Features: Tasveer Shemza gets to see her prizewinning painting transferred to a 3d Christmas stamp (a nation of talented young painters gnash their teeth)... Val and John expound on their collection of picture postcards - the result of asking viewers to send postcards from their holidays while Val and John were away on theirs (to Singapore and Borneo)... John reports on 'Joey's Progress' - how Joey the parrot is learning to speak and getting a chance to 'act' in Dr Finlay's Casebook (voiced by Peter Hawkins of Bleep and Booster and Daleks fame)... This year's appeal is for inshore lifeboats, which in 1967 cost '£650, or 60,000 paperback books' - the appeal eventually collected enough books to supply 4 inshore lifeboats! ... Thor Heyerdal makes his bid to cross the Pacific Ocean in a craft made of balsa wood and bamboo - the Kon Tiki... Patch attends obedience classes - 'One thing I've always hated is a badly behaved dog' says John... In contrast, Val takes Jason the siamese cat to the National Cat Club Show, giving full instructions on how to attend to, groom and display your prized pussy to best advantage... John follows the BP trend for danger by climbing up the belltower of Big Ben and peering out from the clock face, '...there's a little window you can take out to reach the hands!'... Jason became a grandfather to three kittens, Ruben, Remus And Rebecca, while Petra became a grandmother to Brandy, Dandy and Mandy ten weeks later - and full marks to whoever chose those completely non-confusing names... A cutaway diagram shows the inner workings of the famous 60532 Blue Peter steam engine... John gets to the top of things again as he climbs 110 feet up to the cab of a tower crane... We travel down the corridors of the BBC, behind the scenes of The Count of Luxembourg - a musical production being staged for television - as we follow the work of designer Eileen Diss.

Makes: Yes, this is the one. Book Four gives you the instructions you need to make that wonderful advent crown. Stock up now on fireproof tinsel and wire coathangers.
Val shows us the simplest dessert of all time - Fruit Cream Crunch - made from digestive biscuits, butter, sugar, tinned fruit and cream.
John demonstrates a 'Flying Wing' made from a polystyrene ceiling tile.
'Shoe Box House' - need I say more? Val demonstrates how six shoe boxes can be turned into a lovely dolls' house. Spacious and desirable, and guests can stay in the box room (arf!).

Historical Figure's Life Story in Pictures: How the Christmas carol 'Silent Night' came to be written (by Father Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber).
Death to the Mosquito - the story of Ronald Ross, who in 1897 linked the mosquito to the transmission of malaria.
Stories: Bleep and Booster investigate missing cattle (!) which are being rustled by the outlaw fish people of the planet Zamma. The duo also feature in a thrilling game called 'Space Rescue' - yup, it's another dice and counter game.
Paddington has a run in with Blue Peter pet Joey, after agreeing to look after him while Val and John are "away making a film for the new series"
Bengo has four pages (two in full colour, two in two-colour) telling the heartwarming story of a bulldog called Bully who becomes a reformed character.
Rubbish Mystery Story: The Case of the One Armed Bandit - the theft of the Rajah's Trophy at "England's most famous soccer-playing school," St Simon's, which requires the reader to have knowledge of the tribes of the Sudan and the North-west frontier of India!

Notes: A book with a slight difference - only two presenters - as Val and John are yet to be joined by Peter Purves. This also seems a rather text heavy and serious entry in the range, with many of the main features either on weighty subjects (malaria, the Kon-Tiki) or on stay-at-home assignments (training the pets, a TV designer - how much closer to home could they have got!). Obviously BP at this time - though already massively popular - was still on a tight budget, and couldn't travel out every week as a matter of course to find its subject matter. The endpapers, however, give an interesting insight into the look of BP at this time. Since the programme was still being made in black and white, it's interesting to note in the colour photo of the studio that the BP ship in those days was actually made of pink perspex! This book also grasps the nettle of corporate design. For the first time this is 'Blue Peter - nth Book', and the typeface and layout remain for the fifth and sixth entries in the series before inexplicably changing to a much poorer style for seven and eight, and then reverting to variations of the theme for nine through to fourteen. Rather difficult to hard to find - even if the run is supposed to be the same for books 4-14. This may have something to do with a rather poor binding, which has rendered many copies spineless and hence binbound over the years. A copy with no spine was spotted recently for £2.50 so we would say £5-8 for a good condition copy. Books have recently been sighted in the higher £12-15 bracket!