Readers Digest Reading Skill Builder (1965)

 

Readers Digest Reading Skill Builder was a Readers Digest publication which they distributed to schools. It contained short stories and excerpts for children to read. This one was Part A - a very basic language reader. It contained a story from this book:

Farms of the Future (1957)

 

This is my 700th post and I have a treat for you.

I found a Farms of the Future calendar for 1957. These were distributed by the Shell Chemical Company.  I blogged about Your 1958 Shell Fertilizer Coloring Book here 3 years ago on Dec 22, 2017 but the illustrations were in black and white.

https://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2017/12/your-1958-shell-fertilizer-coloring.html.

I think they did these incredible space-age calendars for several years. The full color illustrations by Don Bloodgood and Forrest Shaffer of a future that never came are wonderful. While not intended for children, they have a child-like character to them. Each month has a "scientific" description of how this future might be possible. 

Between robot farm workers, arctic farms, and radioactively accelerated seeds maybe we are lucky we are not living in THAT future😖

Ott's Adventure in Space (1982)

So this is a English translation of the Estonian book Ott in Space (1979) which I blogged about 3 years ago on Dec 8 2017.

https://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2017/12/ott-in-space-1979.html

But to connect it further back to the 1960s "the book is based on (from my "Googling" level of research) a 1961 Estonian stop-motion children's film "Ott in Space "  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1IZ8gragoI  since the images seem very much the same.

So this particular book has a long history and I am happy to share the English translation (by Evi Mannermaa) so you can enjoy this "fable" about learning to read and listen.