The Clumsy Charlie Series

These four readers for the illiterate represent an apparent contradiction in terms. They are in fact not 'readers', but a teaching-aid for the recognition of a social sight vocabulary. The books can be used in a variety of ways by the perceptive teacher to help the young adult illiterate to gain a 'shorthand communi-cation', to assist him in adjusting to the community. The key words of the vocabulary stand out in the text by the use of variation in type-faces and in sizes of capitals. Constant repetition of the words occurs in a series of novel, humorous situations in a story presented by the teacher. Dr. Gunzburg draws the attention of the teacher to the necessity of linking the story-line to real-life situations of the illiterate's experience, in order to increase motivation, and to the possibility of using the stories in drama form. Used intelligently, there is no doubt that these books could be a most valuable aid in the upper range of the junior training centre, as well as the adult training centre. Like all teaching aids, however , they are only as good as the use a teacher makes of them. It is to be hoped that teachers will not use them just for formal 'desk' work, but take them as a basis for widening experience. Some criticism must be levelled, however, at the unattractive appearance of the books, in comparison with other books for backward readers at present on the market. The drawings which highlight the text make their points clearly and adequately but are uninspiring, if not actually dull. Further, though one can see the point of Clumsy Charlie's appearance (presumably negative association) for this reader, at least, he evoked a disturbing resemblance to Alfred E. Neumann of the magazine Mad notoriety. It would be a pity if this caused potential users to scorn this most welcome aid.