ABSTRACT
Numerous recent studies have highlighted the signifi cance of material culture in the history of childhood, and the profound infl uence of a growing consumer ethos from at least the nineteenth century. 1 Notably, from this time, books formed a crucial component of the expanding consumer market, and were an important feature of the material culture of childhood. Arguably, this was nowhere more relevant than in the context of religious childhood, where reading matter had particular status as a medium for religious formation and moral improvement. The wider commercial environment and peculiar status of books within the religious world ensured that earlytwentieth-century religious childhoods were saturated in text.
