09/03/2017
Back to School – Collecting Vintage School Readers
For me, one of the best things about the little Ridinghood Books venture is how much I am learning. Particularly in areas of the children’s book world in which I have zero experience, the learning curve can be quite steep. Not Grade 12 Calculus steep, mind, but Grade 8 History steep.
Of course, my learning always comes AFTER I am unable to answer a customer’s questions. Sigh.
One collector’s field that was entirely new to me was that of primary readers and other schoolbooks.
Schoolbooks? I hear scorn from some quarters. Didn’t we suffer enough as children? Who on earth would want reminding of such joys as the annual lice check, getting chosen last for dodgeball and that Grade 1 cloakroom smell?
Ah, but you are focusing on the wrong things. Don’t forget how easy it was to make friends, some of whom turned out to be lifelong relationships. Don’t forget the joy of new shoes; heck, of new pencils! And your pride in gradually, year by year, working your way to the back of the gym during assembly, until, suddenly, you were one of “the big kids”.
I was a compliant child, so my memories include the reward of cleaning chalkboard erasers. Sometimes on a bristled rotary machine in the Janitor’s room, sometimes just by banging them on the stucco outside a back door. The prize for being teacher’s pet.
Collecting school readers can bring it all back to you.
I began to read using the “Off to School” series, with Janet and John, little sister Anne and family pets Lucky and Buttons. Although I attended several elementary schools, these readers were a constant.
There were two reasons for the consistency. While education is a provincial responsibility in Canada, our population was small and a few publishing houses were able to supply the whole country. And “Off to School” were just really good primers.
To identify a Canadian school book, look at the publisher. In Canada, the giants were Copp Clark and Ginn and Company. You will also find W.J. Gage. All were based in Toronto.
Children need to be engaged by stories that straddle the fine balance between the novel and the familiar. So, if you decide to explore the world of readers, much of what you will find will come to feel very familiar. Acquiring a new car; welcoming a family puppy; a summer camping trip and a winter skating party. These stories persist through the generations.
What will change, delightfully, are the fashions, the hairstyles, and the artwork itself.
In fact, artwork alone would justify collecting primers, completely aside from the stroll down Nostalgia Lane that motivates most collectors.
There is a Copp Clark series, the Canadian Reading Development Series, with particularly fine artwork. Created by a team of staff illustrators, the pastel and watercolours, especially of nature scenes, are just lovely. Other series, like the Ginn Enrichment Series of Basic Readers, carry cheerful evocations of the “Father Knows Best”, “Leave it to Beaver” era.
Every once in a while, I come across a book for which I can find no information. I have access to a database that includes the stock of 150,000 individual booksellers. So a book that slips through that filter is a unique snowflake indeed.
Joe Wins a Prize is a 1950’s English text. The amazing thing is that the booklet, in its bright red card cover, has survived sixty years in such nice shape.
At least, I think it has survived that long. Readers were printed in massive runs over any number of years. Decades ago, regulations only required that the books carry the original copyright date. British readers often don’t carry even that much. Occasionally, you will see publisher’s code on the edition notice. If you could find a key, you could identify the printer and date. Your best hope is that young Karen or Ronnie included the date when they signed their new book in Mrs. Taylor’s Grade Two class.
For me, the allure of school readers is that they are tangible souvenirs of a magical time in a child’s life. The year they learned to read. The year they took their place in the chain of human civilization. The year that formed the basis of the adult they became.
In collecting school readers, as in all things, condition and demand rule all. Buy the best condition you can afford. That will help your collection retain its value.
Understand that the currently inflated price of the Dick and Jane series (expect prices up to $200 a volume) reflects the nostalgia of the baby boomers who studied with them. It is no indication of the intrinsic worth or quality of the books themselves. In fact, I would recommend being very careful of what you pay for Dick and Jane.
Recognize that their current prices are guaranteed to fall within the next decade or so, as the boomers “age out” of their collecting years, downsize and their books come back into the resale market.
As always, collect because you love something; because it will enhance your daily life, and never on speculation of a rise in value.
If you really want value for your dollar, consider a collection of schoolbooks other than readers. I don’t mean worn out high school geometry and composition texts. There is essentially no demand for those. Recycle them into bookpage crafts.
But a collection of drama texts would be awfully appealing on the bookshelf of an actor. Much as I hated school music class, the books would bring a smile to guests of a professional musician. Health for a doctor, science for an engineer or chemist. The books would make wonderful gifts for the professional who has everything.
Today, I bring you three readers and a textbook from the Ridinghood Books catalogue. I hope they will inspire you to dust off the old schoolbook languishing in your storage. Or to expand your holdings.
1) BT-001b Under the Apple Tree by Odille Ousley, illustrated by Ruth Steed and Catherine Scholz. Ginn and Company, no date, but originally written for the American market in the early 1950’s. It was in use a long time, so yes, you may well have used it in Canada in the 1960’s, too. Condition: only Acceptable, but it is so cute, I couldn’t refuse it.
2) CA-053 Up and Away edited by Marian James. Copyright 1946. This lovely book has been in hiding. It was obviously never used in the classroom. Gorgeous artwork. More emphasis on the natural world than in most readers This one carries the remains of a Woolco price sticker. Did anyone have to buy their books at retail? Mine were always provided by the schools.
3) BT-115 The New Tall Tales Part Two by Marion Monroe and Sterl Artley with illustrations by Connie Moran. Gage & Co, Copyright 1962. A late Grade 2 or early Grade 3 reader, I think. A slim volume with stories that might appeal best to boys: the air circus, a fire brigade on call, and a pet dinosaur. The watercolour artwork isn’t quite as nice in this one. More slapdash, perhaps reflecting the go-go sixties more than the “Father Knows Best” fifties.
And, finally a upper elementary social studies for the Canadian history buff at your house: Proof that Canadian history has been taught in schools. Perhaps the esteemed citizen you are arguing this point with merely slept through it.
4) CA-051 Beaver, Beads and Pemmican by Katherine Farnham. Canadian Social Sciences Services Ltd., 1987. There's a lot to be learned here. This book forms the basis of an educational program still in use by the Edmonton historical society, except now it's on Powerpoint!
An examination of the fur trade for upper elementary grades. I hope you can accept this book as a sign of its times. The discussion of Native People and the Fur Trade takes five pages. Otherwise, they are no more considered than are the beaver and the martens
All the best to the students among us as they head Back to School in 2017. And if you heading into a different kind of adventure this fall, do let me know what you are up to. I’d love to be part of your cheering section!
Thank you for visiting Ridinghood Books. Let me know if I can help you with questions about your own collection of children’s books. Check out the Photos on this page for the catalogue Albums of books for sale. And please share the page with any friends who might be interested.
Have a grand day, Kerry
