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First published in the 1960’s, I remember learning to read with the One, Two, Three and Away books when I was at primary school. The corner of our school hall was also the school library, and there was an entire shelf of these little white books arranged neatly, in order, on the bookshelves. You would borrow one of the books, take it home and read it with an adult. When you’d finished your book you could take it back and get the next book in the series.
The books were written by Sheila McCullagh, and illustrated by Ferelith Eccles Williams. They were split into different levels of reading abilities, starting with pre-schoolers and early readers, and ending with the colour coded series of Blue, Green, Red and Yellow, though whether this is in level of relative difficulty I do not know. I also have no idea what the top end of the reading age scale was intended to be, but I would guess somewhere in the 8-10 year old range.
The first character you met in these books was Roger Red Hat. So synonymous with the series was this character that the range of books was usually referred to by most children as the Roger Red Hat books, rather than One, Two, Three and Away. Roger was a happy little chappy who always word a red hat, that looked something like a beret, a green waistcoat and a spotty red neckerchief.
He was joined by the equally alliteratively named Billy Blue Hat, twins Johnny and Jennifer Yellow Hat, and Percy Green Hat. I can understand Johnny and Jennifer being given names that didn’t start with a letter Y as there are few names to choose from, but surely Graham Green Hat would have been a better choice than Percy?
The books were set in The Village With Three Corners, with each character living in a house somewhere within the triangular village. It was easy to tell who lived where by the colour of the roof of the house. For example, I seem to recall Johnny and Jennifer lived in a quaint little yellow rooved thatched cottage.
I believe these books stopped being published in the 1980’s, but it appears that many primary schools across the UK still have a large number of them stashed away in their libraries somewhere, as my nephew has recently brought a number of them home to read from his primary school.
April 16th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Now I can remember being force fed these at Primary School (4-7) By the time we were in Junior School we were all reading books about Pirates …
February 8th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
i remember reading these books to my children. I seem to remember roger had an indian friend called sitar. Can anyone remember this person ( sitar was the girl – i think, what was the name or the boy?
February 24th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Oh my god i used to love these books i wish i could see one again, i hope my little boy has them at school, they were great!!!!!!!
February 26th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
I have fond memories of these books too. As they were graded to reading ability there was always a bit of competition between you and your friends to get to the next ability level first.
March 8th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
sandra
the brothers were called
ramoo and gopal!!!!
i had 3 fish named after them!!!!
liv xx
March 8th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Well remembered olivia. I don’t even recall any Indian characters in the books, let alone their names.
BTW, Ramoo and Gopal are excellent names for goldfish!
August 5th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
I remember reading these books too – i used to love them – Billy Blue Hat was always my favourite! I was always ahead of everyone else in my class when reading them – i was on level 7 books when i was in reception.. i wonder if amazon sell them?
August 5th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I have fond memories of them too, but I don’t think they are available any more. Perhaps this sheds some light on the poor reading standards of British kids these days?
August 12th, 2009 at 10:44 am
I want to buy the entire set but i am finding it so hard to find. If any one can help point me in the right direction all suggestions are welcome. I loved this series i would like to pass the experience onto my daughter.
September 21st, 2009 at 4:28 pm
As a former Special Needs teacher, I taught many deaf children to read with these delightful books and now would love to buy the whole set for use with my grandchildren (not deaf), as they were full of fun and adventures.
October 8th, 2009 at 2:40 am
i wish i could read
October 8th, 2009 at 9:06 am
Hey Dave, don’t be hard on yourself… You got as far as posting a comment so you can’t be that bad…
October 20th, 2009 at 9:49 am
THANK you! I KNEW there was a Percy Green Hat, but my husband thinks I made him up. I’ll show this to him and that should keep him quiet
What about Rip the Dog?
October 20th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Yeah, Percy Green Hat was definitely there, but quite why he was called Percy when all the others had more alliterative names I don’t know.
Rip the Dog… That does seem to ring a bell now you mention it.
November 12th, 2009 at 12:36 am
Oh my days, I always refered to them as the rodger red hat books. I didn’t even know they where called one two three and away up untill tonight. Me and my best mate where chatting about old times one day and this came up in the convosation as we had both got them in reception at the same time. However my old primary has since replaced them with the biff chip and kipper set which are far less interesting than these, Oh btw, I’m not a child of the ’80s, more like ’90s and we still got these.
November 12th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Sounds like you have fond memories of these Jess. It sounds like the books must have been well looked after by your school if they were still around in the 90s, as I think the main reason most schools get rid of things like this is because they’ve started falling apart.
January 9th, 2010 at 12:19 am
Also the Monster series (purple monster drawn by Quentin Blake, who had a girlfriend, a magic umbrella and went to school), Bangers and Mash (two chimps getting into lots of scrapes), and my personal favourites, a set of 10 books (Hamlyn Robin books I believe) with title such as The Very Long Beard, The Blue Banana, and The Chocolate Rain.
January 9th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
Ah, the Monster books. My wife, Li’l Boo, was a big fan of those. We managed to track some of them down on places like eBay a few years ago which we were quite pleased about.
One thing we discovered was there were slight differences between the US and UK versions. In one of the books the UK version contains the phrase “traffic policeman” which in the US version becomes “traffic cop”.
February 7th, 2010 at 8:34 pm
i used to love reading these books when i was younger!!
i’m nowing thinking of getting a few to teach my daughter to read english.
can anybody help me, where can i get the bookbs from!!
February 24th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
if you go onto wikapedia and look under sheila macculagh (the author) for one two three and away it gives you the whole list of books. amazon sell some also ebay
February 27th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
these were fab im a teaching assistant and so want to get hold of these what about tima and tobias by the same author fab
February 27th, 2010 at 9:13 pm
Could anyone please tell me, what the name of those books were with the black cat(Tabitha i think the name was) and a boy (Tim?) ! they solved paranormal crimes i think!
I was reading them about two three years after rodger red hat, which were beautiful books, that picture above sends back strange vibrant memories.
April 10th, 2010 at 2:13 am
@ Mark, the name of the books were Tim and the Hidden People. The cat was Tobias I think. I loved them and will be trawling ebay right now.
April 30th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
I remember my daughter reading these books at school, I am going to the local library this week to order them for my grand-daughter she will love them! The library has everything and if they dont they will get it…
May 2nd, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Best of luck with the library Marcia. I think these books went out of print years ago, but if they do get them in please let everyone know, as I’m sure they’d get a few more customers. These books seem to be remembered very fondly by many.
June 19th, 2010 at 12:20 am
SWEEEEEEEEET !!! THE ONE WHERE BILLY BLUE HAT FELL IN THE FROZEN LAKE !!.. thanks to kirsten for reminding us of RIP THE DOG ! does anyone remember the old man ? vague recollection of an old man with walkng stick and the colour brown… Gopal,Sita, and Ramu!
June 19th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Is that the sound of a bunch of old childhood memories toppling out of leemond’s mind that I can hear?
The old man rings a bell with me actually…
August 20th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
i remember blue banana. does any one remember a book with a character called smartie pants (i think he was a clown with big trousers) im sure i read it when i was at primary school in the 80s no one remembers.
August 25th, 2010 at 9:56 pm
What was johnny yellow hats dog called ?
September 4th, 2010 at 9:46 pm
I have fond memories of the “One Two Three and Away” books. I used to read them at primary school. My Grandma also used to be a primary school teacher and she had the books in her classroom and even knitted soft toys of all the characters (from Roger Red hat to Percy Green and Gopal) for us to play with. I just started working at a special school and a teacher was getting rid of some of the books so she let me have them to take home for our 2 year-old son to have. He’s been looking at the pictures and I’ve been reading them with him and they are very good books.
September 6th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
I think there are a lot of people out there quite envious of you for getting hold of these lovely books. I don’t think there are many left now!
December 15th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
you can buy these books on ebay, weren’t the indian people called ramu and sita? x
March 24th, 2011 at 1:57 pm
Ok… Does anyone remember the picture of “The Village with Three Corners” at the begining of each book?
Does anyone else remember the way more locations were added to this map with passing stories?
Such as the stepping stones!!!!! (One was black!)
And does anyone remember when Jennifer Yellow hat took the big green rock from the forest back to her house…
and started singing….
and what happened next!?
How did people come up with these stories???
March 24th, 2011 at 2:17 pm
I do remember the map now you mention it Paul (and do you really have a Pewter Hat? Must be uncomfortable) though I didn’t remember that it expanded as the series progressed.
I don’t remember the Jennifer Yellow Hat story though. Do tell what happened!!
May 7th, 2011 at 11:31 am
my children used to read these books in their primary school nearly 15 years ago. Please let me know if they are available in stores or online.
May 7th, 2011 at 1:16 pm
I don’t think they are in print any more, but if you look on Amazon you might find some old copies. Be warned though, they seem to fetch quite a high price!
May 20th, 2011 at 1:34 pm
My daughter is learning to read with these books now, at school in 2011! I also learned how to read with them. So all of the characters listed above are in there…a couple of inaccuracies though
Gopal is a girl, and Ramu is the spelling not Ramoo.
I have to say I am a little bored of them now, they really are quite dated and that is evident in the language used. In one story they go to the shop to make a telephone call and they spend more time that I would like going into strangers houses! I also have to read them all again in September when my second daughter starts reading them…
May 20th, 2011 at 9:33 pm
Thanks for the corrections Jane, and I’m sorry to hear you are finding them a little boring. I guess this is an instance where fond memories become tarnished when viewed again through adult eyes.
I’m sure your daughters are a bit confused by the telephone thing, it must seem absurd to them that people wouldn’t have a mobile phone, let alone a landline phone at home.
As to the stranger thing, it shows how the world has gotten a scarier place. Not that I want to defend the stranger issue, I’m sure when these books were written kids were still warned about strangers, but I suppose communities were much smaller and tightly knit back then, so stranger danger wasn’t so much of an issue as it is now.
June 15th, 2011 at 1:33 am
Well I’m amazed!! I have recently decided to do some one to one teaching of reading which I haven’t done for about 15+ years now. Having discovered all my teaching stuff stored away in the loft I find I still have 2 COMPLETE SETS of 1,2,3 and Away! I was worried they were too dated and was going to get rid of them, but having read many of your comments I have changed my mind and am hanging on to them,dated or not. Sorry everyone! Good old Roger Red Hat.
July 7th, 2011 at 9:36 pm
I just checked amazon to see if they sell them, for a copy of roger red hat its £36.95!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love the books but i am not a millionaire! lol
July 20th, 2011 at 5:06 pm
I have a whole array of rubber stamps with the characters on that im going to sell as soon as i can find the names for them
I read them all when I was a child and my dad is a school caretaker, he noticed them all being thrown out and asked if he could bring them home for my one year old to read when he’s a little older.
I’v unfortunatley forgotten alot of the names as the few books I now have are repeated alot.
Does anyone know any of the names of the adult characters?
I have the old man and the idian childrens mother and can’t for the life of me remember their names x
July 21st, 2011 at 11:26 am
Er, Mr. and Mrs. Red Hat?
Sorry, my memory isn’t good enough – anybody out there boasting the complete set able to supply a few names for us please?
August 5th, 2011 at 1:09 am
You can always pick up copies on eBay fairly cheaply
December 29th, 2011 at 3:00 pm
Hang on to these books if you have them. They are a ‘graded reading scheme ‘ from before reading ‘real books’ became the fashion.That means they are structured to increase the reading vocabulary in small steps and are brilliant for teaching any child to read, including those with difficulties in learning to read.
Sadly, nothing more modern does the same thing. There are many graded ’series’ but these have bigger jumps of difficulty between books and less repetition. I have used these with struggling readers in the initial stages of learning to read. Children love them because they can read them- even though adults might find them repetitious.
Got to this site looking for some to buy.The fact that they are so expensive now on ebay must mean that many remember them with affection as being the means to learning to read