The Ladybird Gallery

The Ladybird Gallery at The MERL is the only permanent exhibition space in the world dedicated to the art of the iconic Ladybird Books. The gallery showcases highlights from our archive of over 20,000 illustrations held by the University of Reading’s Special Collections.

Millions of children have learnt about the world around them through these remarkable little books. Can you find your favourite on the wall of books?

The Ladybird Gallery has been generously funded by Ladybird Books Ltd, part of the Penguin Random House group of companies.

From this gallery, you can also see Our Country Lives from a new perspective!

Activities in this gallery

Put yourself on a front cover

Put your head through the hole and put yourself on the front cover of this iconic Ladybird Book. But who’s Beauty and who will be The Beast?!

Spot your favourite Ladybird book

Everyone loves the Ladybird ‘wall of books’. Can you find your favourite in our collection?

Watch a film relating to the temporary display

The theme of the display in the case changes regularly and a new film for you to watch is included each time.