The Blackbird and the Dove

A fable retold from Fifty Famous Fables by Lida B. McMurry

This fable comes from Fifty Famous Fables, a collection by Lida B. McMurry first published in the early 1900s. A fable is a short story with animal characters that teaches a lesson. This text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. In this story, one bird says one thing to someone's face and another thing behind their back, while another bird tells only the truth. The fable teaches children that real kindness means saying the same thing in front of someone and behind their back.

Band

Purple · Pre-readers and first readers, about 4 to 5

Length

short · about 334 words in 5 sections · 4 pictures

Source

Fifty Famous Fables, Lida B. McMurry · Project Gutenberg

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

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.