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The Death and Burial of Poor Rooster Robin

A nursery rhyme from Mother Goose

This is one of the oldest and best-loved nursery rhymes in English, found in collections of Mother Goose from the eighteenth century onward. No one knows who poor Rooster Robin was or why the Sparrow shot him, but children have listened to the roll call of mourners for generations. The rhyme reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. It is worth a child's time because it introduces the rhythm and ritual of traditional verse, and because every creature in the story steps forward to help when someone has died.

Band

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

Length

short · about 367 words in 5 sections · 4 pictures

Source

Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes, John Gilbert, Walter Crane, John Tenniel, Harrison Weir and Johann Baptist Zwecker

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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