The Slant Book

By Peter Newell

  • was an American author

  • Originally published in 1910.

  • 4-7.

I love the publisher’s foreword. I just can’t say any better because this is exactly what I hear as a mother, a reader and an educator. ‘They don’t make them like that anymore’, people say about ‘vintage’ books, toys, movies, cartoons, etc. This reprint of a book, first published in 1910, is very amusing and and feels old-fashioned and modern at the same time. It’s old-fashioned because of the language and basically everything. We don’t see people wearing this type of clothes anymore, driving those cars and simply doing what they are doing in the book.

But these days authors compete in creating something new, outstanding, extremely interactive and different. It amazes me how writers and illustrators could come up with something standing out. Maybe, it was easier to impress a century ago, but technologies were different and I am guessing it wasn’t always easy to print a book as the author would imagine it. I don’t think books with a slant were an ordinary thing back then.

The book is exactly the shape that you can see in the picture. It goes downhill. Everything it goes downhill literally and metaphorically.

Unfortunately, the language is very dated. There are quite a few words that children would not understand and I have 2 options. The first one is to explain every word, but it absolutely kills the joy and the moment as the book is really funny, it should be read with emotions, excitement in your voice. And I opted out of all these unnecessary explanations. I just made up the text. I was pretending I was reading while going through the pages.

When we fined reading, one of the students from a different class was invited to be a police officer as he never read this book and didn’t know what happened. And the class all had their roles. So he talked to the Nanny and she explained how she lost control of the pram, then he talked to the villages and they shared what they knew about the little rascal.

I am happy I bought this book and could share it with my classes. Kids don’t get to read antique book for so many reasons but this one is good and everyone could buy into it. You know, sometimes old books are too gruesome or so very moralising, some of them are criticised these days for being “too much”, not toeing the line. The Slant Book is not like that. The only line I skipped over was ‘A funny Son of sunny Greece’ said about a person of colour.