Customer Reviews

Storybook Treasury of Dick and Jane and Friends (Dick and Jane)

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The Dick and Jane series came out during a (strange) time when phonics was not being taught. If you use this book with your child, it'll be easy to understand why phonics wrongly fell out of favor. You'll find that your child, if she is ready, will learn to sight read words faster than she could with flash cards. It happens so quickly that it makes you understand the temptation to skip the phonics step.

My recommendation is that you use this book as a supplement to a good phonics program. For example, if your child knows her letters and her basic sounds, and she is beginning to read phonetically in her school program, you can then use this book to help build confidence and add to her sight-reading vocabulary. It'll give you lots of opportunity to praise progress too.

My daughter started this book at home when she was six and beginning first grade. She had a solid grounding in phonics, but reading was still pretty slow and tedious. It only took about five weeks to fully master the book and read any part at a relatively rapid pace. I built a reading vocabulary list in the order that words appeared in the book (see note below). We went over the list of learned words before each session, which kept her from forgetting faster than she was learning.

The fact that the book is a compendium of three earlier volumes makes it a little awkward in its progression of adding sight words. The hardest pages to read are about two-thirds of the way through the book at the end of the second volume. In fact, the best approach may be to read from page one to page 79 (about half way through the second volume), then jump to the start of the third volume and skip back and forth from that point as you alternately work through the third volume and the second half of the second. As confusing as this sounds, you'll understand immediately once you see the content.

I gave this book four stars out of five, because it's about as good as it can get without being phonics oriented. It's a terrific bargain with lots of content for the dollar and a beautiful binding. I only wish there were a phonics-based book that made learning sight words come so easily.

Good luck and God bless!
Tim Naff

One of my daughters has been having a terribly hard time learning to read in school (and at home). It seems to be very hard for her to remember words that she's seen before, even "knew." She has come to resist reading practice as a form of torture.

The book she loves the most is this "Dick and Jane" compilation. The simple phrases, the often-mocked repetition of words, the bright and pleasant drawings--they have been perfect for her. We were amazed when she eventually proved able to read it all from cover to cover. She was so proud of herself, and loves the pretty yellow book so much, that she brought it to school to read to her teacher. Whenever we ask her to "read a book," her new but already-beloved Dick and Jane book is the one she reaches for. It's not Shakespeare and I guess the D&J series fell out of favor with the educational establishment, but if the choice is between a child proudly reading "See Spot run! Run, Spot, run!" or gloomily reading nothing at all, I'll gladly go with Spot (and Dick and Jane and Sally and the perfectly-dressed mother and father!)

I feel like the publisher has a winner here and I would buy every reprint compilation that it chose to sell. I'm going to buy all the other D&J texts that I can find. They've certainly been a success in our home.

Oh, Oh.
Look, look!
See, see!
Look what Mother found at the bookstore.
See Baby read to Mother.
Clever, clever Baby!

I remember my teacher reading a few of these stories in 1966. When I saw this book at our local bookstore, I immediately snatched it up. That night at bedtime, I marched my 4 & 3/4 year-old daughter upstairs, pulled out this book and said, "I am tired of reading to you, so tonight you will read to me!" After helping her sound out the word "Oh Oh" and "Look and See" imagine her surprise and mine when my daughter reads the first story all by herself and with her new-found confidence, began to devour the following stories over the next sixty pages! I was so stunned by this success, I could not believe it. Playing an active role in teaching your child to read is an absolute thrill! This book is a true gem. My daughter loves the pictures that go with the stories, gentle pieces of Americana artwork in themselves, not like the flat, highly-stylized cartoons in children's books today that may satisfy the whimsy of adults, but don't capture the attention or spark the imagination of children. Our favorite stories are when Baby Sally puts too much of Mother's powder on Tim, Spot and Puff and when Dick and Jane race Baby Sally to the market and overturn their wagon. Please buy this book for all your little loved ones in your life. I am excited to see there are other books in this series, too.

I used to be a little chagrined to admit I learned to read in Kindergarten (1964) with Dick and Jane! It was almost "out of fashion" then -- in Grade 1 I remember the teacher introducing something "new" called phonics that was much more difficult to master than "sight reading" had been. (By Grade 1 I was already reading chapter books such as "Honey Takes a Trip" using my D&J skills.) So, when my own Kindergartener was not having much success with "Bob Books" and was in fact expressing great frustration, I was worried. I thought it was her "readiness" -- I never dreamed it might be the approach I'd selected. That became instantly apparent when she got her yellow D&J anthology. By the end of the first night she was reading stories. When Grandma later gave her the blue D&J anthology, she read the entire book that night out loud to Grandma! She still resists the Bob Books but night after night she's in her bed reading and re-reading D&J to her animals. Guess success feels good to her, too. And, her reading vocabulary is bigger than her school-mates. It's a shame that School Boards have still not put D&J back in the classroom!

I was surprised how easily my daughter (who, in general I would classify as a non-reader, an emergent reader at best) can read this book. What shocks me is that she is actually interested in the storylines, since the text is like "Oh, Spot! Funny, funny Spot!" It's the illustrations. She loves the illustrations, and she is dying to find out what kind of hijinxs that Sally is going to get herself into next.

One of the major criticisms of the Dick and Jane series, beyond the phonics issue (which I could care less about...if she's reading, I'm happy), is that all the stories are geared toward white middle class kids in the "nuclear" family. For some of the stories, I would definitely say that I can see how they would be alienating if you are not part of that very narrow slice of America where Father wears a suit to work everyday (if there even is a guy named "Father" living in your house who goes to work). The fact that I am of European ancestry makes it difficult for me to know if my daughter wouldn't like these stories as much if we were Athabascan or Maori or Black, but, in general, the stories that only feature the children and the animal characters will probably be appealing to children of all classes, races and ethnic backgrounds.

I know that there are Dick and Jane stories from the later years of the series that do introduce nonwhite characters, but I haven't read any of those, and they are not featured in this volume.

I cannot think of a better way for children to learn to read. My son just turned 5, and for whatever reason they have not been teaching reading or even much phonics in his 4-K classroom.

Prior to our starting, he did have some sight-reading ability, particularly with color words and some other words. But he has made very quick progress, and in one month's time is almost finished with the book. Each time a new word is introduced it is repeated again and again, to help the children to learn to recognize it with ease.

Another reviewer made the point that the book can't be used straight-through, and she is correct. It's best to start at the beginning and go to halfway through book two, then skip to the start of book three. After finishing book three, go back to the middle of book two and finish.

I really wish they put a teaching guide in the back of the book, and made workbooks keyed to the book. Apparently the publishers don't understand that many of us are desperate to use these types of books to teach our children to read, and not merely something to own as a bit of nostalgia.

Modern reading texts tend to feature city parents with all types of modern lifestyles that don't reflect how the average American lives. So this book is a real breath of fresh air, and a great way to teach children to read.

By the way, my son jumps up and down and screams "Dick and Jane" every night when I tell him it's time to read. I've had to limit him to four stories a night, two re-reads and two new stories, as I'm afraid to go any faster will leave him not remembering the new words. So the book is a hit, at least with my son.

I purchased this book for my 6 year old daughter. Her first grade teacher has asked the parents to read at least 15 minutes with our children every day.
The very most I love about this book is it's large hard cover, large print and precious illustrations.
We sit down together and cradle this large book as she reads. Every chapter has new words to sound out and put to use. Some words are used often and then re-introduced.
This time I'm spending with my daughter reading Dick and Jane is so very special to me. I am not looking foward to the end of the book and have already begun to search for more of the same.

I was disturbed to see that my 4 year old was not being taught any sort of phonics in his Pre-K environment. We have the Leap Frog Twist 'N Shout Phonics, but I have found that the sound quality isn't the best and it is sometimes difficult to hear the correct pronunciation. He would get frustrated and lose interest.
My husband and I talked about how we had learned with "Dick & Jane", so I thought I would give it a try. My son and I sat down for 20 minutes as he eased through the first stories. He then gathered the rest of the family and read the first 6 stories, tripping only on one word. No one was more thrilled than my son - so thrilled that he called his grandparents and read it again to them!
We put it down for 2 days (just to make sure that he wasn't memorizing) and he picked up it up and read it all again without issue.
Get this book!

This is definitely a pre-phonics reading primer. Dick and Jane wildly anachronistic in both their appearance and the learning method applied here. Nevertheless, I remember using these books to read. You know, when we started to learn how to read in first grade? I also remember a revolution in the curriculum by the time my younger brother was learning to read by the end of the seventies--he started on rebus and graduated to phonics.

But despite the letter people, scholastic level 1 and 2, Reader Rabbit, and aggressive training in phonics in both kindergarten and the beginning of the year, it never really clicked for my daughter. Despite all the encouragement and positive reinforcement, my daughter knew she couldn't read well and simply gave up.

Enter Sally, Dick and Jane. In desperation, my wife bought this book at Costco, in the vain hope that it would work. And it did.

For the life of me, I don't know why. The words repeat and repeat (a real no-no as it epitomizes repetition rather then true phonemic awareness). The pictures are as uncharismatic as they always were and the storyline is never all that interesting (read 'boring'). It does not teach diversity (all the characters--except for Spot the dog and Puff the cat--are 1950s/60s white, middle class, suburbanites).

Nevertheless, from page one, my daughter was thrilled that she could easily read each page (words like 'look' and 'Oh' are repeated ad nauseum), laughed at the 'jokes' (although 'funny, funny Spot' is frankly not all that funny), and seemed to like the illustrations (a six year old's idea of retro?). She didn't mind the suburban setting or notice the lack of diversity (don't worry we pointed this out to her and she now wants to revise the pictures...)

Don't get me wrong. There's a lot of teaching that took place before this that no doubt contributed to her success, so I wouldn't altogether drop the phonics. However, the repetition seemed to give her confidence that she could read and that has spilled over into her the rest of her work in language arts. This book is not necessarily the foundation, but helped her put the pieces of reading together so that it wasn't so much of a chore. The simplicity of the book made her realize that reading wasn't so hard. A week after starting she was no longer afraid to read out loud to her teacher...

So it's worth a try. It sure doesn't replace phonics and may not give enough phonemic awareness, but is an excellent supplement for the beginning reader. (After all, generations of us learned how to read exclusively this way, so it likely works on some level...) It may well be that not all children learn to read the same way. It doesn't replace modern methods of teaching but in my daughter's case was a necessary supplement.

This was my son's first reader once kindergarten was over. He was learning the basic sounds and how to put words together when he graduated from kindergarten. As soon as school was over, I wanted him to continue reading so he wouldn't forget what he already learned. My sister got this for my son, who was reader of the month in his school. He started reading it slowly with my help in sounding out words like 'Sometimes', or 'different', since he hadn't learned those at school. Once I told him the words, he didn't forget them throughout the story, because the words are repeated a lot throughout the book. He learned every word after that by sounding them out himself, and is now a fluent reader. It is so exciting to see such a milestone, and I had something to do with it besides his teacher. He loves the pictures and the characters, and asked me to buy the whole series of these fine thick books about Dick and Jane. I will keep them for his children, just in case they are off the market during his lifetime like it was during mine. I am so glad we have these books again. I learned to read from these in school when I too was in the first grade. Now I can see why they used these easy to read books, and not phonics. Phonics is great for the beginner reader, and this book will enhance a child's reading skills. This is the first reader I recommend for your child, the other readers have harder words and longer stories, so this one is the best for those just starting out. Believe me, we have them all.