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Simple Simon

A nursery rhyme retold from Mother Goose

This reader is retold from the Simple Simon verses in Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes, a collection illustrated by John Gilbert, Walter Crane, John Tenniel, Harrison Weir and Johann Baptist Zwecker in the nineteenth century. Simple Simon is a gentle character who tries very hard but whose plans never quite work out. The rhyme has delighted children for generations because Simon keeps trying, no matter what happens. This text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised.

Band

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

Length

short · about 315 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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