The Online Books Page

Readers (Primary)

See also what's at your library, or elsewhere.

• Readers (Primary) -- Early works to 1800
• Alphabet books

• Primary readers
• Primers

• Playing Days: A Primer (New York et al.: Longmans, Green and Co., c1931), by Florence Piper Tuttle, illust. by Julia Greene (page images at childrensbooksonline.org)
• The Bird-Woman of the Lewis and Clark Expedition: A Supplementary Reader for First and Second Grades, by Katherine Chandler (Gutenberg text)
• Childs First Book (New York: McLoughlin Bros., ca. 1875) (page images at childrensbooksonline.org)
• The Child's First Reader (Philadelphia et al.: John C. Winston Co., c1918), by Sidney G. Firman and Ethel Maltby Gehres, illust. by Frederick Richardson (page images at childrensbooksonline.org)
• Eugene Field Reader (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, c1905), by Eugene Field, ed. by Alice Louise Harris, contrib. by Frank W. Cooley (page images at childrensbooksonline.org)
• Everyday Classics: Second Reader (New York: MacMillan Co., 1923), ed. by Franklin T. Baker, Ashley Horace Thorndike, and Mildred L. Batchelder, illust. by Maud Petersham and Miska Petersham (page images at childrensbooksonline.org)
• A First Reader (Sacramento: W. W. Shannon, c1910), by Georgine Burchill, William L. Ettinger, and Edgar Dubs Shimer, ed. by California State Text-Book Committee
  • multiple formats at Google; US access only
  • multiple formats at archive.org
• The First Reader, Designed for the Use of Primary Schools (second edition; Mobile, AL: W. G. Clark and Co., 1864), by A. de V. Chaudron
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust
• The Franklin Primer: or, Lessons in Spelling and Reading, Adapted to the Understandings of Children (1834) (page images at uncg.edu)
• Mavor's Illustrated Primer, With Three Hundred and Fifty Illustrations (London: F. Warne and Co., ca. 1870), by William Fordyce Mavor (page images at Princeton)
• McGuffey's Eclectic Primer, Revised Edition (New York et al: John Wiley and Sons, c1909; with transcriber commentary), contrib. by William Holmes McGuffey (Gutenberg text and other formats)
• McGuffey's First Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition (New York et al: John Wiley and Sons, c1920; with transcriber commentary), contrib. by William Holmes McGuffey (Gutenberg text and other formats)
• Monkey Jack and Other Stories (New York: McLoughlin Bros., n.d.), ed. by Palmer Cox (Gutenberg text and illustrated HTML)
• The Natural Method Readers: A Primer (New York et al.: C. Scribner's Sons, c1914), by Hannah T. McManus and John H. Haaren, illust. by Florence Edith Storer (page images at HathiTrust)
• The New England Primer (Boston: Massachusetts Sabbath School Society, 1843) (HTML with commentary at sacred-texts.com)
• A Primary Reader: Old-Time Stories, Fairy Tales and Myths Retold by Children, by Emma Louise Smythe (Gutenberg text and illustrated HTML)
• The Progressive Road to Reading: Story Steps (Boston et al.: Silver Burdett, c1917), by Clare Kleiser, William L. Ettinger, and Edgar Dubs Shimer (multiple formats at archive.org)
• Reading-Literature: The Primer (1910), by Harriette Taylor Treadwell and Margaret Free, illust. by Frederick Richardson (illustrated HTML with commentary at Gateway to the Classics)
• The Riverside Readers (9 volumes; Boston et al.: Houghton Mifflin Co., c1911-1913), ed. by James H. Van Sickle and Wilhelmina Seegmiller, contrib. by Frances Jenkins, illust. by Ruth Mary Hallock, Maginel Wright Barney, Clara E. Atwood, and Lucy Fitch Perkins
  • Primer: page images at HathiTrust
  • First reader: page images at HathiTrust
  • Second reader: multiple formats at archive.org
  • Third reader: multiple formats at archive.org
  • Fourth reader: page images at HathiTrust
  • Fifth reader: multiple formats at archive.org
  • Sixth reader: page images at HathiTrust
  • Seventh reader: page images at HathiTrust
  • Eighth reader: page images at HathiTrust
• The Second Reader, Designed for the Use of Primary Schools (second edition; Mobile, AL: W. G. Clark and Co., 1864), by A. de V. Chaudron
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust
• The Virginia Primer (Richmond, VA: J.R. Keiningham, 1864)
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust
• Having Fun (Boston et al.: Houghton Mifflin Co., c1929), by Isa L. Wright, illust. by Hildegard Woodward (page images at childrensbooksonline.org)
• The First Dixie Reader, Designed to Follow the Dixie Primer (Raleigh: Branson, Farrar & Co., 1863), by M. B. Moore (HTML and TEI at UNC)
• The Hiawatha Primer, by Florence Holbrook, contrib. by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (multiple formats at archive.org)
• A Primer, for the Use of the Mohawk Children, to Acquire the Spelling, Reading and Writing of Their Own Tongue (Canadian edition, 1828), by Daniel Claus (multiple formats at archive.org)
• The Alphabet; And, Easy Words of One, Two, and Three Syllables (Cobb Toys third series #1; Newark, NJ: B. Olds, 1835), by Lyman Cobb (multiple formats at archive.org)
• The Alphabet of Goody Two Shoes: By Learning Which She Soon Got Rich (London: Printed For J. Harris and Son, 1820) (page images at Princeton)
• The Geographical Reader, for the Dixie Children (Raleigh: Branson, Farrar & Co., 1863), by M. B. Moore (HTML and TEI at UNC)
• Kittens and Cats: A First Reader (Boston et al.: Houghton Mifflin Co., c1911), by Eulalie Osgood Grover (multiple formats at archive.org)

• A Little Pretty Pocket-Book (first Worcester edition; Worcester, MA: Isaiah Thomas, 1787), contrib. by Isaiah Thomas (page images at LOC)
• A Primer for the Use of the Mohawk Children: to Acquire the Spelling and Reading of Their Own, As Well As to Get Acquainted With the English Tongue; Which for That Purpose Is Put on the Opposite Page (London: Printed by C. Buckton, 1786), by Daniel Claus (multiple formats at archive.org)
• The English Schoole-Maister, by Edmund Coote, ed. by Ian Lancashire (HTML with commentary at Toronto)
• The New-England Primer (1777 edition) (HTML at sacred-texts.com)

• Twenty-Six '76 (1976), by Johanna Drucker (page images with commentary at artistsbooksonline.org)
• A, Apple Pie, by Kate Greenaway
  • page images and HTML at Celebration of Women Writers
  • page images at Princeton
• A, Apple Pie (London and New York: F. Warne and Co., 1886), by Kate Greenaway (Gutenberg text and illustrated HTML)
• An Alphabet of Animals (London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.; Leicester, UK: Winks and Son, 1865) (multiple formats at archive.org)
• The Alphabet of Goody Two Shoes: By Learning Which She Soon Got Rich (London: Printed For J. Harris and Son, 1820) (page images at Princeton)
• Barnum and Jumbo's ABC (London and New York: F. Warne, ca. 1882) (page images at Princeton)
• A Bizarre Company (London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co., 1913), by G. M. C. Fry (page images at Princeton)
• Bowden's A.B.C. Book of India (Mumbai: A. C. Bowden, ca. 1900), by Arthur Charles Bowden (page images at Princeton)
• The Children's Moral Alphabet (Kettering, UK: J.H. Waddington, 1879) (page images at Princeton)
• The Child's Alphabet, Emblematically Described and Embellished by Twenty-Four Pictures, Brought Into Easy Verse, for the Tender Capacities of Young Readers: The Whole Contrived to Allure Children Into the Love of Learning (Glasgow: Printed by J. And M. Robertson, 1805) (page images at Princeton)
• Grandmama Goodsoul's ABC of Eatables (London: Read, Brooks and Co., ca. 1880), by Brooks & Co. Read (page images at Princeton)
• The History of A Apple Pie (London: G. Routledge and Co., ca. 1858) (page images at Princeton)
• An Illustration of Osbourne's Pictorial Alphabet (London: C. Osbourne and Messrs. Ackerman and Co., 1835), by Charles Osbourne (page images at Princeton)
• The Mother's Picture Alphabet (London: S. W. Partridge and Co., ca. 1887) (multiple formats at Google; US access only)
• The Picture Alphabet (1850), by Oliver Spafford (Gutenberg text and illustrated HTML)
• The Scripture Alphabet for Children (London: J. Harris, 1824) (page images at Princeton)
• Take Your Choice! or, A Peep at my Playmates (London: Printed for J. Harris and Son, 1822), by Pat Playful (page images at Princeton)
• Tom Thumb's Alphabet (London: W. Darton and Son, ca. 1836) (page images at Princeton)
• The Twins' A B C (London: Liberty and Co., and Lawrence and Bullen, 1904), by Olga C. Morgan, illust. by Edmund Evans (page images at Princeton)
• The Twins' A B C (London: Liberty and Co., ca. 1904), by Olga C. Morgan, illust. by Edmund Evans (PDF at Toronto Public Library)
• The Adventures of ABC (London et al.: R. Tuck and Sons, 1900) (page images at Princeton)
• The Alphabet; And, Easy Words of One, Two, and Three Syllables (Cobb Toys third series #1; Newark, NJ: B. Olds, 1835), by Lyman Cobb (multiple formats at archive.org)
• Childs First Book (New York: McLoughlin Bros., ca. 1875) (page images at childrensbooksonline.org)
• Goldfish at School: or, The Alphabet of Frank the Fisherman (London: Hodgson and Co., 1823) (page images at Princeton)
• R. Cruikshank's Comic Alphabet (London: Darton and Clark, ca. 1840), by Robert Cruikshank (page images at Princeton)
• The World at Home ABC: An Alphabet of Nations (London et al.: T. Nelson and Sons, 1903), by Will Gibbons (page images at Princeton)
• Goop Tales Alphabetically Told (New York: F. A. Stokes Co., c1904), by Gelett Burgess (page images at Princeton)

More items available under narrower terms.