THE SUNSTART READING SCHEME After Longmans had acquired Ladybird Books in the mid 1970’s, it was decided to launch new version of the Reading Scheme, specifically developed for the West Indies, where Longmans had extensive publishing interests. Both Martin Aitchison and Bill Murray made separate visits to the West Indies in preparation for the series. Accompanied by local Longmans representatives, Martin undertook extensive photographic research in Trinidad, Jamaica and the Bahamas. A few surviving samples are shown below. ‘Peter and Jane’ became ‘Ken and Joy’ and the stories were adapted, not only for a different cultural environment but also to include a greater educational content in the later books. For example ‘I Wish’ uses a magic carpet ride to introduce geographic topics, and ‘Animals, Birds and Fish’ and ‘Guess What’ were designed to blend reading skills with a range of different factual subjects. As ever with child models, the results of the photographic sessions were mixed and so Martin later used additional models from schools in Tottenham, North London. The main models for Ken and Joy, however, were from the West Indies. Martin fondly recalls the Sunstart scheme as some of his most interesting and satisfying work for Ladybird. Now view the Sunstart pictures for sale or read the next page: Great Artists and Great Composers