Ladybird Ladybird - Cultural References

Cultural References

• At the outset of Chapter 14 of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain writes: "A brown spotted lady-bug climbed the dizzy heights of a grass blade, and Tom bent down close to it and said: 'Lady-bug, lady-bug, fly away home, Your house is on fire, your children's alone'..."
• The rhyme is alluded to in Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse (1910).
• The rhyme's title was used for a 1994 drama-documentary, Ladybird Ladybird, by Ken Loach about a British woman's dispute with Social Services over the care and custody of her four children.
• The lines "fly away from home, your house is on fire and your children are alone" are used by Tom Waits in the song "Jockey Full Of Bourbon" on the 1985 album Rain Dogs.
• Ladybug Ladybug is a 1963 film about the evacuation of a rural elementary school following a (mistaken) alert of an imminent nuclear attack.
• Fly Away Home is a 1996 film about a young girl who, with her father, leads a flock of Canadian geese to a wildlife refuge.
• The rhyme is referred to in the 2011 British horror film The Awakening.
• It appears in Chapter 8 of the Czech classic, The Grandmother (Babička). "Adelka placed the lady-bird on her open palm and raised her hand high, chanting: 'Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home-' 'Your house is on fire, and your children are gone!' completed Willie."