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The Kilkenny Cats

A nursery rhyme retold from The Big Book of Nursery Rhymes

This reader retells a classic nursery rhyme from The Big Book of Nursery Rhymes, compiled by Walter Jerrold and illustrated by Charles Robinson, published in the early twentieth century. The rhyme is a humorous cautionary tale from Irish tradition about the cost of stubbornness and anger. The exaggerated ending — two cats fighting until nothing is left — is the kind of silly impossibility young children delight in, while carrying a gentle moral lesson: sometimes holding on to anger leaves everyone worse off. This text reflects its era.

Band

Purple · Pre-readers and first readersTypical starting range: ages 4–5

Length

short · about 355 words in 4 sections · 4 pictures

Source

The Big Book of Nursery Rhymes, Walter Jerrold and Charles Robinson

First published

see the About page in the reader

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (6 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Colouring page
• · Teacher’s Edition (members)

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.

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