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Who Stole the Bird's-nest?

A poem from Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes, by John Gilbert, Walter Crane, John Tenniel, Harrison Weir and Johann Baptist Zwecker

This poem comes from a collection of Mother Goose nursery rhymes illustrated by some of Victorian England's finest artists in the nineteenth century. The poem takes the form of a gentle mystery: a bird discovers her nest has been stolen, and one by one the farm animals deny taking it, each reminding her of the help they gave. The true thief is revealed at the end, and his shame teaches a quiet lesson about honesty and respecting the natural world. This text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised.

Band

Yellow · Emerging readersTypical starting range: ages 6–8

Length

medium · about 543 words in 6 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 (8 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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