EnglishReads
A1 · Beginner For children

The Owl and the Pussy-cat and Other Nonsense Songs

by Edward Lear · graded reader

  • 3 chapters
  • 970 words
  • about 7 min
  • poetry

An owl and a cat sail away in a pea-green boat to find a ring. A bored duck asks a kangaroo for a ride around the world. The little Jumblies, with green heads and blue hands, go to sea in a sieve. Three famous nonsense songs, told as short stories.

Listen while you read Coming soonNarration with each sentence highlighted as it is read.
Read the openingThe whole book opens when EnglishReads launches.

Read the opening

The Owl and the Pussy-cat are good friends. One day they go to sea in a beautiful pea-green boat.

They take some honey with them. They take a lot of money too. The money is in a five-pound note.

At night the Owl looks up at the stars. He plays a small guitar, and he sings a song to the Pussy-cat.

"Oh lovely Pussy, oh Pussy, my love," he sings. "What a beautiful Pussy you are! You are, you are! What a beautiful Pussy you are!"

The Pussy-cat is very happy. "Oh, Owl, you are so handsome," she says. "And you sing so sweetly! Let's get married. We can wait no more. But what can we do for a ring? We have no ring."

So they sail away. They sail for a year and a day. At last they come to the land where the Bong-tree grows.

In a wood there stands a little pig. And on the end of his nose, there is a ring. A ring on the end of his nose, his nose, his nose!

Words you will learn

Common A1 words in this book. Tap one for its note and the sentence it comes from.

Chapters

  1. The Owl and the Pussy-cat · 2 min
  2. The Duck and the Kangaroo · 2 min
  3. The Jumblies · 3 min

Translations

Word notes in Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, French, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and Hindi. Paragraph translations in Turkish and Spanish. More languages are being added.

More A1 books

All A1 books →