We are back on our mission to have the best time-traveling classroom dolls can have. At some point in the past, someone asked the human to make a set of mid-century readers, the Alice and Jerry readers. These generally date from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. We think they were eventually replaced by the more popular Dick and Jane New Basic Readers.
The series had:
2 pre-readers ("Day In and Day Out", "The Wishing Well")
2 1st grade readers ("Round About", "Anything Can Happen")
3 2nd grade readers ("Friendly Village", "Down the River Road", "Neighbors on the Hill")
3 3rd grade readers ("Through the Green Gate", "If I Were Going", "The Five and a half Club")
1 4th grade reader ("Engine Whistle")
1 5th grade reader ("Wagon Wheels")
1 6th grade reader ("Runaway Home")
These are our versions of the pre-readers and the 1st grade readers.
And here's the second and third grade readers. All 6 of them.
The stories are all of idealized life in mid-century America, in a small town surrounded by farms.
Where a trip 'into the city' was a big event.
Finally, the last 3 'grown up' readers. These covered more historical fiction, biographies of famous people (almost all men, and the only women included were the very feminine ones. Which makes sense given the era these were published.)
The best thing about historical textbooks is how they represent the general views and moral system of the time. If you're interested in a series on the history of schoolbooks for children in the US, please leave a comment. We've got everything from the first New England Primer (1774) to the Dick and Jane New Basic Readers.
If you would like these readers, the printable is on sale now on Etsy.
I would love to read a series about the history of textbooks!
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