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The Old Woman and Her Little Dog

A nursery rhyme retold from Mother Goose

This nursery rhyme comes from Mother Goose, a collection of traditional English rhymes gathered in the nineteenth century by many illustrators including John Gilbert, Walter Crane and John Tenniel. The story shows how a simple trick can confuse someone and make them doubt themselves. The old woman is still the same person, even though she looks different — but she cannot see that, and neither can her dog. It is a gentle reminder that appearances can fool us, and that we are still ourselves no matter what we wear. 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 348 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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