Children’s books existed even before the printing press had been invented, they are “the Golden Key that opens the Enchanted Door.” There were many books written for children well before Caxton set up his first printing-press. Generally they were written and copied by the monks in their monastery cells and they combined the teaching of reading with religious instruction. The first children’s book ever printed in UK was probably “The Primer in English Most Necessary for the Education of Children,” published about 1537. After reading came writing, and the first copy-book in England was printed about the year 1571. Later there were “Writing Sheets” or “School Pieces” and it is really from these School pieces of the late eighteenth century that our modern Christmas cards developed. Story books and nursery rhymes appeared later. Probably “Old Mother Hubbard” was the first of the nursery rhymes, though the earliest printed edition still in existence was only published about the same time