TIMES TO REMEMBER SERIES: A Very Special Sunday (Easter). Let My People Go (Pesach) Watching for the Moon (Id). Under the Bodhi Tree (Wesak). By Lynne Broadhurst and John Logan. Religious and Moral Education Press. A3 big books pound;13.50 each, A5 pupil books pound;1.95 each.
I am all for books that serve more than one purpose. Times to Remember aims to meet RE needs, but it also has an eye on the literacy hour.
Each book has 16 pages and sets out a story with each page of text facing a full-page, colour illustration. The big books are A3 copies of the children’s books except that the inside covers carry teacher’s notes, which are brief but adequate.
The majo world religions provide the stories, and having them readily to hand in an easily digestible form will be a boon to teachers of children aged from about six to nine.
But overall the product is amateurish, with poor-quality illustrations and text.
Repetition is a valuable weapon in a writer’s armoury, but I counted six successive sentences starting with “Then” followed by one starting “And then”. And then there are those embarrassingly twee endings, “We really like Id!”; “I enjoy being with my family and friends at Wesak!” A good idea poorly executed.
Paul Noble
* More reviews in the Humanities Curriculum Special in The TES this week