The Golden Primer : A Facsimile

First published in 1884, The Golden Primer is a stunning example of Victorian book illustration by one of the foremost artists and illustrators of his day, Walter Crane.

The primer uses methods for teaching children to read that are recognisable today: encouraging the child to interact with the words and pictures, pointing out the printed words as they see them in the pictures, constructing these into sentences of rhyming verse, counting how many times a word appears on a page, and even suggesting that once a word has been mastered the child should be given another book and asked to find the same word.

However, its main appeal lies in Crane's charming and witty illustrations, all reproduced in this beautiful new facsimile edition, the first time the book has been in print since it was last published in 1910.