The Horseshoe Nails

A tale retold from Fifty Famous People, by James Baldwin

This tale comes from James Baldwin's 1896 collection Fifty Famous Stories. It tells how a blacksmith's shortcut changed England's history. The story is based on the 1485 Battle of Bosworth Field, where King Richard III lost his crown to Henry Tudor. Baldwin used the old proverb about a horseshoe nail to teach that small careless acts can have great consequences. This text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. The story reminds young readers that doing a job properly matters, even when we are in a hurry.

Band

Yellow · Emerging readers, about 6 to 8

Length

medium · about 585 words in 5 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.