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If you're a parent and one of your offspring currently has their nose in a classic Ladybird book, wrestle it out of their hands at once, put it in plastic and stick it in the attic. It could be worth some sensible money.

On the quiet, and almost under the noses of traditional booksellers, the desirability of Ladybird books has risen over the past few years to the point that some rare and collectible copies can now change hands for around £300. Not bad for a series which for thirty years sold for 2s 6d each.

Of course, with print-runs of thousands of copies, many books are still only worth pennies, but there are some pleasant surprises around. The first place to look of course is your own childhood library. Ladybirds are valuable to many who benefit from their increasing love of nostalgia and the comfort of childhood memories, a factor that could help them continue in popularity.

Most collectors either try to collect one of everything the company produced (quite a feat as there were several hundred produced between the most popular period - 1940-1980) or they specialise in a single series such as Fairy Tales and Rhymes, Animals or Adventures from History, to name but a few. Some hunt high and low for first editions, but it can be problematic as many Ladybird books often did not have any method for stating whether a book was a first edition or not.

Some collectors simply enjoy the books for the nostalgic childhood memories, while others like the uniformity in how great they look on shelves with the little bugs. Some are also drawn to particular illustrators and their imaginative artwork.

Prices for Ladybird books seem to depend on two main factors - which series they are from (some are much more popular than others) and how rare they are. There is a page on The Wee Web that shows which series' are more popular than others and which are particularly rare.

Some specific books and some whole series are now very rare and are sought by collectors all over the country. The early, six-book 'Adventures of Wonk' series, for example, is very hard to come by. The books, with stories about a Koala bear illustrated by Kiddell-Monroe, will sell for about £100 per copy with dust jacket and between £15-60 without.

The un-PC-sounding single book series 'The Tinker's Wig' is also very hard to find. Published in 1947 it is something of an oddity as it is not only twice the size of a standard Ladybird book but it also broke Ladybird's printing style by printing text on both sides of the pages and using fewer pictures. A copy with dust jacket would sell for £100-150, without you could get £40-60 for it.

Cinderella, a really well-loved title, was changing hands five years ago for £5 a copy. Now they're £55 each and if you have one of the really rare copies that had a dust jacket it's more like £250.

Officially, the rarest Ladybird book - so rare, it seems, that not one collector has even seen one - is a special printing of 'The Computer' from the 'How it Works' series (series 654) which was produced privately for the Ministry of Defence in 1972.

You can usually find the books in car boot sales, jumble sales, charity shops and on websites. Abebooks.co.uk and eBay are really useful places to look. It's also helpful to know that specialist bookshops often don't know much about Ladybirds and it's possible to get good ones at knock-down prices.

Opportunities are getting rarer, though. Ten years ago, you could get a whole box of Ladybug books for £1 at car boot sales or pick them up for 5p in charity shops, but with the internet, and particularly eBay, prices have shot up over the last five years. You can expect to pay between £5 and £350 for a single book. People are starting to see what they can get for their old books and it's getting harder to find the great bargains. Prices have gone up by hundreds of per cent.

The best bargains can still be found in car boot sales as many individuals don't realise how much the books are worth. Charity shops like Oxfam, which have book experts on hand, do not sell them at the knock-down rate they used to.

At present, there isn't a society for Ladybird lovers, but a few fans are discussing the possibility of setting one up. Once that happens, copies could be bought and sold even more energetically and prices, for the next decade or so at least, look like they will continue to rise. Getting started

Visit these websites to buy books and find out more information on collecting:

• Abebooks.co.uk - a great way to find books
• TheWeeWeb.co.uk - fan and bookselling site
• Ebay.co.uk - find your books at auction
• www.ladybirdflyawayhome.com - fan site
• www.ladybirdbookcollector.co.uk - fan site
• www.dottybug.co.uk - fan site

- Get a discount on Jasmine Birtles's 'A Bit on the Side' from Amazon

Jasmine Birtles is from Money Magpie - the website that gives you a richer life