Talkabout Home, series 735

The Talkabout series, series 735, is a truly excellent set of books which are still very good – even today – of doing the job they were designed for.  The serve as a brilliant introduction to books and reading for very young children and just get kids talking and interacting very effectively.  Of course the pictures are now very dated, but the principle is as good as ever.  This series of books was heavily revised after the 1980s but lost most of its charm in the process.

This matt copy is the original 1970s version.  Unusually it is still in good condition – normally books in this series get used and re-used until they fall to pieces – or become victims of a toddler’s early wax crayon enthusiasm.  This copy could be put on a shelf or still be used for its original purpose – engaging with a young child about the contents of a book as a preliminary to reading.  There’s just some wear to the spine and a blemish top right of cover (see photos).  It dates to the mid-1970s and has the original price of 24p on the back.