Boy's Own Paper was first published in January 1879 as a weekly magazine that provided 'pure and entertaining reading' as an alternative to the cheap and violence-filled 'penny dreadfuls' that were proliferating. Boy's Own Paper, or B.O.P. as it became popularly known, provided exciting reading with many of the best-known boys' writers of the late 19th and 20th centuries producing short stories for it, or having their new work serialised in the pages of the magazine. In addition, B.O.P. provided information on how to make a wide variety of objects -miniature submarines, telegraph sets - and on how to play cricket and football (rugby and soccer) and articles about visiting teams. There was much else besides, and a correspondence column was keenly read. B.O.P. was read eagerly by generations of boys, and, in some instances, by their sisters. It was, at times, criticised for imperialism and class consciousness but these charges did not damage its overwhelming and enduring popularity. The magazine ceased publication in 1967.

The holdings of Boy's Own Paper in the Children's Literature Research Collection are mostly of the annual cumulations published as Boy's Own Annual, although there are some issues of the weekly magazine. The bulk of the Collection's holdings have been donated over the years by South Australians, and many bear affectionate inscriptions for birthdays and Christmas and show the signs of heavy use and constant reading.

The Best of British pluck: the Boy's own paper revisited by Philip Warner, London: Macdonald and Jane's, 1976

Bratton, J. S. The impact of Victorian children's fiction, London: Croom Helm; Totowa, N.J.: Barnes & Noble, 1981

Cox, Jack. Take a cold tub, sir!: the story of the Boy's own paper, Guildford, Surrey, England: Lutterworth Press, 1982

Stellabooks: BOP [Boy's own paper]

Yale University: Imperial views, colonial subjects: Victorian periodicals and the Empire See: Table of contents: Boy's own paper

State Library of South Australia: Mortlock Wing exhibitions. To be a child August 2004-