Writing a Composition

From Fifty Famous People, by James Baldwin

James Baldwin published Fifty Famous People in 1912, a collection of short stories about well-known Americans. This story is about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, one of America's most beloved poets, who wrote 'The Village Blacksmith' and 'The Children's Hour.' It shows how a patient teacher helped a young boy discover that writing is just thinking clearly about one thing and telling about it in your own words—a lesson every young writer can use.

Band

Yellow · Emerging readers, about 6 to 8

Length

medium · about 592 words in 6 sections · 4 pictures

Source

Fifty Famous People: A Book of Short Stories, James Baldwin · 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 (8 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Colouring page

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.