Whittington and His Cat

From English Fairy Tales, by Joseph Jacobs

This is a retelling of the English legend of Dick Whittington, collected by Joseph Jacobs in the late nineteenth century. The real Richard Whittington was a wealthy merchant and Lord Mayor of London in the early 1400s, but the story of the cat and his rags-to-riches rise is a fairy tale that grew up around his name. It has been told and retold for hundreds of years. The story rewards kindness, hard work and courage, and shows that even a small gift can bring great fortune.

Band

Yellow · Emerging readers, about 6 to 8

Length

medium · about 560 words in 6 sections · 4 pictures

Source

English Fairy Tales, Joseph Jacobs · 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.