Ann and Barry books

yellum · 08-06-2003 4:46pm #1

Anyone remember them from Primary School ?

First books they made us read in school. Anyone got any copies of them still ? Must go into a schoolbook shop and look for them.

woolymammoth · 08-06-2003 4:54pm

ha ha!

ann.. and.. barry.. went.. to.. the.. shop.

ann.. likes.. cake. barry.. likes.. jam.

ahhh.... memories!

methinks i still have some at home in the attic somewhere. must
look next chance i get.

sunbeam · 08-06-2003 5:29pm

We had Kevin and Tara (late 70s-mid 80s). Some of the stories were a bit weird. One reader was devoted to the tale of how Kevin (?) fell down a hole in the road and had to be rescued. Another one had a tale of how some guy was forced to dig his own grave so he'd 'have a story to tell'. Then there was one about a bus driver who abducted a whole lot of zombified kids....

I vaguely remember Peter and Jane (Ladybird books methinks) and Pat and Ann too.

Makaveli · 08-06-2003 7:00pm

Yeah I still have Ann and Barry books somewhere in the attic.
Then it moved on to Tara and Ben, I remember that's what my sister did.

Sandi · 08-06-2003 8:03pm

Wow, that was back in the days!
Does anyone remember the Irish equivalent? Aine agus Ronan?

sunbeam · 08-06-2003 8:38pm

We had Pol agus Niamh

woolymammoth · 09-06-2003 12:19am

wasn't there some other one, for irish, Rírá, Lú lú... two more i
can't think of the names... damn it, thats gonna bug me now.

Pigman II · 09-06-2003 12:22am

Scary!

I remember they (or perhaps it was Aine + Ronan) had this weird looking dog called Bran (who looked a lot like Disney's Pluto now that I think about it?). I'm surprised Walt's estate didn't clamp down on them like the heartless corporation that they are.

Makaveli · 09-06-2003 2:23am

Originally posted by woolymammoth
wasn't there some other one, for irish, Rírá, Lú lú... two more i
can't think of the names... damn it, thats gonna bug me now.

Mickí and Nellí I think.
I remember them too, I even remember the colour of their dungarees.

Rírá (the Fox) had a grey pair with a red R on them
Lúlú (pig) had a yellow pair with a white L
Mickí (monkey) red pair white M
Nellí (elephant) green pair red N

blahblah · 09-06-2003 8:28am

Seo ì Ann, Seo è Barry,

Tà mammaì sa chistin, tà daddy sa ghàirdìn

commuterised · 09-06-2003 12:22pm

Ann and Barry, wow I loved them. I felt like it was a real story and I was actually getting somewhere reading them. I can still remember the great sense of achievement.
I'd love to get my hands of them now.... wish I'd kept them.

D-Generate · 09-06-2003 2:06pm

I still have a couple of Peter and Jane books at home, i also have some Puddle Lane books or something like that at home aswell.

solice · 09-06-2003 3:32pm

oh man, we had copies of ann and barry at home till last year. we threw them out. they were of no good to us anymore.

can anyone remember Spot the dog, pop up books
or meg and mog, the witch and her cat

SantaHoe · 09-06-2003 10:13pm

No spoilers please... some of us are still reading Ann and Barry.

Goodshape · 10-06-2003 2:01am

My mum and dad's names are Ann and Barry.

I don't know what else to say really.

Stark · 10-06-2003 12:01pm

We had Ann&Barry + Kevin&Tara + Spot the Dog. All thrown out now though. Was there ever a couple in Irish children's literature that weren't brother and sister? Ah those books, all the character development, plot, suspense, twists and turns of "Timpiste ar an leac oighir" - the sum of our Irish class education from 1st class to 6th class. No wonder noone in this country can speak Irish after learning it for 14 years.

solice · 10-06-2003 12:55pm

tá mé brón ach tá gaeilge maith mé

hehehehe

Mossy Monk · 10-06-2003 10:06pm

anyone know of a web page with pictures of ann and barry. i've forgotten what they look like. i did a Google search and got loads of pages about Ann and Barry Ulanov

Spot the Dog can be seen on one of the childrens channels. i think it's Nick Jr. the things you see when there is a 3 year old in the house most days

sceptre · 11-06-2003 2:16am

We had Pat and Ann (people in their late 20s may remember the sequels: Baby Brigid and The Red Car). Boring they were too. My younger sister had Ann and Barry and I could tell they led much more interesting lives.

patch · 11-06-2003 1:08pm

Anois is Aris....... off topic slightly, wasn't there a tv series to go with the book?

Tyrrial · 12-06-2003 3:46pm

Anna and Barry were a very painful part of my life, i remember being asked to read a page out in class, but instead of reading it i made up what was happening.
In the picture i remember they were in 2 little car's so i began to explain how they had stolen there parents cars and gone off on a race around the city... i also remembering the teacher not liking my version ver much

Duffman · 12-06-2003 4:56pm

Hehe.... remember how Ann used to go shopping with her mom while Barry would drive his truck around....

Times have changed.... My younger siblings have Tara and Ben books... they've become politically correct... bah! :eek:

Stark · 13-06-2003 12:18pm

Yeah if they continued the series it would probably have ended up "Ben comes home every night drunk and beats his wife, while ann stays at home, cooks and cleans all day for her husband and is very grateful for it. And Ben heavily chastises himself for those thoughts he had about his friend Frank".

solice · 13-06-2003 12:45pm

god yeah thinking about it now, ann and barry were so stereotypical. they portrayed to us as kids what we were suppossed to be like. blue is for boy and pink is for girl. boys drive trucks while girls go shopping.

im glad i didnt listen to it

Duffman · 13-06-2003 12:47pm

The system affected you... you cannot escape.. muhaha and so forth...

Stark · 13-06-2003 1:56pm

And now the only Irish we know is nuacaint

segadreamcast · 29-06-2003 12:52am

Man - I loved those books. I remember one where they were building or fixing a cart.

Jeez... the memories...

woolymammoth · 29-06-2003 1:07am

Originally posted by solice
tá mé brón ach tá gaeilge maith mé

isn't that, tá brón agam/orm? ach tá gaeilge maith orm?

damn languages... as you can probably see, i can't speak irish.
could someone please correct me?

Stark · 29-06-2003 1:18pm

it's tá brón orm ach tá gaeilge maith agam.

A little inspirational message for all of those depressed Irish speakers out there

therannu · 29-06-2003 2:06pm

Does anyone remember a story in English about a clockwork mouse that's convinced this elephant is its mam? We did it in fourth or fifth class, might have been in a Linx book. My da's always going on about it, and I spent a few hours in the library of Pat's in Drumcondra looking for it, under the gazes of scary teaching students.

TomTom · 30-06-2003 8:59pm

ann had a car, barry had a lorry.
God do I remember them

Did you know they weraxed from irish curriculim/schools because of the fact they were stereotypical. The whole ann cooked and barry drove a lorry think. No kidding.

solice · 30-06-2003 11:03pm

isn't that, tá brón agam/orm? ach tá gaeilge maith orm?

it was sarcasm, not very good sarcasm ill admit but it was sarcasm

aine · 01-07-2003 12:13am

Axed?! They should have been recalled and then burned in some sort of ritualistic ceremony! Now I can assure you that I am in no way a flaming feminist...I believe in equality thats all....and by equality no I do not mean positive descrimination, in fact if there is one phrase in the English language I hate then it is 'positive descrimination"!

However, Ann and Barry books were without a doubt the worst thing to give impressionable children, the idea of Barry helping Daddy in the garden while Ann helped Mommy in the kitchen is a concept that I should hope is well and truly dead! We should not be encouraging our children to think in any such way!

I'm not a flaming feminist....honest!

de5p0i1er · 02-07-2003 2:10am

Thanks for bringing that up, I hated school and want to forget it and all those terrable thing they made you do. I had the worst teachers on the planet.

oeNeo · 02-07-2003 2:30am

These are still being used in schools. My little brother just finished Junior Infants and he was using the same book I used when I was there, which happens to be the same book all of my sisters used aswell. It brought back so many memories reading over it again.

sunbeam · 02-07-2003 2:46am

Originally posted by aine

However, Ann and Barry books were without a doubt the worst thing to give impressionable children, the idea of Barry helping Daddy in the garden while Ann helped Mommy in the kitchen is a concept that I should hope is well and truly dead! We should not be encouraging our children to think in any such way!

I'm not a flaming feminist....honest!

Anyone remember the uproar that ensued with San Niochlas gave Pol a babog and Niamh a car?:D

Did anyone else have those slideshow as gaeilge things where the entire class had to recite a different storyline by rote each week? Torture! Their precursor was a felt board with stick on velcro figures-we thought getting a screen and projector was the ultimate in high tech.

Our teacher refused point blank to use the one where the women washed up after Christmas dinner while the men sat down and relaxed....

commuterised · 02-07-2003 9:33am

I was talking to my folks about these books at the weekend and my mom produced a 20 year old video of me sitting on the couch reading Ann and Barry books..... OH MY GOD.

and my fav book of all time, Puppies and Kittens!

Kalina · 02-07-2003 9:46am

Does anyone remember "Ann and Barry on the Farm"? It was a big day for us junior infants when we fianlly finished "Ann and Barry" and moved up to "Ann and Barry on the Farm"!

Stark · 02-07-2003 9:53am

we never got that far, had to leave for secondary school.

Kalina · 02-07-2003 3:59pm

Ah k.oriordan, you missed out there!

RobertFoster · 02-07-2003 11:55pm

Originally posted by sunbeam Did anyone else have those slideshow as gaeilge things where the entire class had to recite a different storyline by rote each week? Torture!

I HATED that projector. Made me sick - not only had the whole class to read it, but sometimes individuals were picked on to read. I was bad enough reading in English, let alone as Gaeilge!

We were taking turns to read in class one day. As the person beside me started to read I hopped up and went into the bathroom to hide. I could heard the teacher throught the wall asking "is he alright?" lol, and I thought I wasn't drawing attention to myself

Anyway, to stay on topic, I remember Ann and Barry. Didn't like them, didn't hate them. I can't remember the stories even.

Amz · 05-07-2003 2:59pm

*shudder* at reminder of projector! I hated that with a passion! I never got to be the one who moved the film through either (still bitter about that, it might have made it slightly more interesting)

Used to read Ann and Barry books, still have them all in a box in my room. For Irish class we read Seal ag Leamh, if I remember correctly that was only up to first class. My mam has a problem with throwing out things I even have a box with her old school books.

In first class I think we had The Golden Gate or something like that. We thought we were the bees knees getting a school book which was longer than 30 pages!

Now I'm lucky if I have a text book less than 400 pages!

mcgarnicle · 13-07-2003 5:50pm

Ewwwww those projectors sucked. I remember our teacher made a big deal of it made out like we were going to get a movie to watch, we were all dead excited and then we had to spend the next few hrs reading irish THAT STANK!!!!! I think the projector is the reason i cant speak irish must have conditioned my brain to Irish= reading boring muck for hrs

Chevano Riley · 14-07-2003 12:39pm

are they the same kids as had a dog called holly and dusty the cat, or am i confused. i remember their parents always made them burgers and chips. the more i think, it was probably a brit book.

billy the squid · 22-07-2003 4:54pm

We did the peter and jane books in school for english then the hopscotch ones followed by the hopscotch extention ones and then the rainbow books

never did ann and barry but my sister did in her school

Seal ag leabh and the projector was what we had for irish
Pol agus niamh i think they were called and the bloke in the slideshow was paide

Lukin Black · 17-08-2003 7:49pm

We had the Anne & Barry books for English, and the Áine agus Rónan ones for Irish.

Blast from the past:

BossArky · 17-08-2003 9:35pm

I remember that I would get really hungry whenever there were cakes in the books. Not sure if it was Ann or Barry though. I can barely remember those two, but the names will forever stick in my head. What kind of education where they trying to brain-wash us with???? That whole men do tough stuff whilst women wash-up??? Who was Minister for education then and why did they let him/her get away with having such tripe on the ciriculum?

Agh the memories!

Lukin Black · 17-08-2003 11:34pm

I think it just fitted in with the times that were in it. It's not all that long ago that those kind of things were the norm, and although we have changed our public attitudes, I think to a large extent lots of us are still of the mind that certain things are girly, and certain other things for lads.

sheleentje · 28-02-2004 7:15pm

*bursts out laughing*

Wow this topic has made my day (esp. that pic)
I have some up in the attic as well...gotta get them out tomorrow! And look trough some of my irish school books.

penguinbloke · 01-03-2004 10:43am

Axed for the sheer p.c. of it, the book was deemed to be Sexist with Mammy in the kitchen, Daddy in the garden, Ann helping mammy, and Barry helping daddy.

Its replacement (Tara and Ben* possibly not real names but should do the job) was totally different with Mammy in the kitchen, Daddy in the garden, Ben helping Mammy, and Tara helping Daddy.

Such a dfference.

RobertFoster · 01-03-2004 11:14am

Originally posted by penguinbloke
Tara and Ben

Yeah, they were the next pair. I don't know if they're still going, or somthing else has replaced them.

Ann and Barry books

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