''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 later, and the series became a sales success in the 1950s and 60s, both in the UK and in New Zealand. By the 1970s, the books were considered outdated, and several updated versions were issued. Facsimiles of two of the original volumes were reprinted in 2007 to cater for the nostalgia market.
Origins
The ''Janet and John'' books were originally based on the ''
Alice and Jerry
Alice and Jerry was a basal reader 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. ...
'' series published by Row Peterson and Company in the United States, a series that had been 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 ...
and illustrated by Florence and Margaret Hoopes.
In 1949, the publisher James Nisbet and Co licensed and republished them in the UK as a series of four books called ''Janet and John''.
These had a new Anglicised text by Rona Munro, wife of John Mackenzie Wood who ran Nesbit and Co; she was originally a teacher from New Zealand.
Illustrations were by Florence and Margaret Hoopes, with contributions from Christopher Sanders.
Publications
The first volumes of the 1949–50 ''Janet and John'' series were simply called Books One to Four
and presented, using limited vocabulary, incidents from the daily life of a brother and sister.
Additional volumes soon followed: ''Through the Garden Gate'' (1950),
''Off to Play'' (1950),
''I Know a Story'' (1950),
''Here We Go'' (1951),
and ''Once Upon a Time'' (1952).
The books were described by the publishers as "true to the best in life of modern children".
Beginning in 1949, Nisbet released a version specially published for New Zealand, with the same authors and illustrators. There were seven books in all: ''Out and About'' (1949), I Know a Story (1949), ''I Went Walking'' (1949), ''Here We Go'' (1949), ''Off to Play'' (1949), ''Through the Garden Gate'' (1951), and ''Once upon a Time'' (1951).
The only distinctive New Zealand feature was a
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
legend included in the final title, ''Once Upon a Time''.
[ pp. 226-228] Eighty thousand copies of each book were distributed free to New Zealand schools from 1950. A further 20–30,000 of each were printed in 1956, and another 12–20,000 in 1959.
Heyday - 1950s and 1960s
The books became a familiar aid for teaching schoolchildren throughout the 1950s and 1960s,
being used in 81% of British primary schools in 1968.
They were one of the first popular "look-and-say" or "whole word" reading schemes, the approach being to repeat words sufficiently frequently that children memorised them – in contrast with the
phonics
Phonics is a method for teaching people how to Reading, read and write an alphabetic language (such as English alphabet, English, Arabic alphabet, Arabic or Russian alphabet, Russian). It is done by demonstrating the relationship between the so ...
method in which children were encouraged to decode groups of letters.
1970s
During the 1970s, new theories were developed on how children learn to read, and "real books" with "real stories" became increasingly popular.
''Janet and John''s presentation of a middle-class nuclear family fell out of favour, and the series was discontinued in 1976.
''Kathy and Mark''
Working with Philippa Murray, Rona Munro created an updated series for Nisbet and Co called ''Kathy and Mark''. In the UK there were three ''Kathy and Mark Little Book'' collections, each of four volumes: Green 1-4 (1973),
Orange 1-4 (1973),
and Turquoise 1-4 (1974).
They incorporated small in-line illustrations in place of certain words, such as 'umbrella'. Nisbet published a variety of ''Kathy and Mark'' books with other colours and titles.
2000s
Star Kids version
Having purchased the rights to ''Janet and John'' from Nisbet and Co, Star Kids Ltd published an updated series of 33 volumes in 2001 covering reading, writing and mathematics for children aged four to seven.
While the names Janet and John were retained, the text and illustrations were updated to include characters from different ethnic backgrounds and from non-nuclear families.
The series attracted some criticism from those who disapproved of its disregard of phonics in favour of "look and say".
Summersdale reprints
In 2007, as part of a trend in publishing nostalgic facsimiles of old favourites, Summersdale Publishers reissued two of the original ''Janet and John'' books, ''Here We Go'' and ''Off to Play''.
Later critical responses
After the books fell out of fashion they became a target for ridicule on the basis of their stilted diction and overwhelmingly middle-class content.
The radio broadcaster
Terry Wogan
Sir Michael Terence Wogan (; 3 August 1938 – 31 January 2016) was an Irish radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in the UK for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in December 2009, his BBC Radio 2 weekd ...
regularly satirised the books on his
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...
show ''
Wake Up To Wogan
''Wake Up to Wogan'' (''WUTW'') was the incarnation of ''The Radio 2 Breakfast Show'' that aired each weekday morning from 4 January 1993 to 18 December 2009. It was the most-listened-to radio show in the United Kingdom, and the flagship breakfa ...
'' by reading out stories featuring an adult Janet and John in the style of the original, deriving humour through
euphemism
A euphemism () is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes ...
and
innuendo
An innuendo is a hint, insinuation or intimation about a person or thing, especially of a denigrating or derogatory nature. It can also be a remark or question, typically disparaging (also called insinuation), that works obliquely by allusion ...
.
See also
*''
Ant & Bee''
*''
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 subse ...
''
*''
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 ...
''
*''
The Magic Key
''The Magic Key'' is a British educational animated television series based on the "Biff, Chip and Kipper" stories from the Oxford Reading Tree published by Oxford University Press, originally written by Roderick Hunt and illustrated by Alex ...
''
References
{{Reflist
Series of children's books
Early childhood education
Early childhood education in New Zealand
Early childhood education in the United Kingdom
New Zealand children's books
Basal readers
Learning to read
Reading (process)