It's only when you actually SEE a 'Janet and John' reader, c.1968 that you realise that ORT isn't so bad!

[miljee]

You've probably seen a couple of these reissued in the nostalgia section of bookshops, the yellow and orange ones. You recall your learning to read days and flick one open and lo!

"Look, Janet" said John.
"Look, John" said Janet.
Janet and John look. The dog looks.
Janet, John and the dog look".

Give me
"Suddenly, the magic key began to glow.." any day!

I have been buying these for my 4 year old and she loves them.

Didn't realize they actually existed. I thought Janet and John were mythical, a bit like Sharon and Tracey...

My first reading books at school were Janet and John books and I loved them.

Mother is normally chained to the sink, I seem to rememver.

The last in the sequence before we went onto free readers was pink, and had drawings of mice on the front. It also had the story of chicken licken in it!

And then you read strange books called things like 'High on the Hill' and 'days in the Sun'

Ah - childhood memories

oh i saw them on some website recently and thought the same miljee.
only thing that bothered me about the magic key was the one called Bif

What about Peter and Jane? Anyone read them?

yes we started on Peter and jane( hardback like a ladybird book) but then were moved onto Janet and john( yellow cover)

crikey look Mistymoo

I'm not that old - but mum must have got them for us before we went to school.

I learned to read with those. I think they're great. But ORT is fab too. Don't forget, children could read in those days and look at the stats -- they can't now! So Janet and John can't have been all that useless.

We read Janet and John in school but I started on Roger Red Hat and Billy Blue Hat, which I have just seen on eBay.
We also had those Peter and Jane ones at home.

My DDs school don't use ORT, but I have seen the books and am glad

I did the Roger Red Hat books and so did my DC 10 and 12
DS hated them and used to hide them, his teacher said he didn't have to read them in the end

ORT is ok really. I prefer the ones without Biff, Chipper and the magic key. They get on my nerves a bit. Prefer the Jackdaw ones

both my dds started on the billy blue hat books (only 4 years ago)They were just dreadful and very tatty (one of them dd1 had was printed in 1983!). PTA used to raise some thing like £10,000 a year but never spent it on reading books!

I got the Peter and Jane ones for DD . they were absolutely awful. She never did read them all.

I really don't understand what people have against ORT!

Smartiejake, I started school in 1973

I started school in 1967

The RRH and BBH books at DC school probably dated from then as well, they were pretty tatty. Thankfully the do have a big selection of books, so the children usually find something to suit them.

I loved Janet and John books! I started school in 1979 and learnt to read using these books and my Mum still has two copies, which my son (now 8) also read when he started school.

I'm obviously very old fashioned but I love the pictures in them! the copy I have is Janet, John and Mother going shopping. They visit the haberdashers, butchers, bakers etc, (not a Tesco in sight!!) just like how my childhood was in the village I was brought up in!

I also do like ORT with Biff and Chip! These are the books my son learnt to read with at his primary. He was tested recently to ascertain his reading age and at 8y6m his results came out at 10y6m so ORT obviously did something good!

I think Janet and John should be brought back to re-introduce the idea of how homely, simple and gentle life was back then!!!

I started school in 1961 - anyone else remember Beacon Book readers?

Beacon book Six is now available from AbeBooks for £15!

"Stop it Floppy!" said Janet.
"Stop it Floppy!" said John.
"Sod it!" said Floppy

I'm ok with ORT, although DS's school tends to use it fairly selectively.

We had a good one about a fight recently. ("Biff pushed. Chip pulled. Dad was cross. Stop it he said). I seem to remember J&J being exceptionally twee and not given to "domestics".