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The Fox and the Farmer

A nursery rhyme retold from Mother Goose

This nursery rhyme comes from Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes, a nineteenth-century collection illustrated by John Gilbert, Walter Crane, John Tenniel, Harrison Weir and Johann Baptist Zwecker. The rhyme was sung and recited in British households for generations. This text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. The story teaches that actions have consequences: the Fox is clever and bold, but when he steals from the farmer, the farmer protects what is his. Young readers meet a clear sequence of cause and effect, a memorable rhythm, and the satisfying justice of a trickster finally caught.

Band

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

Length

short · about 341 words in 4 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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