Even older favourites

Well, our Thomas phase was a brief one and tonight we went for some really old favourites - Ladybird Well Loved Tales.

We actually have two sets of these in our house - my old set, that I read 35 years ago, and a set of modern paperback reproductions.  The reproductions have new illustrations, although the story is the same, and to me that means they have lost part of their charm: even now, years later, I can remember the original pictures in vivid detail.  Sadly, my set is rather battered - they were hand-me-downs in the first place, and then read and re-read by me and then by my brother.  Some seem to have disappeared, and in replacing them I found out just how precious they are: an original Cinderella, in good condition, can fetch up to £35.  No wonder it has become such an iconic image.

Anyway, tonight we read from the newer versions, and Pete chose The Princess and the Pea - a very strange story, when you begin to think about it as an adult, but easy to see why it captures a child's imagination.  We followed that with Peter and the Wolf, another Ladybird edition, which has the interesting twist of having the wolf 'taken away to another forest'....   Do we really believe that?  If we can take the ending of Chicken Licken, then surely we can cope with the idea that the wolf is killed?  Maybe not.  As the boys drifted off to sleep, Stan was heard to ask 'Where is the poor duck?'