Showing posts with label Elizabeth Gordon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elizabeth Gordon. Show all posts

Saturday, August 25, 2018

The Turned-Intos by Elizabeth Gordon: The Garden Folk

The Turned-Intos by Elizabeth Gordon and illustrated by Janet Laura Scott was first published in 1920 in Great Britain. I have a 1935 edition published by Wies-Parslow Company, New York.

The book was written to teach children about the fauna of the garden. In each chapter, Jane Elizabeth meets something new: a Swallow Tail butterfly and Humming-bird moths, frogs and toads, bumble-bees and honeybees, even hornets and spiders.

The chapter begins with a poem about the creature which is followed with a story in which Jane Elizabeth encounters it. Prince Tiger Swallow Tail butterfly introduces himself and his sister as Turned-Intos-- "when you start out in life one sort of thing and after a while, you turn into something very different and scarcely to be believed."


"Although Jane Elizabeth had a new book and very much wished to read it, having brought it into the garden with her, she had not been able to read much. The young robins had been so very funny, half flying and half flopping about, and Mother Robin had been so very anxious for them to do every little movement of the wings just right, and had made so much noise telling them how to fly, that it was much more interesting than a book, no matter how new it was."

Jane learns that all these creatures have a life cycle involving a physical change.



The lesson guide for the chapter on the Humming-Bird Moth begins, "Did you know that the government at Washington is helping farmers all over the country to fight insect pests? Some moths, such as the peach moth and the gypsy moth do great damage to trees. It may be that you have heard of the boll weevil and the Japanese beetle. Both of these insects caused a great deal of trouble for the farmers by destroying their crops. Uncle Sam had to fight these insect enemies for a good many years before he got them under control. Our government needs men and women to help in this insect war. Would you like to be one of the helpers? Choose one of the four pests you have just read about and write a fifty word composition on it."






The lesson plan calls Ladybugs the 'police force of the plant world' because it eats insect pests. "Immigrants coming to our shores must be carefully inspected. try to find out about some of our laws which require the inspection of fruits and vegetable and plants imported from other countries, or shipped from one state to another."













I love these illustrations!

Saturday, August 18, 2018

The Turned-Intos by Elizabeth Gordon


The Turned-Intos: Jane Elizabeth discovers the Garden Folk by Elizabeth Gordon was first published in 1920 by P. F. Volland in Great Britain. I have an American copy printed by Wise Book Company in 1935. The book is illustrated by Janet Laura Scott.

The book is dedicated to "children who love to work in gardens and who enjoy the big out-of-doors and the little friends who live there."
The Garden Folk mentioned are butterflies and insects, frogs and spiders, bees and hornets.

 Most of the full-page illustrations feature Jane Elizabeth in gardens.
  A few show Jane Elizabeth with her family or at home.


The cricket on the hearth harkens back to the Christmas story by Charles Dickens!
 Jane Elizabeth discovers a ladybug, below, while her cat looks on.
Jane Elizabeth stitching in the garden with her dollies looking on.
 Jane Elizabeth is not afraid of the spider.
 Jane Elizabeth and the honeybees.
 Jane Elizabeth in the cottage garden.
 And skipping through the fields after the butterflies.






This was meant to be a teaching book. Teaching aids include a vocabulary analysis and activities for each chapter.

Next week I will share the illustrations of the Garden Folk!