This study is a contribution to understanding the historical development of reading books in Brazil, in particular in the state of São Paulo, an analyse of some text books more frequently used in the primary schools at the end of XIX century and at the beginning of XX century (1890-1920), as a cultural instrument. We describe their different faces and their use in the school in terms of contents, objectives, format, publisher production and copyright. We attempt to determine the intersection between teaching in classroom and history of reading.