My Weekly Reader November 6, 1961

 

It is your Weekly Reader for this week of November 6, 1961. Here is the space flight news of this week.

My Weekly Reader September 11, 1961

 September 11, 1961

So I came across another "stash" of old Weekly Readers that I am going to share for the next few weeks. I have written before how these tiny newspaper appeared in our classrooms every week during the school year (and the summer too). I really love how our progress in the space race was filtered down to school aged children.

Journey to the Sun (1961)

 

The second promotional comic I wanted to share is Journey to the Sun. It is also from Boys’ and Girls’ March of Comics and the only other one I've found that is about space flight.  It was handed to customers of stores that sold Little Yankee Shoes.  

Journey to the Sun is a story about a mission to get close enough to the sun with some instruments to make some important measurements. They use ion propulsion to get there and actually use a solar sail for braking as they approach the sun. Of course things go wrong and the astronauts are subjected to high heat (and drama.) In the end they use the known melting points of several metals to measure their distance from the sun so they can complete their mission. A much more scientific story than I expected.

Journey to The Sun. (Promotional comic.)  Boys’ and Girls’ March of Comics, #219. Poughkeepsie, NY: Western Printing and Lithographing Co. (18 p.) 1961. 

Happy Journeys (1961)

 

Here is wishing you Happy Journeys (1961) in 2024. 

Happy Journeys was a 1961 children's book about the future and ways someone might travel. The illustration were double page full color paintings of a exciting and strange future that might be around the corner. I see in this book the optimism we need to accept that the future will be better but we sometime can't imagine what it will really look like. I wish all my readers a great 2024 and many happy surprises.

Some of these "visions" look familiar, like they happened, but not as we thought, others are still to come.

Pekelis, V. Веселое Путешествие (Happy Journeys.) Moscow: Detgiz. (52 p.) 1961.

REALLY

AMAZING 

TRAINS (Anyone see Snowpiercer?)

DOMED CITIES (or Stadiums?)

READING, LISTENING TO MUSIC, WATCHING MOVIES IN YOUR CAR

INSTANT HOUSES

KIDS RIDING ELECTRIC BIKES TO SCHOOL (but no helicopters yet)

BUT NO HELICOPTER TRAFFIC EITHER

GIANT MOVIES IN THE SKY

MACHINES THAT DELIVER ENDLESS BOOKS

EXPLORING THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN

PLANES TAKING YOU AROUND THE WORLD

ROCKETS LEAVING EARTH

PEOPLE ON THE MOON

PEOPLE LIVING IN SPACE

COLONIZING MARS

TELESCOPES SHOWING NEW FAR-OFF PLACES TO VISIT

 

Treasury for Young Readers (1961)

 

Occasionally the most unpromising book can have hidden treasure. In this case a Wernher von Braun story and some great Fred Freeman illustrations. Treasury for Young Readers was a collection of stories for children, some from Reader's Digest stories and some from books. Occasionally I have saved books for what is inside rather than a great cover.

Treasury for Young Readers. Reader’s Digest. Pleasantville, NY. Reader’s Digest Association. (202 p.) 1961.  (“First Men to the Moon", Von Braun pp 87-98) 

Book blogged about here:

https://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2015/03/first-men-to-moon-1960-part-1.html