Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Easy-Reading


This was the second of the "Easy-Reading" series, following on from the Bible theme of 6060a. In the inside front cover, these books point out that "even children whose reading experience is limited will be encouraged by the superb full-colour illustrations and the relatively simple text". And superb the illustrations were, created by John Berry approaching near photographic precision with a paintbrush.
The Soldier, in 1966, was the first in the series to be issued in the matt cover, dust-jacket-less format. Written by I & J Havenhand, illustrated by Berry, it is, as you might expect, full of tanks, guns, rockets and other exciting bits of machinery. Today’s high technology is not much in evidence; "all regiments of the army have radios in case the telephone wires get broken". The engineers have an especially exciting job; "radios, watches, telephones, rockets, tanks and helicopters are among the many things that the soldiers mend in their workshops". However, nowhere in the book does it mention that the ultimate job of the fighting soldier is to kill people. Yes Ira, I was thrilled to get your card, because, I had already read this book some time ago, and had thoroughly enjoyed it. In case you get a chance do read the other books in the series, the Sailor, the Airman et al.