Alice and Jerry was a
basal reader
Basal readers are textbooks used to teach reading and associated skills to schoolchildren. Commonly called "reading books" or "readers" they are usually published as anthologies that combine previously published short stories, excerpts of longe ...
educational series published and used in classrooms from the mid-1930s to the 1960s. The books sold nearly 100 million copies worldwide. This series competed at the time with the Dick and Jane educational series.
Book summaries
The "Alice and Jerry" books followed a sister and brother, Alice and Jerry, as well as their dog Jip, through a series of simple events in relatively plain settings. The "Alice and Jerry" series followed patterns similar to the
Dick and Jane
''Dick and Jane'' are the two main characters created by Zerna Sharp for a series of basal readers written by William S. Gray to teach children to read. The characters first appeared in the ''Elson-Gray Readers'' in 1930 and continued in a sub ...
readers, which are now better known in the United States.
The sentences in the "Alice and Jerry" readers were short, and used repeating words to build reader's stamina and familiarity. For instance, here is the text from the book "Skip Along": "One, two three. Come and see. Come and see. See my umbrella. Look, Jerry. Up. // One, two three. Come and see. Come and see. See my airplane. Up, up, up. Down."
Book titles
* Pre-Primers: "Here and There", "Rides and Slides", "Skip Along", "Under the Sky", "Open the Door", "High on a Hill", "Day In and Day Out"
* First-grade primers: "The Wishing Well", "Round About", "Anything Can Happen"
* Second-grade readers: "Down the River Road", "Friendly Village", "Neighbors On The Hill"
* Third-grade readers: "Through The Green Gate", "If I Were Going", "Five-and-a-Half Club"
* Fourth-grade readers: "Singing Wheels"
* Fifth-grade readers: "Engine Whistles"
* Sixth-grade readers: "Runaway Home"
* Wonder story books: "It Happened One Day", "It Must Be Magic", "After the Sun Sets"
Some of these books were later updated, with "The New" added to the front of the book titles.
Publishing history
The "Alice and Jerry" books were published by Row, Peterson and Company, which later became part of
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
. Nearly all the books were written by
Mabel O'Donnell
Mabel O'Donnell (1890–1985) was an author of popular children's literature, mostly basal readers that helped young readers build stamina and endurance. O'Donnell is best known for the Alice and Jerry and Janet and John series. Books by O'Donnell ...
, who also wrote an
Anglicisation
Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influen ...
of the series, named
Janet and John
''Janet and John'' is a series of early reading books for children, originally published in the UK by James Nisbet and Co in four volumes in 1949–50, and one of the first to make use of the "look and say" approach. Further volumes appeared l ...
.
O'Donnell was a teacher, supervisor and curriculum coordinator for elementary schools in
East Aurora Public School District 131
East Aurora Public School District 131 (also known as Aurora Public Schools: East Side) is a public school district serving preschool through high school students in Aurora, Illinois, United States. It is considered the state's first public school ...
. Most of the books were illustrated by Florence and Margaret Hoopes.
Both series were widely used in the United States and other English-speaking countries. The books were often sold as a set that a classroom might use for a reading curriculum.
See also
*
Dick and Jane
''Dick and Jane'' are the two main characters created by Zerna Sharp for a series of basal readers written by William S. Gray to teach children to read. The characters first appeared in the ''Elson-Gray Readers'' in 1930 and continued in a sub ...
*
Ant and Bee
The Ant and Bee stories are a series of small-format hardback books written by Angela Banner (pseudonym of Angela Mary Maddison ee Lincke 1923–2014).
She began writing the books in order to teach her son how to read. Angela Mary Lincke mar ...
*
Janet and John
''Janet and John'' is a series of early reading books for children, originally published in the UK by James Nisbet and Co in four volumes in 1949–50, and one of the first to make use of the "look and say" approach. Further volumes appeared l ...
*
Peter and Jane
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a sur ...
References
{{Reflist
Series of children's books
Early childhood education
Early childhood education in the United States
Learning to read
Reading (process)
Basal readers