Janet and John Reading Scheme: Discover the Remarkable Transatlantic Story Behind Britain’s Favourite Books
# Janet and John Books: The Remarkable Transatlantic Story Behind Britain's Favourite Reading Scheme
*Focus keywords: Janet and John books, Janet and John vintage books, rare Janet and John books for sale, Mabel O'Donnell, Janet and John My Little Books*
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If you grew up in Britain in the 1950s or 1960s, there is a good chance that your very first reading adventure began with two words: Janet. John. Those slim, colourful little books — with their cheerful illustrations of a brother and sister going about their wholesome, sun-dappled days — were a fixture of almost every primary school classroom in the land. By 1968, an astonishing 81% of British primary schools were using them to teach children to read.
But here is something that surprises many people: the Janet and John story did not begin in Britain at all. It began in a small city in Illinois, with an American schoolteacher named Mabel O'Donnell, and two gifted sisters from the suburbs of Philadelphia who painted the pictures that would enchant generations of children on both sides of the Atlantic.
This is the full story — and it is a fascinating one.
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## The Woman Behind the Books: Mabel O'Donnell (1890–1985) 
Before there were Janet and John, there were Alice and Jerry. And before Alice and Jerry, there was Mabel O'Donnell.
Born in Aurora, Illinois in 1890, Mabel O'Donnell was an educator through and through. She spent many years as a teacher, then as a primary grade supervisor and curriculum coordinator for the East Aurora Public School District — quietly passionate about finding better ways to help young children learn to read.
In 1938, while still working in schools, she began writing a series of reading books for the publisher Row, Peterson and Company of Evanston, Illinois. These became known as **The Alice and Jerry Books** — a series that would eventually sell close to 100 million copies worldwide. Alice and Jerry were a sister and brother, their stories told in short, simple sentences with carefully repeated vocabulary, designed to build confidence and stamina in early readers using the look and say whole-word method rather than the phonics-based approach that had gone before.
In 1946, O'Donnell resigned from her teaching post to join Row, Peterson as an editor, devoting herself full-time to the books. Over her career she authored more than 20 titles in the Alice and Jerry series, as well as contributing to significant reading research. Her legacy endured long after the books themselves: in 1965, the East Aurora School District named an elementary school on Reckinger Road in her honour. She lived to the remarkable age of 95, passing away in 1985.
For American collectors today, the Alice and Jerry books are beloved in their own right — the transatlantic cousins of Janet and John, carrying the same warm illustrations and the same gentle philosophy that learning to read should feel like a pleasure, not a chore.
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## The Illustrators: Margaret and Florence Hoopes
No account of the Janet and John books would be complete without celebrating the two women whose images gave the series its heart: Margaret Hoopes (1893–1956) and Florence Hoopes (1895–1970).
The Hoopes sisters were born in St. David's, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and went on to study at the Philadelphia School of Industrial Arts. Working together as a team throughout their careers, they brought a warm, assured quality to their illustration work — watercolours that ranged from gently controlled washes to more gestural, richly saturated scenes. Their work had a timeless quality: fresh and luminous enough to feel modern, yet rooted enough to feel safe and familiar to young readers.
It was their work on the Alice and Jerry series, beginning in 1936, that brought them their greatest recognition. The sisters illustrated sixteen books in the series across the late 1930s, and their images crossed the Atlantic when James Nisbet and Co adapted the books for British schools in 1949. Although entirely new text was written for the UK edition, the Hoopes sisters' original illustrations were retained — meaning that the sunny scenes of childhood that British children gazed at in their Janet and John books were the work of two Philadelphia women who may never have set foot in England.
Margaret Hoopes died in 1956, leaving Florence to continue. Today, an archive of 25 of their original sketchbooks is held at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Libraries — testament to the growing scholarly and collector interest in these remarkable women. Their work is increasingly sought after, and their contribution to children's literacy on both sides of the Atlantic deserves far greater recognition than it has traditionally received.
As later editions of Janet and John were produced, British illustrator Christopher Sanders contributed additional artwork, introducing slightly bolder colours and more detailed scenes — but it is the original Hoopes illustrations that collectors cherish most.
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## How Alice and Jerry Became Janet and John
In 1949, the British publisher James Nisbet and Company licensed the Alice and Jerry series from Row, Peterson and Company, with the intention of bringing it to British schools. The books were perfectly suited to the post-war educational moment: Britain was expanding access to schooling under the 1944 Education Act, literacy was a national priority, and the look-and-say approach championed by O'Donnell fitted neatly with progressive, child-centred teaching philosophy.
But Alice and Jerry were unmistakably American. Their world — their language, their expressions, their surroundings — needed to be thoroughly remade for British children. That task fell to a New Zealander living in Britain: Rona Munro.
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## Rona Munro and Her Nisbet Connection
Rona Munro occupies a fascinating position in the Janet and John story. A teacher originally from New Zealand, she was the wife of John Mackenzie Wood, who ran James Nisbet and Company. This personal connection to the publisher placed her at the centre of the project — and she brought to it both her teaching expertise and a sensitivity to language that made the British adaptation feel entirely natural.
Munro did not simply translate the American text. She rewrote it entirely, crafting new stories in natural British English while working within the careful vocabulary constraints that made the series such an effective teaching tool. The four core books — Here We Go, Off to Play, Out and About, and I Went Walking — were published between 1949 and 1950, with each volume introducing a controlled number of new words, listed helpfully at the back of every book.
Her understanding of how children learn, combined with the educational philosophy she shared with O'Donnell, produced something that felt fresh and purposeful. Within just a few years, Janet and John had become the dominant reading scheme in British primary schools.
Rona Munro's connection to Nisbet also meant she remained closely involved as the series grew. Additional titles followed the four core books: Through the Garden Gate (1950), I Know a Story (1950), Here We Go (revised edition, 1951), and Once Upon a Time (1952). A separate edition was also developed for New Zealand between 1949 and 1951, comprising seven books — with the final volume incorporating a Maori legend, reflecting a sensitivity to indigenous culture that was quietly ahead of its time.
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## The My Little Books Series
Alongside the main reading scheme, Nisbet published a range of supplementary titles designed to extend young readers' confidence and enjoyment beyond the core books. Among the most charming and collectible of these today are the Janet and John My Little Books — small-format volumes that were perfect for little hands and prized for their delightful illustrations.
These slim, pocket-sized books introduced additional vocabulary and gentle new storylines, allowing children who had progressed through the four main books to continue reading at their own pace. They are now among the more elusive items in the Janet and John collecting world, particularly in good condition — their small size made them vulnerable to the enthusiastic handling of generations of young readers.
For collectors, finding a complete set of the My Little Books in decent condition is a genuine achievement, and they make wonderful display pieces alongside the main series.
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## The Four Core Books: A Collector's Guide
For anyone building a Janet and John collection, these are the four essential volumes:
Book One: Here We Go — The first in the series, introducing Janet, John, their mother, father and dog Pat with a vocabulary of just 32 words. First editions from 1949 with the original Hoopes artwork are the most prized. Look for the distinctive soft card covers with the characteristic period typography.
Book Two: Off to Play — Extending the vocabulary to 59 words, this volume takes Janet and John into the wider world of gardens, animals and simple adventures. Early printings in good condition are increasingly hard to find.
Book Three: Out and About — A longer, richer book with 112 words, this is where the series really opens up. Later editions featuring contributions from Christopher Sanders alongside the Hoopes illustrations are interesting from a collector's perspective as transitional copies.
Book Four: I Went Walking — The most substantial of the four core books at 183 words, this volume marked the completion of the original reading scheme. First edition copies are scarce and highly sought after.
Condition is everything with these books. They were school texts, handled by thousands of small hands over decades, and truly fine copies — especially of the earliest printings — command a premium. Look for clean covers without inscription, bright illustrations, and tight bindings. A first edition in very good condition is a genuinely rare find.
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## The Decline — and the Revival of Interest
By the 1970s, educational thinking was shifting. New theories about reading instruction, and concerns about the look-and-say method's effect on spelling and independent reading, began to undermine the dominance of the whole-word approach. The 1975 Bullock Report recommended a more balanced approach to reading instruction, and sales of Janet and John declined. Nisbet withdrew the series in 1976.
The books became, for a time, a gentle object of nostalgia and occasional satire — most famously at the hands of Terry Wogan, who made them a recurring feature of his BBC Radio 2 morning show Wake Up to Wogan, reading tongue-in-cheek adult adventures of Janet and John that reduced the studio to helpless laughter. Five CDs of these segments were released in aid of Children in Need.
In 2001, StarKids Ltd purchased the rights and published an updated series of 33 modern volumes — but Rona Munro's daughters, Alison Bierrum and Elizabeth Mackenzie-Wood, were reportedly dismayed by the changes to their mother's work. In 2007, Summersdale Publishers reissued the original Here We Go and Off to Play as hardcover nostalgia editions, exactly as first published in 1949. They sold beautifully — proof that the appetite for these books had never really gone away.
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## Why American Collectors Are Discovering Janet and John
Here is something that many British sellers have not yet fully appreciated: Janet and John books are attracting growing interest from collectors in the United States.
The reason is the transatlantic connection. American collectors of the Alice and Jerry series — a community that has always been enthusiastic and knowledgeable — are increasingly aware that Janet and John are, in a very real sense, the British cousins of the books they grew up with. The same Mabel O'Donnell. The same Hoopes sisters. The same warmth, the same philosophy, the same sunlit world of childhood — just transplanted to a British setting.
For an American collector who treasures their Alice and Jerry books, owning a Janet and John set completes the story. It shows how O'Donnell's vision crossed an ocean and shaped the reading lives of an entire generation of British children. These are not just charming vintage books — they are cultural artefacts with a genuinely transatlantic history.
And because Janet and John books are far less widely known in the USA than Alice and Jerry, finding them requires a specialist. That is where we come in.
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## Shop Our Janet and John Collection
At Honeyburn Books, we are passionate about sourcing and carefully curating Janet and John books in genuine good condition — from the four core titles to the My Little Books series and the rarer supplementary volumes. Every book is honestly described, beautifully packaged in tissue and our signature gold mailer, and dispatched promptly to collectors across the UK and worldwide.
Whether you are a British collector revisiting a treasured childhood memory, or an American reader discovering the British chapter of Mabel O'Donnell's remarkable story for the first time, we would love to help you find what you are looking for.
Browse our Janet and John Collection →
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