Storybook Treasury of Dick and Jane Friends (2003, Hardcover)

Overall, this book is a very good buy. Every page is illustrated in color and contains simple pre-primer text for the beginning reader. It also makes a beautiful book for the coffee table to bring back fond memories of a simpler time!

Although there is no print date inside, this is a recent publication with high quality, glossy white pages. I believe it first came out in 2003. It is published in the United States by Grosset & Dunlap and designed by Irene Vandervoort. It is licensed by arrangement with Pearson Education, Inc.

Although this book may look like a reissue of the originals, there are a few things you should know. On the plus side, it is a gorgeous high quality book that will bring a smile to any baby boomer who remembers learning to read with Dick and Jane! However, if you are a parent or teacher actually using this book for schooling, you need to know the proper order in which the stories should be introduced. Important differences are noted below for serious Dick and Jane enthusiasts and especially for those who are thinking of using this book to teach a child to read.

• In A Storybook Treasury of Dick and Jane and Friends you find the three Dick and Jane pre-primers, BUT they are OUT OF ORDER! The correct order of the pre-primers should be: (1st) We Look and See, (2nd) We Work and Play, and (3rd) We Come and Go.

• Although all three Dick and Jane pre-primers are included in this title, they are all from 3 SEPARATE curriculums! One is from the 1940 curriculum, another is from the 1946-47 curriculum, and the other from the 1956 curriculum! Over the years, each curriculum had been revised and updated. If you want to use the Dick and Jane pre-primers to teach a young child to read, I highly recommend that you select which curriculum you want to teach from (1940, 1946-47, or 1956 for example) and then use all 3 pre-primers from the SAME curriculum, and in the order they were designed to be used in!

The good news is that all three pre-primers have been reproduced exactly and are identical to the original versions. The book is gorgeous inside and out and makes a beautiful conversation piece.

It would have been an even BETTER book had they included pre-primers from the SAME curriculum (such as 1956 for example) instead of deciding to mix and match preprimers from different decades.