À la recherche du... er... textbooks perdu

[ladyofastolat]

I said the other day (in muuranker's LJ) that I couldn't remember much about what history I studied at junior school. Today, though, I was doing some work in a school library, and came across RJ Unstead's From Cavemen to Vikings, and I remembered it intensely. While I may not be good at remembering faces, I have very strong visual memories of the books I read when I was young, and just a quick glimpse of once-familiar pictures can evoke a whole raft of other memories and impressions from the time.

Most of those memories come from books I read by choice - those blue-spined Ladybird books about famous people, for example, or those chunky purple-spined books on kings and queens that I borrowed from the adult library, and books on the history of costume illustrated by... agh. famous illustrator. can't remember name. aargh. [EDIT: Ah yes. Victor Ambrus. Maybe it wasn't a series, but I clearly remember certain pictures] - but some clearly come from school books. I can remember Singing Together song books - both the visuals and many of the songs - and I have a very vague impressionistic memory of a series of work books that we had to fill in, but can't remember the title. I can clearly remember the visual layout reading test we did every year, with idiosyncrasy as the final word, and I can still picture Peter and Jane and their dog.

Since we had to cover all our textbooks at secondary school, my memories of textbooks from those times are of the various old wallpapers and re-used wrapping papers that I used to do it with. I have no memories therefore of titles or covers, but I suppose I would recognise the inside if I came across it one day.

What I really can't remember at the moment, though, is what books we used at Primary School to learn about countries of the world. This is now annoying me.

Comments

[clarienne.livejournal.com]

Do you remember some story books from infant school about griffons, and gems - I think there was a sapphire story, a ruby one and an emerald one? I have vague memories of really enjoying those.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

That doesn't ring a bell, no. Well, the griffons part of it doesn't. Very faint bells are ringing at the mention of books named about different gems... but I could well be mixing up the memory with something else.

[thecatsamuel.livejournal.com]

I LOVED that book - and I think it is one reason I ended up studying history-related topics.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I generally attribute my decision to study history at university to reading Simon by Rosemary Sutcliff when I was about 9. Most of my childhood history memories come from things out of school, so I was pleased to find this book yesterday and have strong positive memories of in-school history, too.

[thecatsamuel.livejournal.com]

Reading the Lantern Bearers was a big influence for me - the hero lights the Roman light house at Dover one last time after the legions leave and it is such a vivid and evocative image. Actually, most of what I know about history comes from reading novels!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I think I remember acting out scenes from Beowulf at primary school.

[muuranker.livejournal.com]

Victor Ambrus was the reconstruction illustrator's reconstruction illustrator. His appearance in fiction (Rosemary Sutcliffe, etc.) pretty much guaranteed, in my eyes, that the book would be worth reading.

Cahiers? Two weeks in Quebec.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I associate Charles Keeping with Rosemary Sutcliff. I'm sure I read fiction with Victor Ambrus pictures in, but I mostly associate him with costume history. Hmm, and perhaps fairy tale books, too. I think I read a Robin Hood illustrated by him - although the definitive Robin Hood in my childhood memories is the Puffin one by Roger Lancelyn Green.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I can remember a geography textbook from primary school in which you looked at the life of a child from a different culture each lesson. The first was 'Peko of the Amazon Forest'.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly sure that we studied countries of the world this way, but I can't remember any more than that. Geography books date faster than books on many other topics, so although I sometimes find 70s history book in school libraries, I never find geography ones. Although this is perhaps just coincidence, since I still sometimes find 80s computer books in school libraries.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I bought a (tiny) atlas of the world at a book sale once. It dates from 1914 ...

[squonk79.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, Peter and Jane and Sing Together books - that takes me back.

I don't remember us ever reading non-fiction books at primary school... i certainly don't think we ever actively learnt countries of the world even. I do distinctly remember us studying WW2 and the Egyptians. In fact i was so into the Egyptians, i kept researching them at home while i was off sick! Such a bookworm.

Ooo, don't know why i've never asked you this before. At school there was this book series on the reading shelf, i'm pretty sure it was called "The Buccaneers". It was about a modern day kid who gets given a ship's porthole which turns out to be a porthole (see what they did there?) onto a pirate ship. It was a fantastic read. Don't suppose you happen to know if they still exist?

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Oops. Forgot to reply earlier. I get to read LJ comment notifications at work, but can't always access LJ to reply immediately, so often end up forgetting to reply at all. I'm afraid that series doesn't ring any bells. Sorry! I used my sekrit librarian skills and did a bit of searching, but no joy, I'm afraid.