Miss O`Donnell, educator, was the author of two sets of elementary school textbooks, the Alice and Jerry series and the Janet and John series. Both were widely used in the United States and other English-speaking nations.
For many years, Miss O`Donnell, served as a teacher, primary grade supervisor and curriculum coordinator for Aurora's East Side elementary schools.
In 1946 she resigned her post as primary supervisor to become an editor for Row, Peterson & Co., an Evanston-based textbook publishing firm.
I remember getting these out of the school library when I was learning to read, they were ancient then and when I taught my children to read they read them too and even though they are super ancient now we really enjoyed the vintage illustrations, the clear repetitive text and the cute subject matter of playing with puppies, kittens and jumping in the river with a blow up horse. As beginner reader books these are lovely.
In a recent thread, some people stated their objections to literature which fails in its duty to be gender-balanced. I can absolutely see their point, except that it is a little difficult to find books which pass the test. Almost everything I could think of did seem to have either more men than women, or more women than men. It's dreadful.
In fact, I was about to give up... when I suddenly remembered Here We Go! No doubt, sneering critics will carp at the daringly minimalist plot and character development, and signally fail to appreciate the understated faux-naive style. I've had too many arguments about this to want to do it again; there are those, alas, who cannot see true greatness, even when it's thrust under their noses. But say what you will, the book is gender-balanced. Janet, John, Mother and Father: exactly 50% of each sex. I rest my case.