posted on 08 Jul 2016

Angela Banner

Angela Banner is the creator and illustrator of the 13 Ant and Bee reading scheme books for children that were originally published in the early 1960s. Each book in the series introduces a different concept - words, colours, days of the week etc. - and builds them into a story featuring Ant and Bee. The illustrations are colourful if a little naive and bound into books which are unusually small, maybe 3" x 4", and in a rigid hardcover - all unusual design features for reading scheme books at the time.

So who was Angela Banner who cooked up these gloriously bonkers illustrations? Well, it's quite hard to find out. We've rather got used to the notion that we just have to type a name into a search engine and bingo, it's all there for us. Well, in the case of Angela Banner, it isn't. So I'm entirely indebted to The Internet Wander/Wonder website that has refused to take no for an answer and has dug out what fragments of information there are to be found.

It seems she was born Angela Maddison in India in 1923 to parents living out there as part of Britain's colonies and she went on to marry a n army officer called Parsons in 1941. In 1968 she reverted to the name Maddison but used Banner for her books and set up the 'Ant and Bee Partnership'. As far as her philosophy towards reading is concerned , this quotation was given by her to 'Contemporary Authors On-line' :

No child is too young to read a few words from memory in return for praise and this leads to reading confidence ..I believe that children make the best reading teachers so I make books for shared reading between children of different ages.

And that's about all I know or could find out. Maybe the biography isn't too important - just enjoy the illustrations.

 

Terry Potter

July 2016