Janet and John

Janet and John are the main characters in a series of reading books for children aged 4-7 years.

Origin

Originally, these stories were written by Mabel O'Donnell and Rona Munro from New Zealand, and published by Row Peterson and Company as the "Alice and Jerry" books in the USA.

However in 1949, publishers James Nisbet and Company licensed and sold them in the UK as the "Janet and John" books and they became hugely popular and influential in the teaching of schoolchildren throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

Janet and John were portrayed as average English children, living a typical middle-class life, and the books consisted of stories that progressively incorporated key words needed in the development of reading skills.

The stories were illustrated by Florence and Margaret Hoopes.

By the 1970s, Janet and John’s straightforward and simple world was seen as being outdated and the books fell out of favour.

Revival

The series was revamped in 2001 [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/1106965.stm] by the daughters of Rona Munro and released by publishers StarKids with Janet and John given a totally new appearance. The new series of 33 books featured modern themes, the inclusion of ethnic minority characters and contemporary styles of dress.

In September 2007, Summersdale Publishers reissued the first two Janet and John books, "Here We Go" and "Off to Play", exactly as they were first published in 1949, except with hardcovers as they were primarily intended as nostalgia gifts for those who learned to read with these books.

Parodies

The simple sentence structure and repetition in the books became a target for many parodies.

The radio and television broadcaster Terry Wogan regularly satirises the series on his BBC Radio 2 show by reading out stories clearly based on the premise of the original "Janet and John" books, but deriving humour through euphemism and innuendo. Despite the obvious implied meaning, the stories' true meanings are never discussed, partly due to the morning timeslot of the show when children may be listening. The stories are written by a frequent listener and contributor known as 'Mick Sturbs'.Other contributors have been Hema Royd. The stories are based around the supposed adventures of newsreader John Marsh and his wife Janet. Three CDs of the recordings have been made available for the charity Children in Need and have raised a substantial amount of money. John is portrayed as a simpleton and fop whose adventures land him in hot water with Janet as they always contain heavy doses of innuendo and oftern result in Terry, John and Traffic Report Lynn Bowles dissolving into uncontrollable laughter.

ee also

*Ant & Bee
*Dick and Jane
*Peter and Jane