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The Comedy of Errors

A tale retold from William Shakespeare by E. Nesbit

This story is retold by E. Nesbit from William Shakespeare's play The Comedy of Errors, written around 1594 and first published in 1623. Shakespeare based it on an ancient Roman play about mistaken identity. Nesbit published her prose retellings of Shakespeare in 1907 to introduce children to the plays. The Comedy of Errors is Shakespeare's shortest play and one of his funniest. It reminds us that confusion and mistakes can be sorted out when people stop, listen, and discover the truth together. This text reflects its era.

Band: Yellow · Emerging readersTypical starting range: ages 6–8
Length: medium · about 574 words in 5 sections · 4 pictures
Source: Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, E. Nesbit and William Shakespeare
First published: 1907
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 (8 questions) with answer key
· Read-aloud script
· Colouring page
· Teacher’s Edition (members)

Lesson at a glance

Reading: about 10 minutes at this band
Pause questions: 2
Words to Know: 6
Quick Check: 8 questions, with the answer key
Let’s Talk: 3 questions for afterwards
Worksheet: questions, an activity and a drawing prompt

About 35 minutes with one story, all of it.

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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