Weekly Reader

Do you recognize these books?  If they look familiar, maybe you were a member of the Weekly Reader Children’s Book Club, too.

I have never belonged to a club that gave me so much unalloyed joy.

Whenever that alluring, square package arrived in the mail I could hardly wait to tear it open.

I KNEW that it would contain a memorable experience and almost sixty years later, I still stand by the Book Club’s choices.

Half Magic by Edward Eager was a real favorite.  Way before J.K. Rawlings, Edward Eager enchanted children of all ages with his mesmerizing trips back to England in the days of olde when knights were bold.  The children find a coin but to their amazement- and our amusement- they find that it can grant them wishes.  But only half way.  They must double what they want or they get into some interesting adventures.  Still charming after all these years.

Ride Like An Indian by Henry V. Larom  may not have had the most P.C. of titles but back in those more innocent days, it didn’t matter.  The book was easy for horse-crazy me to love.  And I learned that I wanted an Appaloosa named Applesauce a whole lot more than the Palomino I had been previously pining for.  Good info on the Nez Perce tribe, too.

David, the hero in David and The Phoenix by Edmond Ormondroyd befriends a creature, as well.  But it certainly isn’t a horse.  It’s the mythical phoenix- risen from the ashes and trying to teach himself Latin.  In the course of the book, they develop a great bond and David- and the young reader- learns a vital message about the circle of Life.

Follow My Leader by James B. Garfield had another boy/animal theme.  However this one was between newly-blinded Jimmy and a German Shepherd. The book shows young readers how he learns to cope with his disability.  After he- and the reader- attended a school for the blind, he is given his own seeing eye dog named Sirius.  This book taught me compassion for the handicapped.  It was the Wonder of its day.

A Gift From The Mikado by Elizabeth P. Fleming transported the Poate children- Fred, Ernest and Daisy- to a town that had never seen Americans. The Emperor of Japan has bestowed a gift upon them and the villagers try hard to please them.  I learned about the Feast of Dolls and the Festival of Sons.  I read this book in 1958 when I was eight and this was my first visit to an exciting, exotic foreign land.  I had a fascinating journey.

The next two books came right from my library.

The one on the left is Mrs. Coverlet’s Magicians written and illustrated by Mary Nash and the right is (duh) Champion Dog Prince Tom by Jean Fritz and Tom Clute.

(Are you seeing a theme here?  Magic and animals are very big with the Weekly Reader crowd.  That was ok. They were very big with eight year old me, too.)

Mrs. Coverlet’s Magicians deals with a plot dear to the heart of many kid lit writers.  The parents are somehow absent and the kids take over the running of the house.  This was a favorite plot device down through the ages.  And it always works.  What kid wouldn’t want to have hamburgers and ice cream at every meal?  Or make it snow on Christmas?  Or own a beautiful gray mother cat named Heather and her adorable kittens, Mary Mouse, George Soup, Ernest Waffle, Sally Egg and the naught one- John Napkin?   Sign me up!

As for Champion Dog Prince Tom, I learned so much about dog obedience school and the National Field Trials that it made me a fan of hunting dogs for life.

And just look at this.

Who could resist these wonderful pen and ink illustrations of an adorable cocker spaniel puppy?  Not me.

A word here about the terrfic illustrations all these books had.

A tip of the cap has to go out to N.M Bodecker, Wesley Dennis, Joan Raysor, Robert Greiner, Janet Smalley and Ernest Hart.  Their artwork was superb.  The drawings were an integral part to the spell each of these books cast over me.

Eight year old me and sixty-eight year old me agree.  These books are a gift that goes on giving.  Have grandchildren?

Start them here.

Tell ’em The Weekly Reader said so.