School reading books

[kasey11]

Re: School reading books

I remember reading the King Rollo books in infant school. And in comprehensive school we had "I Am David". I also remember reading a book but cant remember the name of it; I think it was based during WW2 and one of the characters was called Ruth, and I think her brother(?) rode under a train in freezing conditions. They might have been jewish trying to escape the Germans or something. anyone remember that?

[Shado66]

Re: School reading books

"I am David" is a classic.....I don't know why they haven't made it into a film. I think they wanted to do it for kids on TV years ago but they thought it would be too much for a younger audience. We were read the book by our teacher in school a chapter a time. Only time I can remember a quiet class. Made a big impression. Thanks for reminding me.

[havasack]

Re: School reading books

I remember reading the King Rollo books in infant school. And in comprehensive school we had "I Am David". I also remember reading a book but cant remember the name of it; I think it was based during WW2 and one of the characters was called Ruth, and I think her brother(?) rode under a train in freezing conditions. They might have been jewish trying to escape the Germans or something. anyone remember that?

WWII book, sounds like The Silver sword. We read it too, a week later I'm sure it was on Jackanory or The Book tower.

[Richard1978]

Re: School reading books

I remember reading The Silver Sword at school.

IIRC it was about some Polish children who fled Warsaw at the end of the war to try & get to Switzerland where they had relatives.

[havasack]

Re: School reading books

We also read Z for Zachariah and Animal farm when in middle school, then the first book we read in High school was Brave new world. Not sure todays schools could handle that. In fact there's a fair chance that we were read The Silver sword in the final year of Primary school.

[zip55]

Re: School reading books

Through the Garden Gate - a Janet & John book

[havasack]

Re: School reading books

Found (online) the Janet and John book I described earlier, yellow with red title and pic, exactly as I pictured it. For some reason though I can't post the pic on here. Strange how I can remember that book better from 1971/2 than I can what I done at work today!

[Jimbob]

Re: School reading books

I remember reading The Machine Gunners, Animal Farm and Elidor at school. There was also a book but I can't remember much about it - part of the story is that a girl goes missing and is found raped and murdered. There are two brothers and the eldest one gets arrested for the crime. I only remember it because the class was so quiet during the reading of that particular part. I wish I could remember the name of the book now.

[marc]

Re: School reading books

The Janet and John books have been mentioned here. Can anybody confirm when they were phased out in schools. I remember reading the Peter and Jane Ladybird books in 1972. My friend who was a year older, and attended a different school, started with Janet and John. I believe these books were given away when they were phased out.

[Richard1978]

Re: School reading books

There were also some Simon & Elizabeth reading books around.

[darren]

Re: School reading books

Heyday the FIFTIES and SIXTIES

The books became hugely popular and influential in the teaching of schoolchildren throughout the 1950s and 1960s.^[1] This was one of the first popular "look-and-say" reading schemes and, as such, introduced the less regular "Key words" at an early stage of reading than the PHONICS schemes.
Janet and John were portrayed as average ENGLISH children, living a typical MIDDLE CLASS life that reinforced many of the stereotypes of the time, and the books consisted of stories that progressively incorporated key words needed in the development of reading skills.

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Revival - the 2000s

The Janet and John copyright was sold to StarKids, who rewrote the material. Alison Bierrum and Elizabeth Mackenzie-Wood the daughters of Rona Munro, who had nothing to do with the StarKids version, were appalled by them. The series was revamped in 2001^[3] by Bierrum and MacKenzie-Wood, and released by publishers StarKids with Janet and John given a totally new appearance. The new series of 33 books featured modern themes, the inclusion of a more culturally diverse cast of characters and contemporary styles of dress.
In September 2007, Summersdale Publishers reissued the first two Janet and John books, Here We Go and Off to Play, exactly as they were first published in 1949, except with hardcovers as they were primarily intended as nostalgia gifts for those who learned to read with these books..


DECLINE THE SEVENTIES.

By the 1970s, Janet and John’s straightforward and simple world was seen as being outdated and the books fell out of favour as did an updated version Kathy and Mark which used the same vocabulary, merely changing the names and illustrations in the books.


I DIDNT START SCHOOL UNTIL 79 SO DONT REMEMBER USING THEM.

[Richard1978]

Re: School reading books

Bill Bryson mentions in one of his books reading Janet & John, mentioning the pictures already looked out of date, so I was guessing this would have been late 50s early 60s.

[marc]

Re: School reading books

Darren, thanks for that information. Something has rung a bell. I think I now remember something in some TV programme years ago about these books. I can't remember what programme though.

[zabadak]

Re: School reading books

Can't remember what we (Dick & Dora, perhaps?) had but I read them really quickly...