Zerna Addas Sharp (August 12, 1889 – June 17, 1981) was an American educator and book editor who is best known as the creator of the Dick and Jane series of beginning readers for elementary school-aged children. Published by Scott, Foresman and Company of Chicago, Illinois, the readers, which described the activities of her fictional siblings, "Dick," "Jane," "Sally," and other characters, were widely used in schools in the United States and many other English-speaking countries for nearly forty years. The series, which included such titles as We Look and See, We Come and Go, We Work and Play, and Fun with Dick and Jane, among others, was marketed until 1973 and used the look-say method of teaching reading.
Early life and education
Zerna Addas Sharp was born on August 12, 1889, to Charles and Lottie (Smith) Sharp in Hillisburg, Clinton County, Indiana, and was the eldest of the family's five children. Zerna's father owned a general store in Hillisburg. After graduating from high school she completed a year of teacher training at Marion Normal College (Indiana Wesleyan University) in Marion, Indiana, but never earned a degree, and later attended Columbia University in New York City.
Career
Early years
Sharp began her career as an educator. She taught first-grade students for nearly a decade at elementary schools in Hillisburg, Kirklin, and La Porte, Indiana. Sharp also served as an elementary school principal.
Creator of the Dick and Jane readers
Sharp created the characters and concept for the Dick and Jane readers, which were widely used in classrooms in the United States and in other English-speaking countries for nearly four decades before they were replaced with other reading texts. She came up with the idea for the beginning readers for elementary school children while working as a reading consultant and textbook editor for Scott, Foresman and Company, a publisher in Chicago, Illinois. Gary and Sharp wanted children who read the books to be able to readily identify with the characters. They also wanted the characters in the stories to participate in typical activities. Before the appearance of the Dick and Jane stories, reading primers "generally included Bible stories or fairy tales with complicated language and few pictures."
Sharp was not the author or illustrator of the texts. As the creator of the Dick and Jane beginning readers, Sharp designed the format and content. She also selected the storylines from ideas that others submitted. Gray co-authored with William H. Elson the Elson Basic Readers (renamed the Elson-Gray Basic Readers in 1936), which Scott Foresman published in Chicago, Illinois. The "Dick" and "Jane" characters, created by Sharp, made their debut in the series in 1930. After the Elson-Gray series ended in 1940, Sharp's characters continued in a subsequent series of primary readers that were better known as the "Dick and Jane" readers. Teacher guides accompanying the texts also encouraged adoption of the whole-word (look-say) method of identifying the meaning of words from the illustrations and repeating words introduced in the text.