ensues usually because of the character flaw in the title!
Below you'll see a quick tour of the 6 most popular titles published in this series. To see pictures of all the books and for more information, go to the Series 497 page.
Here you'll find a quick slideshow introduction to the main titles in the early animal fiction titles. For more pictures and more information on any of these series, use the menu above to go to the dedicated page.
In the first slideshow, you'll see the most poplular 14 titles of the 18 books published in series 401 between 1940 and 1956. For more information and more pictures on ALL the books in this series, click here.
Next you'll see a slideshow of the only 6 titles in the 'Adventures of Wonk' series. You'll find more information and pictures here.
Finally you'll see a slideshow of the most popular 6 titles in the Animal Stories of Noel Barr. You'll find more information on the Series 497 page.