Growing Up with Dick and Jane: Learning and Living the American Dream [Paperback]

Carole Kismaric (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 16, 1996

They're back!

Growing Up with Dick and Jane reunites us with two old friends, Dick and Jane, who, for forty years, taught so many of us to read. Here's the all American brother and sister team. Look! It's Dick, in his striped polo shirts and shorts, always ready for an adventure. Look! Look! It's Jane, in her pretty dresses, eager to have fun and learn about life. There's silly, mischievous Baby Sally, and Spot, America's favorite spaniel. Growing Up with Dick and Jane brings to life the cast of characters who are emblems of the American Dream. And side by side with the story of Dick and Jane is an entertaining and informative text that tracks important historical, social and educational events of the "Dick and Jane era."

Here's your chance to step back into the innocent watercolor world of Dick and Jane, where night never comes, knees never scrape, parents never yell and the fun never stops. Remember holding a Dick and Jane primer for the first time and the thrill you felt when you knew you could read? Growing Up with Dick and Jane traces the Dick and Jane phenomenon from their birth during the Depression to their retirement in the stormy 1960s. It explores the influence these little books had on education and the evolving American Dream. Packaged with a sampler of original Dick and Jane stories and cutout dolls of Dick and Jane, Growing Up with Dick and Jane stirs memories of home, school and what it was like to grow up when childhood felt like one long summer day.

Carole Kismaric and Marvin Heiferman produce innovative visual books and museum exhibitions. Lookout, their company, has created: Talking Pictures (Chronicle), a book and popular multimedia exhibition; Loyalty and Betrayal: The Story of the American Mob (CollinsSanFrancisco); the bestselling Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood (Hyperion) with William Wegman; and the cult classics Mr. Salesman (Twin Palms) with Diane Keaton and I'm So Happy (Vintage).

Bob Keeshan, known to generations as Captain Kangaroo, is one of the most beloved performers and influential innovators of children's television. The first Clarabell on The Howdy Doody Show, Keeshan went on to create Captain Kangaroo, the longest-running network children's series. An advocate of children's causes, Keeshan's unique blend of education and entertainment has influenced his followers, on screen and off.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Growing up with Dick and Jane is a simply presented but often amusing analysis of American popular culture and educational theories through the looking glass of the Dick and Jane readers. The book is a visual treat, with a layout that looks like Wired magazine for preschoolers. However, the real reward comes at the end: packaged into a pocket on the inside back cover is a small volume reprinting five classic Dick and Jane tales, including Look, See It Go, and Something Blue for Puff.

From the Publisher

Growing Up with Dick and Jane reunites us with two old friends, Dick, And Jane, who, for forty years taught so many of us to read. Here's the all-American brother and sister team. Look! It's Dick, in his striped polo shirts and shorts, always ready for an adventure. Look! Look! It's Jane, in her pretty dresses, eager to have fun and learn about life. There's silly mischievous Baby Sally and Spot, America's favorite spaniel. Growing up with Dick and Jane brings to life the cast of characters who are emblems of the American Dream. And side by-side with the story of Dick and Jane is an entertaining and informative text that tracks important historical, social and educational events of the "Dick and Jane" era."

Here's your chance to step back into the innocent watercolor world of Dick And Jane, where night never comes, knees never scrape, parents never yell and the fun never stops. Remember holding a Dick and Jane primer for the first time and the thrill you felt when you knew you could read? Growing up with Dick And Jane traces the Dick and Jane phenomenon from their birth during the Depression to their retirement in the stormy 1960s. It explores the influence these little books had on education and the evolving American Dream. Packaged with a sampler of original Dick and Jane stories and cutout dolls of Dick And Jane, Growing up with Dick and Jane stirs memories of home, school and what it was like to grow up when childhood felt like one long summer day.

Carole Kismaric and Marvin Heiferman produce innovative visual books and museum exhibitions. Lookout, their company, has created: TalkinPictures (Chronicle), a book and popular multimedia exhibition; Loyalty and Betrayal: The Story of the American Mob (CollinsSanFranciso); the best-selling Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood (Hyperion) with William Wegman; and the cult classic Mr. Salesman (Twin Palms) with Diane Keaton and I'm So Happy (Vintage).

Bob Keeshan, known to generations as Captain Kangaroo, is one of the most beloved performers and influential innovators of children's television. The first Clarabell on The Howdy Doody Show, Keeshan went on to create Captain Kangaroo, the longest-running network children's series. An advocate of children's causes, Keeshan's unique blend of education and entertainment has influenced his followers, on screen and off.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers/Lookout Books; Book and Access edition (August 16, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0006492460
• ISBN-13: 978-0006492467
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #801,454 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It took me back to my fond memories of childhood!, September 30, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Growing Up with Dick and Jane: Learning and Living the American Dream (Paperback)

There are so many times that I had wished I were a child again to experience the slow pace of life as opposed to the way it is now. This book has allowed me to do that. It's a wonderful book and I would highly recommend it. As I read each chapter I found myself recalling memories of childhood...friends, school and family. Because we cannot reach back in time, I would sincerely and strongly advise anyone who experienced the original texts in school, to read this book. It will take you there, even if it's in memory.

46 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dick and Jane where the best!, May 31, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Growing Up with Dick and Jane: Learning and Living the American Dream (Paperback)

I didn't think i'd ever see Dick and Jane again. This book is great. I loved reading about them. There are stories from the readers that I still remember. And would like to read all the books over again. What are the chances of seeing the original stories again?

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars pop culture meets pop cultural studies, August 10, 2002

By 

"boy_howdy" (Northfield, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Growing Up with Dick and Jane: Learning and Living the American Dream (Paperback)

Somewhere between the boring textbooks of cultural studies and the objects of culture which the field explores, this book offers an excellent overview of the Dick and Jane readers' evolution over time as the ideals of the society in which Dick and Jane were grounded evolved as well. And what a tumultuous time it was! Through illustrations from the original texts and photographs of cultural change, short essays on subjects and eras, and even the inclusion of Dick and Jane cut-out dolls to stand on one's desk, the authors take us through the evolution and meaning of Dick and Jane, from Dick and Jane's depression-era origins to the loss of their relevance in the sixties, when the books stopped being produced. Both a reminiscence and an excellent analysis of cultural change through a single set of broad-strokes ideals, this text is both a fun read, a strong cultural text, and a solid way for me (or any teacher) to introduce high school media and communications students to the ways in which ideals, ideas, icons and culture affect and are affected by each other over time.

Those who look to this book for an explanation of Dick and Jane as representing complexity, as one reviewer does below, seem to have missed the point -- Dick and Jane represented cotton-candy ideals of a conservative and young-minded nature; to ask them to have represented more is to completely misunderstand what cultural studies assumes as a foundation. Those who come to this book with an open mind and an interest in mid-19th-century american culture as seen through the evolution of its primers and iconography will find this an excellent, well-presented, and fun work of scholarship.