Looking for: 1970s/80s British children’s illustrated “scene and key” book
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1Aetchfish
I’m trying to identify a set of children’s books I had in England in the 1980s (the series itself may date from the 1970s). Key features:
• Annual-sized hardbacks, each a single solid colour — I remember a red one and a blue one; others in the series may have been green, purple, etc.
• Each book had a theme (e.g. how families live, dance around the world, people at work, exploration).
• Inside, each spread had a detailed, realistic illustrated scene on one page — drawn, but not cartoony.
• On the facing page was the same scene redrawn as a numbered line-drawing (outline only), with a numbered key underneath naming each object or telling you what each person was doing.
• It was educational/identification in purpose — not a story, and not a hidden-objects puzzle. The point was to name and explain everything in the scene.
• Scenes I specifically remember: a Chinese New Year celebration with a dragon, and a school disco. (Other people who’ve looked for this recall scenes like children building a treehouse, people at a swimming pool, divers raising a shipwreck, and men down a coal mine.)
Illustrations were by different illustrators across the series. Likely a British educational publisher — possibly Macdonald Educational, Hamlyn, Purnell, Sampson Low, or Kingfisher. Does anyone recognise the series name or publisher?
All I’ve been able to find matching this is a years old post on Goodreads. I believe this is the same series of books but that post had no resolution.
• Annual-sized hardbacks, each a single solid colour — I remember a red one and a blue one; others in the series may have been green, purple, etc.
• Each book had a theme (e.g. how families live, dance around the world, people at work, exploration).
• Inside, each spread had a detailed, realistic illustrated scene on one page — drawn, but not cartoony.
• On the facing page was the same scene redrawn as a numbered line-drawing (outline only), with a numbered key underneath naming each object or telling you what each person was doing.
• It was educational/identification in purpose — not a story, and not a hidden-objects puzzle. The point was to name and explain everything in the scene.
• Scenes I specifically remember: a Chinese New Year celebration with a dragon, and a school disco. (Other people who’ve looked for this recall scenes like children building a treehouse, people at a swimming pool, divers raising a shipwreck, and men down a coal mine.)
Illustrations were by different illustrators across the series. Likely a British educational publisher — possibly Macdonald Educational, Hamlyn, Purnell, Sampson Low, or Kingfisher. Does anyone recognise the series name or publisher?
All I’ve been able to find matching this is a years old post on Goodreads. I believe this is the same series of books but that post had no resolution.
