How Mr. Rabbit Lost his Tail

Paine, Albert Bigelow, 1861-1937Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.8

Word count: 65K words
Chapters: 7

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.How Mr. Rabbit Lost his Tail by Albert Bigelow PaineAuthor: Paine, Albert Bigelow, 1861-1937,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Feb 27, 2009

Editor's review

This is a rabbit story by Albert Bigelow Paine, a public-domain work of children's literature. It is short and built around the classic folk motif of Mr. Rabbit losing his tail. Its value lies in light storytelling and simple language with the feel of an oral folktale; it suits early English reading practice and gives teachers or parents a starting point for discussing why the story is told this way. As an electronic reprint it works best as light reading or teaching material rather than as a work of literary depth. Readers may notice how simple events create suspense and humor, and how the animal figures are given human traits. Note that the source provides no information on illustrations or specific chapters; readers should rely on the actual electronic text.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Young readers at the beginning English stage who need short texts
Parents choosing short bedtime stories for their children
Teachers collecting folktale motifs for classroom material

Not a good fit for

Adult literary readers seeking complex plots and deep themes
Very young children who need a modern illustrated picture-book experience

Reading tips

Read it straight through once to feel the rhythm; then go back to the key passage where Rabbit loses his tail.
Parents can ask after reading, "If you were Rabbit, how would you keep your tail?" and turn the story into an oral discussion.
English learners can copy out simple sentences and imitate them by writing a short animal story of their own.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What age is this story suitable for?

The source does not state an age range. Judging by length and language, it suits primary-school children who already have some English listening and reading ability; younger children will need a parent to retell it in Chinese with explanation.

Does the book have illustrations?

The source does not say whether there are illustrations, so this cannot be confirmed. Please refer to the actual electronic file provided by Project Gutenberg.

Why does Rabbit lose his tail?

This is a common explanatory motif in folktales, using a story to account for an animal's features. For the specific plot, refer to the book's own narration; this short story is built around exactly that premise.

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About the author

Paine, Albert Bigelow, 1861-1937 Author

Albert Bigelow Paine (1861–1937) was an American author and biographer whose personal life is documented only to a limited extent in publicly available sources. The library holds 31 of his works, the most concentrated theme being the study of Mark Twain. His representative work is the multi-volume Mark Twain: A Biography, which narrates the subject's life chronologically by period; it is solidly documented and plainly written, and remains an important reference for Mark Twain scholarship. He also wrote outdoor and children's books such as The Tent Dwellers and The Hollow Tree Snowed-in Book, whose clear, lively prose reflects everyday experience. His writing combines careful arrangement of source materials with readable narrative, and has helped make Mark Twain's life and works more widely known.