If that was second grade, then four years earlier was when I learned to read. Bluebird was the highest of the four levels. Each contained cards with articles and stories plus reading comprehension questions. Maybe eight inches cube, maybe a bit longer than wide, they were named after birds. This article, on a stiff card, came from the box in the back of the classroom. In the 1940’s, the Norwegian ethnographer and explorer postulated the Central Pacific islands were populated by South Americans who drifted from Peru to their new homes on rafts. The first science article I remember reading was about Thor Heyerdahl.
