SVE's 1973 "Strange Phenomena" supplemental books for students

These "Strange Phenomena" classroom books, all from 1973, might be among the more obscure volumes I've ever written about on Papergreat. It's surprising how little about them can be found on the internet at the moment, so I'm hoping this post can be a light in the dark for anyone who's curious.

The books were published by the Chicago-based Society for Visual Education, which was a subsidiary of The Singer Company (the sewing machine folks). My understanding is that they served as a supplement for a series of six SVE filmstrips that had synchronized sound from either a record or cassette. The series was made to be folded into a science or, especially, a language arts curriculum in junior or senior high schools. The six filmstrips were titled "The Loch Ness Monster," "Unusual Science Facts," "ESP," "Mind Over Matter," "ESP in Animals and Men," and "Precognition." Does anyone out there remember watching these in class in the mid-1970s??

The three supplementary books shown above were subtitled Monsters, Nature and Science and The Mind. All are 48 pages and staplebound. They measure 6¼ inches by 9¼ inches. Here's a closer look at the content and creators behind each one: 

Nature and Science

• Illustrated by Barbara Corey
• Designed by Michael Reid
• "Strange Rains" by Thane Gower, about odd weather phenomena
• "The Orchid Hunters" by Barbara Smetzer
• "Animal Sense" by Emilie Carter Cook
• "Where Death Strikes at Night" by James Vorhees, about Oroya fever
• "Vampire!" by Winifred Ho Roderman
• "The Big Blackout" by Jill Gaynes, about the 1965 Northeast blackout
• "The Bermuda Triangle" by Douglas Hunt
• "The Creature from the Past" by Winifred Ho Roderman, about coelacanths

The Mind

• Illustrated by George Roth
• Designed by Michael Reid
• "The Dream That Saved a Life" by Nancy Davis, about Josiah Wilbarger
• "ESP into the Past" by Thane Gower
• "The Flying Monk" by Douglas Hunt 
• "Is It in the Stars?" by Bettina Smith, about astrology
• "The Man with the Television Mind" by Michael Friedrich, about Peter Hurkos
• "Space Talk" by Thane Gower, partly about Ashtar Sheran
• "Pictures of His Mind" by Cheryl Lynn Rothwell, about Ted Serios
• "The Titanic Disaster" by Thomas Fields

Monsters

• Illustrated by Mary Nolin
• Designed by Michael Reid
• "Monsters, Old and New" by Thane Gower, about the Flatwoods monster  
• "The Windingo" by Barbara Smeltzer
• "The Loch Ness Monster" by Douglas Hunt
• "The Giant Squid" by Douglas Hunt
• "Sasquatch, The Man-Beast" by Nancy Davis
• "The Abominable Snowman" by Jill Gaynes
• "Cry Wolf or Monster" by Thane Gower, about the Beast of Gévaudan
• "The Mystery of Glamis Castle" by Jill Gaynes, about the Monster of Glamis

Here are six of the interior illustrations from the books, some of which are pretty unsettling, especially if you think about kids looking at them. First up is the Flatwoods monster.