All Graded Readers

Dominoes Quick Starter The First Flying Man

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Dominoes Quick Starter The First Flying Man Pack

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Dominoes Quick Starter The Skateboarder Pack

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Dominoes Quick Starter Lisa's Song Pack

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Dominoes Quick Starter Pebbles on the Beach Pack

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Dominoes Quick Starter The Little Match Girl Pack

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Dominoes Quick Starter The Skateboarder

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 San Francisco

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'It's a good place for gold,' said people in the 1840s, and they came from all over the world. 'It's a good place for a prison,' said the US government in the 1920s, and they put Al Capone there on the island of Alcatraz. 'It's a good place for love,' said the hippies in the 1960s, and they put flowers in their hair and came to Haight Ashbury. And San Francisco is still a good place - to take a hundred photographs, or see the Chinatown parade, or just to sit in a coffee shop and be in this interesting, different city . . .

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 San Francisco Audio CD Pack

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'It's a good place for gold,' said people in the 1840s, and they came from all over the world. 'It's a good place for a prison,' said the US government in the 1920s, and they put Al Capone there on the island of Alcatraz. 'It's a good place for love,' said the hippies in the 1960s, and they put flowers in their hair and came to Haight Ashbury. And San Francisco is still a good place - to take a hundred photographs, or see the Chinatown parade, or just to sit in a coffee shop and be in this interesting, different city . . .

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Dominoes Quick Starter Lisa's Song

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Dominoes Quick Starter Pebbles on the Beach

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Dominoes Quick Starter The Little Match Girl

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Dominoes Quick Starter The Selfish Giant Pack

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Dominoes Quick Starter The Selfish Giant

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Oxford Bookworms Library Starter The Girl with Green Eyes

Greg is a porter at the Shepton Hotel in New York.

When a girl with beautiful green eyes asks him for help, Greg can't say no.

The girl's name is Cassie, and she says she is an artist. She tells Greg that her stepfather has her sketchbooks, and now she wants them back.

Cassie says her stepfather is staying at Greg's hotel . . . so what could go wrong?

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Oxford Bookworms Library Starter The Girl with Green Eyes Audio CD Pack

Greg is a porter at the Shepton Hotel in New York.

When a girl with beautiful green eyes asks him for help, Greg can't say no.

The girl's name is Cassie, and she says she is an artist. She tells Greg that her stepfather has her sketchbooks, and now she wants them back.

Cassie says her stepfather is staying at Greg's hotel . . . so what could go wrong?

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Bookworms Club Stories for Reading Circles Ruby (Stages 4 and 5)

Short stories from Oxford Bookworms with a unique set of resources and information for running successful Reading Circles.

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Dominoes Three The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Pack

F. Scott Fitzgerald Retold by Clare West

What happens when a man lives his life backwards, or a family owns a diamond as big as the Ritz Hotel?

How can a boring girl become more popular, a careless young woman become more sensible, or a cut-glass bowl destroy a married woman's life?

What does a young man do to save the girl that he likes from an evil ghost, or to forget old feelings for a woman when she marries another man?

Read this collection of short stories by one of America's finest storytellers to find out.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 The Bridge and Other Love Stories Audio CD Pack

Christine Lindop

STAGE 1 - Human Interest

Luke is a good-looking young man, but he's not very clever with words. Gemma is clever with words, but what does she want? Lucy and Becky are good friends, but what about Sam? He makes wonderful cakes, but does he make mistakes too? Nina and Dragan are in love, so deeply in love, but they live in the wrong place, at the wrong time ...

All love stories have moments of happiness, pain, misunderstanding, laughter, and sometimes great sadness. But love will nearly always find a way ...

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 The Bridge and Other Love Stories

Christine Lindop

STAGE 1 - Human Interest

Luke is a good-looking young man, but he's not very clever with words. Gemma is clever with words, but what does she want? Lucy and Becky are good friends, but what about Sam? He makes wonderful cakes, but does he make mistakes too? Nina and Dragan are in love, so deeply in love, but they live in the wrong place, at the wrong time ...

All love stories have moments of happiness, pain, misunderstanding, laughter, and sometimes great sadness. But love will nearly always find a way ...

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Dominoes Two The Bird of Happiness and Other Wise Tales Pack

Tim Herdon

What is the secret of happiness, or the best thing for a wife to take with her when she leaves home?

How does a man pay for the smell of bread, or decide if he is lucky?

What happens when a friend steals a gift meant for you, or is careless when he tries to make his dreams of a better life come true?

How can you change dirt into gold, or get what you want?

The eight wise tales in this collection can teach us some important lessons about life.

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Bookworms Club Stories for Reading Circles Coral (Stages 3 and 4)

Short stories from Oxford Bookworms with a unique set of resources and information for running successful Reading Circles.

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Dominoes Three The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

F. Scott Fitzgerald Retold by Clare West

What happens when a man lives his life backwards, or a family owns a diamond as big as the Ritz Hotel?

How can a boring girl become more popular, a careless young woman become more sensible, or a cut-glass bowl destroy a married woman's life?

What does a young man do to save the girl that he likes from an evil ghost, or to forget old feelings for a woman when she marries another man?

Read this collection of short stories by one of America's finest storytellers to find out.

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Dominoes Two The Bird of Happiness and Other Wise Tales

Tim Herdon

What is the secret of happiness, or the best thing for a wife to take with her when she leaves home?

How does a man pay for the smell of bread, or decide if he is lucky?

What happens when a friend steals a gift meant for you, or is careless when he tries to make his dreams of a better life come true?

How can you change dirt into gold, or get what you want?

The eight wise tales in this collection can teach us some important lessons about life.

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Bookworms Club Stories for Reading Circles Pearl (Stages 2 and 3)

Short stories from Oxford Bookworms with a unique set of resources and information for running successful Reading Circles.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Mysterious Death of Charles Bravo Audio CD Pack

Tim Vicary

STAGE 3 - True Stories

Charles Bravo died from the poison antimony. He took three days to die, and the doctors could do nothing to help him.

There were three people who had reasons for wanting Charles Bravo dead - Florence Bravo herself, Charles Bravo's new young wife; Dr James Gully, Florence's former lover; and Mrs Jane Cox, Florence's friend and companion.

But the enquiry into the death in 1876 could not decide who the murderer was, and for more than 130 years people have wondered who did kill Charles Bravo ...

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Dominoes Three The Vesuvius Mosaic Pack

Joyce Hannam

'We have some wonderful mosaics in Pompeii, but I've never seen a better one than this!'

After the young Roman mosaic designer Felix starts work in Pompeii, his whole life changes. There he falls in love with the beautiful Greek slave Agathe, who can see into the future.

When the volcano Vesuvius sends hot ash over the city, Felix - and Agathe's brother Alcander - ride to the port of Misenum for help. But will they reach admiral Gaius Plinius in time, and will they ever see Agathe alive again?

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Mysterious Death of Charles Bravo

Tim Vicary

STAGE 3 - True Stories

Charles Bravo died from the poison antimony. He took three days to die, and the doctors could do nothing to help him.

There were three people who had reasons for wanting Charles Bravo dead - Florence Bravo herself, Charles Bravo's new young wife; Dr James Gully, Florence's former lover; and Mrs Jane Cox, Florence's friend and companion.

But the enquiry into the death in 1876 could not decide who the murderer was, and for more than 130 years people have wondered who did kill Charles Bravo ...

• Where to order

Dominoes Three The Vesuvius Mosaic

Joyce Hannam

'We have some wonderful mosaics in Pompeii, but I've never seen a better one than this!'

After the young Roman mosaic designer Felix starts work in Pompeii, his whole life changes. There he falls in love with the beautiful Greek slave Agathe, who can see into the future.

When the volcano Vesuvius sends hot ash over the city, Felix - and Agathe's brother Alcander - ride to the port of Misenum for help. But will they reach admiral Gaius Plinius in time, and will they ever see Agathe alive again?

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Dominoes One True Heroes of Sport Pack

Donatella Fitzgerald

Some people in the world of sport are heroes only because they are the best at their sport. But the sportsmen and sportswomen in this book - Oscar Pistorius, Michael Phelps, Wilma Rudolph and Natalie du Toit - are all that and much more. All of them went through bad times and learned to be stronger people through sport. Because it isn't living through good times, but living through bad times that makes you into a true hero!

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Dominoes Three Dian and the Gorillas Pack

Norma Shapiro

Over the years hunters, poachers, and war have killed many of the gorillas of central Africa. But there are still a few hundred living high in the mists of the Virunga Mountains.

When Dian Fossey first saw a family of wild mountain gorillas in the Virungas she knew that she must help these wonderful animals. This true story tells of the twenty years she lived with them, watched them, wrote about them, and protected them. In the end, she gave her life for them.

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Dominoes Three Hard Times Pack

Charles Dickens
Text adaptation by Susan Kingsley

Thomas Gradgrind believes that facts and money are more important than feelings and imagination. After Cissy Jupe - a circus child - is left alone in the world, Gradgrind takes her into his house, looking after her and teaching her facts with his own children Tom and Louisa. Some years later the Gradgrind family meets hard times. Louisa becomes a prisoner in a loveless marriage, and Tom has problems at work.

In the end, Thomas Gradgrind learns the importance of feelings and imagination.

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Dominoes Three My Family and Other Animals Pack

Gerald Durrell
Text adaptation by Bill Bowler

The weather in England that summer had been so awful that Gerald's mother sold the family house and took her children to live on the Mediterranean island of Corfu. Between lessons, the ten-year-old Gerald was free to walk round the sunny island and discover the wonderful people and animals living there.

This is the story of Gerald's adventures with the fascinating animals of Corfu, and, of course, with his surprising family and their friends.

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Dominoes Three Little House on the Prairie Pack

Laura Ingalls Wilder
Text adaptation by Jann Huizenga

'Let's go see the West,' said Pa. 'The land is flat and the grass grows thick and high. Animals run freely and there are no settlers. Only Indians live there.'

So, more than a hundred years ago, the Ingalls family went by covered wagon into Kansas - Indian Territory. This is the true story of how they lived in those exciting, difficult, and sometimes dangerous, times.

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Dominoes Two Typhoon Pack

Joseph Conrad
Text adaptation by Tim Herdon

'There's some bad weather out there,' Captain MacWhirr said to himself just before he sailed his ship, the Nan-Shan, into the middle of the most terrible storm in the South China Sea.

The typhoon brings out the best in some men on the ship, and the worst in others.

Can MacWhirr bring the ship through the storm safely?

And what will happen to all the poor Chinese workers travelling home down in the ship's hold?

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Dominoes Starter A Pretty Face Pack

John Escott

Zoe Baker works in a bookstore. She also likes acting, and she has a part in the play Romeo and Juliet. Mike Morrison writes about the play for the newspaper. What does he write about Zoe? Is Zoe a good actress ... or is she just 'a pretty face'?

What does Zoe think when she reads the newspaper? What does she do?

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Dominoes Three Mansfield Park Pack

Jane Austen
Text adaptation by Clare West

'Why shouldn't we offer to take care of her? She could live with us at Mansfield.'

In this way Mrs Norris persuades her sister, Lady Bertram, and Lady Bertram's husband, Sir Thomas, to ask their poor niece Fanny Price to live with them at Mansfield Park.

At first Fanny is unhappy there. Then, after she makes friends with her young cousins, things improve. But what happens when the cousins are older, and starting to think of love?

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Dominoes Two The Drive to Dubai Pack

Julie Till

When his father is arrested in Dubai, Kareem has to move fast. He must show that his father is not a thief and prove that his family is honest. For Kareem is going to marry the beautiful and intelligent Samira Al-Hussain, and she could never marry someone from a bad family.

So Kareem and his brother get to work quickly - with a little help from Samira.

• Where to order

Dominoes Two Nicholas Nickleby Pack

Charles Dickens
Text adaptation by Tim Herdon

When his father dies a poor man, Nicholas Nickleby goes to London with his mother and sister, Kate. He hopes for help from his rich Uncle Ralph. But Ralph Nickleby is only interested in making money.

So Nicholas takes a teaching job at Dotheboys Hall - a terrible school belonging to Mr Wackford Squeers. There he helps a poor boy called Smike who has no one to look after him.

Leaving Dotheboys, Nicholas makes both friends and enemies on his journey towards better things. But will Smike, who travels with him, ever find the happy family life that he so dearly wants?

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Dominoes Starter Hercules Pack

Retold by Janet Hardy-Gould

Hercules is the strongest man in the world, but one day he does something very bad.

The priestess at Delphi tells him: 'The gods are angry with you. For twelve years you must work for King Eurystheus, and do twelve tasks for him. When you finish, the gods can forgive your crime.'

Some tasks are easier, and some tasks are more difficult. Can Hercules finish all twelve of them? And what happens when he does?

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Dominoes Three Revolution Pack

Jann Huizenga and Linda Huizenga

'All men are created equal...'

When Thomas Jefferson wrote these words in June 1776, in the American Declaration of Independence, he started something that was very much bigger than he imagined.

This book looks at the history around that Declaration, and at the Revolution that led to the birth of the United States of America.

• Where to order

Dominoes One True Heroes of Sport

Donatella Fitzgerald

Some people in the world of sport are heroes only because they are the best at their sport. But the sportsmen and sportswomen in this book - Oscar Pistorius, Michael Phelps, Wilma Rudolph and Natalie du Toit - are all that and much more. All of them went through bad times and learned to be stronger people through sport. Because it isn't living through good times, but living through bad times that makes you into a true hero!

• Where to order

Dominoes Starter William Tell and Other Stories Pack

Retold by John Escott

The men and the woman in this book - William Tell, Tom Blood, Lord Bao, King Matthias, Johnny Appleseed, and Lady Godiva - are all real people from history.

But every time someone tells an old story, they change things in it, to make them bigger, better, and more exciting. So what is true in this book and what is not? Read all six of the stories, and see what you think.

• Where to order

Dominoes Two Emma Pack

Jane Austen
Text adaptation by Barbara Mackay

Emma Woodhouse is beautiful, clever and rich. She lives alone with her father, and spends a lot of her time thinking about future husbands - for her friends. When she meets Harriet Smith, a poor girl with no family, Emma decides that she must find a husband for her. Harriet is pleased to be Emma's friend - but will Emma's matchmaking make Harriet happy?

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Dominoes Two Ariadne's Story Pack

Joyce Hannam

'When he went home to Athens, the great prince Theseus left me on the island of Naxos. But why did he leave me? Everyone says that he was tired of me. But when we met, I was the princess of Crete and the most beautiful woman in the Aegean Sea.'

Ariadne's story is one woman's tale of secret love, adventure and of escape - both from danger and from a life that she wanted to leave far behind her - many years ago in Ancient Greece...

• Where to order

Dominoes Three Dian and the Gorillas

Norma Shapiro

Over the years hunters, poachers, and war have killed many of the gorillas of central Africa. But there are still a few hundred living high in the mists of the Virunga Mountains.

When Dian Fossey first saw a family of wild mountain gorillas in the Virungas she knew that she must help these wonderful animals. This true story tells of the twenty years she lived with them, watched them, wrote about them, and protected them. In the end, she gave her life for them.

• Where to order

Dominoes Three Hard Times

Charles Dickens
Text adaptation by Susan Kingsley

Thomas Gradgrind believes that facts and money are more important than feelings and imagination. After Cissy Jupe - a circus child - is left alone in the world, Gradgrind takes her into his house, looking after her and teaching her facts with his own children Tom and Louisa. Some years later the Gradgrind family meets hard times. Louisa becomes a prisoner in a loveless marriage, and Tom has problems at work.

In the end, Thomas Gradgrind learns the importance of feelings and imagination.

• Where to order

Dominoes Three Little House on the Prairie

Laura Ingalls Wilder
Text adaptation by Jann Huizenga

'Let's go see the West,' said Pa. 'The land is flat and the grass grows thick and high. Animals run freely and there are no settlers. Only Indians live there.'

So, more than a hundred years ago, the Ingalls family went by covered wagon into Kansas - Indian Territory. This is the true story of how they lived in those exciting, difficult, and sometimes dangerous, times.

• Where to order

Dominoes Three My Family and Other Animals

Gerald Durrell
Text adaptation by Bill Bowler

The weather in England that summer had been so awful that Gerald's mother sold the family house and took her children to live on the Mediterranean island of Corfu. Between lessons, the ten-year-old Gerald was free to walk round the sunny island and discover the wonderful people and animals living there.

This is the story of Gerald's adventures with the fascinating animals of Corfu, and, of course, with his surprising family and their friends.

• Where to order

Dominoes Three Revolution

Jann Huizenga and Linda Huizenga

'All men are created equal...'

When Thomas Jefferson wrote these words in June 1776, in the American Declaration of Independence, he started something that was very much bigger than he imagined.

This book looks at the history around that Declaration, and at the Revolution that led to the birth of the United States of America.

• Where to order

Dominoes Starter A Pretty Face

John Escott

Zoe Baker works in a bookstore. She also likes acting, and she has a part in the play Romeo and Juliet. Mike Morrison writes about the play for the newspaper. What does he write about Zoe? Is Zoe a good actress ... or is she just 'a pretty face'?

What does Zoe think when she reads the newspaper? What does she do?

• Where to order

Dominoes Two The Drive to Dubai

Julie Till

When his father is arrested in Dubai, Kareem has to move fast. He must show that his father is not a thief and prove that his family is honest. For Kareem is going to marry the beautiful and intelligent Samira Al-Hussain, and she could never marry someone from a bad family.

So Kareem and his brother get to work quickly - with a little help from Samira.

• Where to order

Dominoes

English graded readers series for upper-primary / lower-secondary

Bill Bowler and Sue Parminter

Dominoes are carefully graded from Starter Level to Level Three according to the Bookworms syllabus.

Build your language skills through reading Dominoes, the interactive readers series.

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Dominoes Starter William Tell and Other Stories

Retold by John Escott

The men and the woman in this book - William Tell, Tom Blood, Lord Bao, King Matthias, Johnny Appleseed, and Lady Godiva - are all real people from history.

But every time someone tells an old story, they change things in it, to make them bigger, better, and more exciting. So what is true in this book and what is not? Read all six of the stories, and see what you think.

• Where to order

Dominoes Two Ariadne's Story

Joyce Hannam

'When he went home to Athens, the great prince Theseus left me on the island of Naxos. But why did he leave me? Everyone says that he was tired of me. But when we met, I was the princess of Crete and the most beautiful woman in the Aegean Sea.'

Ariadne's story is one woman's tale of secret love, adventure and of escape - both from danger and from a life that she wanted to leave far behind her - many years ago in Ancient Greece...

• Where to order

Dominoes Two Emma

Jane Austen
Text adaptation by Barbara Mackay

Emma Woodhouse is beautiful, clever and rich. She lives alone with her father, and spends a lot of her time thinking about future husbands - for her friends. When she meets Harriet Smith, a poor girl with no family, Emma decides that she must find a husband for her. Harriet is pleased to be Emma's friend - but will Emma's matchmaking make Harriet happy?

• Where to order

Dominoes Two Nicholas Nickleby

Charles Dickens
Text adaptation by Tim Herdon

When his father dies a poor man, Nicholas Nickleby goes to London with his mother and sister, Kate. He hopes for help from his rich Uncle Ralph. But Ralph Nickleby is only interested in making money.

So Nicholas takes a teaching job at Dotheboys Hall - a terrible school belonging to Mr Wackford Squeers. There he helps a poor boy called Smike who has no one to look after him.

Leaving Dotheboys, Nicholas makes both friends and enemies on his journey towards better things. But will Smike, who travels with him, ever find the happy family life that he so dearly wants?

• Where to order

Dominoes One Five Canterbury Tales Pack

Geoffrey Chaucer
Text adaptation by Bill Bowler

The year is 1386 and the first flowers of spring are here. A number of pilgrims are going to Canterbury to visit the tomb of Saint Thomas Becket, and they all tell stories on the way.

Who should be the stronger in a marriage - the husband or the wife? And what happens when two men fall in love with the same woman? In these five stories from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales we find different answers to these questions from the Knight, the Wife of Bath, the Clerk of Oxford, the Merchant, and the Franklin.

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Dominoes One Housemates

Alison Watts

Chris leaves his home in a small town in Australia to go and study at the University of Sydney. He needs to find somewhere to live.

But it's not easy to find a house to share in a big city. Every house has its problems, and not all of Chris's housemates are easy to live with. In fact, some of them are very difficult people!

Can Chris find the house that he needs with housemates that he can live with?

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Dominoes One Housemates Pack

Alison Watts

Chris leaves his home in a small town in Australia to go and study at the University of Sydney. He needs to find somewhere to live.

But it's not easy to find a house to share in a big city. Every house has its problems, and not all of Chris's housemates are easy to live with. In fact, some of them are very difficult people!

Can Chris find the house that he needs with housemates that he can live with?

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Dominoes One Macbeth

William Shakespeare
Text adaptation by Alistair McCallum

A dark, rainy day in Scotland, long ago. Returning from battle, Macbeth and his friend Banquo meet three witches. 'Macbeth, the king!' they say, but Macbeth is not a king, he is just a simple soldier.

Macbeth and Banquo cannot forget the witches' words. Soon Macbeth is king, but his wife walks in her sleep at night, and dreams of blood. What lies in the future for Banquo? And how many people must die before Scotland finds peace once more?

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Dominoes One Pollyanna Pack

Eleanor H. Porter
Text adaptation by Bill Bowler

When Pollyanna's farther dies, she goes to live with her Aunt, Miss Polly Harrington. Miss Harrington likes doing good, but she doesn't like children very much!

Pollyanna always tries to find the good in everything. She soon makes many different people in her new home feel happier. But is Miss Polly's life going to change for better or worse after her niece arrives? And what happens to Pollyanna when she has a very bad accident?

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Dominoes One Studio Five

Anthony Manning

Fay loves making The Friends' Hour for Studio Five, but her boss - Jason - is always angry with her. One day, a young man - Simon Jones - phones her show. Soon Fay must find Simon, and work hard to keep her job. Then her best friend - Wing - stops helping her. What can Fay do now? Can she and Wing stay friends?

• Where to order

Dominoes One Studio Five Pack

Anthony Manning

Fay loves making The Friends' Hour for Studio Five, but her boss - Jason - is always angry with her. One day, a young man - Simon Jones - phones her show. Soon Fay must find Simon, and work hard to keep her job. Then her best friend - Wing - stops helping her. What can Fay do now? Can she and Wing stay friends?

• Where to order

Dominoes Starter Blackbeard

Retold by John Escott

The year is 1717. It is a bad time to be the captain of a ship in the Caribbean because of pirates. The most frightening pirate on the sea is Edward Teach, or 'Blackbeard'.

'The Governor of Virginia wants us all dead!' Blackbeard thinks. 'But can he kill me - the most famous pirate in the Caribbean? No!'

This is his story...

• Where to order

Dominoes Starter Blackbeard Pack

Retold by John Escott

The year is 1717. It is a bad time to be the captain of a ship in the Caribbean because of pirates. The most frightening pirate on the sea is Edward Teach, or 'Blackbeard'.

'The Governor of Virginia wants us all dead!' Blackbeard thinks. 'But can he kill me - the most famous pirate in the Caribbean? No!'

This is his story...

• Where to order

Dominoes Starter Changing Places

Alan Hines

Hal works at the zoo every day and his life isn't exciting until he meets Tim. Tim is a movie star. He has a difficult life, and he is unhappy until he meets Hal. But when they meet, and agree to change places, interesting things start to happen. And, by changing places, the two men learn what is truly important in their lives.

• Where to order

Dominoes Starter Changing Places Pack

Alan Hines

Hal works at the zoo every day and his life isn't exciting until he meets Tim. Tim is a movie star. He has a difficult life, and he is unhappy until he meets Hal. But when they meet, and agree to change places, interesting things start to happen. And, by changing places, the two men learn what is truly important in their lives.

• Where to order

Dominoes Starter Hercules

Retold by Janet Hardy-Gould

Hercules is the strongest man in the world, but one day he does something very bad.

The priestess at Delphi tells him: 'The gods are angry with you. For twelve years you must work for King Eurystheus, and do twelve tasks for him. When you finish, the gods can forgive your crime.'

Some tasks are easier, and some tasks are more difficult. Can Hercules finish all twelve of them? And what happens when he does?

• Where to order

Dominoes Starter The Happy Prince Pack

Oscar Wilde
Text adaptation by Bill Bowler

The Happy Prince is a beautiful golden statue high up on a column in the city. Everyone loves him.

He feels sad about the city's poor people, but what can he do? He can't leave his column. Then the swallow arrives, and helps the Happy Prince to do many good things.

But what about the swallow's dream of flying to Egypt? And what does the Mayor do when the Happy Prince loses all his gold?

• Where to order

Dominoes Starter The Tempest

William Shakespeare
Text adaptation by Bill Bowler

Prospero, the Duke of Milan, and his daughter Miranda are far away from home, alone on an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. They want to return to Milan...

Then, one day, Prospero sees a ship near the island carrying his greatest enemies. Prospero, with the help of his magic and the island spirit, Ariel, makes a magic storm - a tempest - to bring them to the island.

• Where to order

Dominoes Starter The Tempest Pack

William Shakespeare
Text adaptation by Bill Bowler

Prospero, the Duke of Milan, and his daughter Miranda are far away from home, alone on an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. They want to return to Milan...

Then, one day, Prospero sees a ship near the island carrying his greatest enemies. Prospero, with the help of his magic and the island spirit, Ariel, makes a magic storm - a tempest - to bring them to the island.

• Where to order

Dominoes Starter Tristan and Isolde Pack

Retold by Bill Bowler

Tristan and Isolde are in love, but Isolde must marry King Mark. So a happy love story seems impossible...

The lovers meet every day but then, one night, King Mark finds them together. Now Tristan must leave the castle, but he is badly hurt and dying. Only Isolde can help him.

Can Isolde find Tristan in time? Can their love survive?

• Where to order

Dominoes Three Mansfield Park

Jane Austen
Text adaptation by Clare West

'Why shouldn't we offer to take care of her? She could live with us at Mansfield.'

In this way Mrs Norris persuades her sister, Lady Bertram, and Lady Bertram's husband, Sir Thomas, to ask their poor niece Fanny Price to live with them at Mansfield Park.

At first Fanny is unhappy there. Then, after she makes friends with her young cousins, things improve. But what happens when the cousins are older, and starting to think of love?

• Where to order

Dominoes Two Eight Great American Tales

O. Henry
Text adaptation by Bill Bowler

What does a poor young woman do when she loses her boyfriend or wants to find one? What little lies do we tell to make ourselves look better in the eyes of those that we love? How can a friend save someone who is sure that they are going to die? What happens when someone's clever plans all go wrong? These sweetly surprising short stories - about both good times and bad - are sometimes sad, and sometimes funny. But all of them are sure to make you think.

• Where to order

Dominoes Two Eight Great American Tales Pack

O. Henry
Text adaptation by Bill Bowler

What does a poor young woman do when she loses her boyfriend or wants to find one? What little lies do we tell to make ourselves look better in the eyes of those that we love? How can a friend save someone who is sure that they are going to die? What happens when someone's clever plans all go wrong? These sweetly surprising short stories - about both good times and bad - are sometimes sad, and sometimes funny. But all of them are sure to make you think.

• Where to order

Dominoes Two Typhoon

Joseph Conrad
Text adaptation by Tim Herdon

'There's some bad weather out there,' Captain MacWhirr said to himself just before he sailed his ship, the Nan-Shan, into the middle of the most terrible storm in the South China Sea.

The typhoon brings out the best in some men on the ship, and the worst in others.

Can MacWhirr bring the ship through the storm safely?

And what will happen to all the poor Chinese workers travelling home down in the ship's hold?

• Where to order

Dominoes Starter The Happy Prince

Oscar Wilde
Text adaptation by Bill Bowler

The Happy Prince is a beautiful golden statue high up on a column in the city. Everyone loves him.

He feels sad about the city's poor people, but what can he do? He can't leave his column. Then the swallow arrives, and helps the Happy Prince to do many good things.

But what about the swallow's dream of flying to Egypt? And what does the Mayor do when the Happy Prince loses all his gold?

• Where to order

Dominoes Two Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories Pack

Oscar Wilde
Text adaptation by Bill Bowler

The three stories in this book are about ordinary people, people like you and me; but they find themselves in surprising situations.

Lord Arthur Savile, a rich man with no enemies, finds out that he must do something terrible before he can marry. Poor young Hughie Erskine gives money to an old beggar - but the beggar is not what he seems. And Lord Murchison falls in love with a mystery woman - but what is the strange secret behind the door in Cumnor Street?

• Where to order

Dominoes One Macbeth Pack

William Shakespeare
Text adaptation by Alistair McCallum

A dark, rainy day in Scotland, long ago. Returning from battle, Macbeth and his friend Banquo meet three witches. 'Macbeth, the king!' they say, but Macbeth is not a king, he is just a simple soldier.

Macbeth and Banquo cannot forget the witches' words. Soon Macbeth is king, but his wife walks in her sleep at night, and dreams of blood. What lies in the future for Banquo? And how many people must die before Scotland finds peace once more?

• Where to order

Dominoes One Deep Trouble

Lesley Thompson

Amy and Matt are bored. They don't want to study for their exams. They want to have a good time. So they drive to the marina at West Palm Beach, and Matt jumps onto one of the boats. 'We can go anywhere!' he jokes.

But when the owners of the boat come back and find them, Amy and Matt are in deep trouble. Matt is a good swimmer and enjoys scuba-diving, but now he must dive for their lives.

• Where to order

Dominoes One Deep Trouble Pack

Lesley Thompson

Amy and Matt are bored. They don't want to study for their exams. They want to have a good time. So they drive to the marina at West Palm Beach, and Matt jumps onto one of the boats. 'We can go anywhere!' he jokes.

But when the owners of the boat come back and find them, Amy and Matt are in deep trouble. Matt is a good swimmer and enjoys scuba-diving, but now he must dive for their lives.

• Where to order

Dominoes One Five Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer
Text adaptation by Bill Bowler

The year is 1386 and the first flowers of spring are here. A number of pilgrims are going to Canterbury to visit the tomb of Saint Thomas Becket, and they all tell stories on the way.

Who should be the stronger in a marriage - the husband or the wife? And what happens when two men fall in love with the same woman? In these five stories from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales we find different answers to these questions from the Knight, the Wife of Bath, the Clerk of Oxford, the Merchant, and the Franklin.

• Where to order

Dominoes One From the Heart

Alan C. McLean

Anna is a new student at Oxford University. When she arrives in Oxford, she meets Selim, and they become good friends. But Selim is not English, and living in a different country is not easy for him. Anna tries to help but she knows that her father isn't going to like it.

Selim and Anna have each other. But is that enough? And can they find true happiness together?

• Where to order

Dominoes One From the Heart Pack

Alan C. McLean

Anna is a new student at Oxford University. When she arrives in Oxford, she meets Selim, and they become good friends. But Selim is not English, and living in a different country is not easy for him. Anna tries to help but she knows that her father isn't going to like it.

Selim and Anna have each other. But is that enough? And can they find true happiness together?

• Where to order

Dominoes One The Teacher's Secret and Other Folk Tales

Retold by Joyce Hannam

Are men cleverer than women? Is a poor man cleverer than a rich man? And what about teachers? Are they always cleverer than their students?

The people in these six well-known folk tales from around the world all want to be clever. But are some of them just stupid?

• Where to order

Dominoes One The Teacher's Secret and Other Folk Tales Pack

Retold by Joyce Hannam

Are men cleverer than women? Is a poor man cleverer than a rich man? And what about teachers? Are they always cleverer than their students?

The people in these six well-known folk tales from around the world all want to be clever. But are some of them just stupid?

• Where to order

Dominoes Starter Rip Van Winkle & The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Washington Irving
Text adaptation by Alan Hines

In the first of these stories, Rip van Winkle sleeps for over twenty years, and then wakes up to a world that he no longer understands. In the other story, Ichabod Crane, the school teacher, meets a headless rider in the middle of a dark night. These two classic tales of the supernatural by Washington Irving have been popular for nearly two hundred years.

• Where to order

Dominoes Starter Rip Van Winkle & The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Pack

Washington Irving
Text adaptation by Alan Hines

In the first of these stories, Rip van Winkle sleeps for over twenty years, and then wakes up to a world that he no longer understands. In the other story, Ichabod Crane, the school teacher, meets a headless rider in the middle of a dark night. These two classic tales of the supernatural by Washington Irving have been popular for nearly two hundred years.

• Where to order

Dominoes Starter Tristan and Isolde

Retold by Bill Bowler

Tristan and Isolde are in love, but Isolde must marry King Mark. So a happy love story seems impossible...

The lovers meet every day but then, one night, King Mark finds them together. Now Tristan must leave the castle, but he is badly hurt and dying. Only Isolde can help him.

Can Isolde find Tristan in time? Can their love survive?

• Where to order

Dominoes Two Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories

Oscar Wilde
Text adaptation by Bill Bowler

The three stories in this book are about ordinary people, people like you and me; but they find themselves in surprising situations.

Lord Arthur Savile, a rich man with no enemies, finds out that he must do something terrible before he can marry. Poor young Hughie Erskine gives money to an old beggar - but the beggar is not what he seems. And Lord Murchison falls in love with a mystery woman - but what is the strange secret behind the door in Cumnor Street?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 A Passage To India

E. M. Forster

STAGE 6 - Classics

A mysterious incident at the Marabar Caves, involving Adela Quested, newly arrived from England, and Dr Aziz, an Indian doctor, leads to a drama that divides the British and Indian communities in anger, distrust, and fear.
Forsters great novel brings to life all the dangers and misunderstandings of colonialism but, as Forster himself wrote, the story is about something wider than politics, about the search of the human race for a more lasting home, about the universe as embodied in the Indian earth and the Indian sky, about the horror lurking in the Marabar Caves...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 Little Lord Fauntleroy Audio CD Pack

Frances Hodgson Burnett
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 1 - Human Interest

Cedric Errol is seven years old. He lives with his mother in a little house in New York. They don't have much money, but mother and son are good friends. Cedric is a kind, friendly little boy, and everybody likes him. His father was English, but he is now dead, and Cedric and his mother are alone in the world.

But one day a lawyer arrives from England with some very surprising news about Cedric's grandfather...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 Little Lord Fauntleroy

Frances Hodgson Burnett
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 1 - Human Interest

Cedric Errol is seven years old. He lives with his mother in a little house in New York. They don't have much money, but mother and son are good friends. Cedric is a kind, friendly little boy, and everybody likes him. His father was English, but he is now dead, and Cedric and his mother are alone in the world.

But one day a lawyer arrives from England with some very surprising news about Cedric's grandfather...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Playing with Fire: Stories from the Pacific Rim

Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 3 - World Stories

He smiled, showing teeth yellow from cigarette smoke. He looked at his desk diary, then at her papers again. 'Mmm... a hundred pesos a month, Why, that's one thousand two hundred pesos a year. Surely, you can afford to buy me a forty-peso dinner!'

How can Marina say no? How can she refuse the Chief's next request? He is an evil man, but she needs her promotion...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Starter The Girl with Red Hair Audio CD Pack

Christine Lindop

STARTER - Human Interest

Every day people come to Mason's store - old people, young people, men and women.

From his office, and in the store, Mark watches them. And when they leave the store, he forgets them.

Then one day a girl with red hair comes to the store, and everything changes for Mark. Now he can't forget the beautiful face, those green eyes, and that red hair...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Starter The Girl with Red Hair

Christine Lindop

STARTER - Human Interest

Every day people come to Mason's store - old people, young people, men and women.

From his office, and in the store, Mark watches them. And when they leave the store, he forgets them.

Then one day a girl with red hair comes to the store, and everything changes for Mark. Now he can't forget the beautiful face, those green eyes, and that red hair...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 Land of my Childhood: Stories from South Asia Audio CD Pack

Retold by Clare West

STAGE 4 - World Stories

'My brother preferred being with mother and me. He used to help us prepare vegetables in the kitchen or make the bread. But what he liked best was listening to my mother's stories.'

But those childhood days are long gone, and now a great distance divides sister and brother, children and mother.

The stories in this volume of World Stories come from India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The writers are Romesh Gunesekera, M. Athar Tahir, Chitra Divakaruni, Anu Kumar, Anne Ranasinghe, Ruskin Bond, Anita Desai, Vijita Fernando, and Amara Bavani Dev.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Long White Cloud: Stories from New Zealand Audio CD Pack

Retold by Christine Lindop

STAGE 3 - World Stories

Nani Tama looked at each of us - Dad, Auntie Hiraina, my cousin Timi, and myself. His eyes were angry. 'You fullas want me to die here in this room? Looking at these four walls? When the whakapapa is not yet finished?'

But Nani Tama gets his own way, and his grandson drives him through the night, to find the missing pieces from the family history.

The stories from this volume of World Stories are by New Zealand writers James Courage, Witi Ihimaera, Philip Mincher, and Joy Cowley.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 Land of my Childhood: Stories from South Asia

Retold by Clare West

STAGE 4 - World Stories

'My brother preferred being with mother and me. He used to help us prepare vegetables in the kitchen or make the bread. But what he liked best was listening to my mother's stories.'

But those childhood days are long gone, and now a great distance divides sister and brother, children and mother.

The stories in this volume of World Stories come from India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The writers are Romesh Gunesekera, M. Athar Tahir, Chitra Divakaruni, Anu Kumar, Anne Ranasinghe, Ruskin Bond, Anita Desai, Vijita Fernando, and Amara Bavani Dev.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Changing their Skies: Stories from Africa Audio CD Pack

Retold by Jenifer Bassett

STAGE 2 - World Stories

'Then a letter came for Aloo from a famous college in America. They offered him a place . . . a place with a scholarship. Aloo could not believe it at first. He read the letter again and again.'

Aloo is very happy, but soon he finds that it is not so easy. He will need money to live on, money for his plane ticket . . . And then there is Mother . . .

The stories in this volume of World Stories come from Malawi, South Africa, and Tanzania by African writers Steve Chimombo, Farida Karodia, and M. G. Vassanji.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Dancing with Strangers: Stories from Africa

Retold by Clare West

STAGE 3 - World Stories

'Sometimes I think this search is hopeless. So much has happened since I last saw my friends. Perhaps they have died or the rebels have taken them away. But I know I have to find Laker. I know she needs me.'

In a country torn by war, it is easy to stop hoping. All Atita has is an old photograph. She does not even know if she will recognize Laker after all these years . . .

The stories in this volume of World Stories are by African writers Jackee Budesta Batanda, Jack Cope, Mandla Langa, and M. G. Vassanji.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Dancing with Strangers: Stories from Africa Audio CD Pack

Retold by Clare West

STAGE 3 - World Stories

'Sometimes I think this search is hopeless. So much has happened since I last saw my friends. Perhaps they have died or the rebels have taken them away. But I know I have to find Laker. I know she needs me.'

In a country torn by war, it is easy to stop hoping. All Atita has is an old photograph. She does not even know if she will recognize Laker after all these years . . .

The stories in this volume of World Stories are by African writers Jackee Budesta Batanda, Jack Cope, Mandla Langa, and M. G. Vassanji.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Long White Cloud: Stories from New Zealand

Retold by Christine Lindop

STAGE 3 - World Stories

Nani Tama looked at each of us - Dad, Auntie Hiraina, my cousin Timi, and myself. His eyes were angry. 'You fullas want me to die here in this room? Looking at these four walls? When the whakapapa is not yet finished?'

But Nani Tama gets his own way, and his grandson drives him through the night, to find the missing pieces from the family history.

The stories in this volume of World Stories are by New Zealand writers James Courage, Witi Ihimaera, Philip Mincher , and Joy Cowley.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Changing their Skies: Stories from Africa

Retold by Jenifer Bassett

STAGE 2 - World Stories

'Then a letter came for Aloo from a famous college in America. They offered him a place . . . a place with a scholarship. Aloo could not believe it at first. He read the letter again and again.'

Aloo is very happy, but soon he finds that it is not so easy. He will need money to live on, money for his plane ticket . . . And then there is Mother . . .

The stories in this volume of World Stories come from Malawi, South Africa, and Tanzania by African writers Steve Chimombo, Farida Karodia, and M. G. Vassanji.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 Bestseller Pack

Pack contains one copy of each of the following eight titles:

Brat Farrar
David Copperfield
Deadlock
Far from the Madding Crowd
Ghost Stories
Great Expectations
Sense and Sensibility
Wuthering Heights

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 Heat and Dust

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 5 - Human Interest

Heat and dust - these simple, terrible words describe the Indian summer. Year after year, endlessly, it is the same. And everyone who experiences this heat and dust is changed for ever.

We often say, in these modern times, that sexual relationships have changed, for better or for worse. But in this book we see that things have not changed. Whether we look back sixty years, or a hundred and sixty, we see that it is not things that change, but people. And, in the heat and dust of an Indian summer, even people are not very different after all.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 Treading on Dreams: Stories from Ireland

Retold by Clare West

STAGE 5 - World Stories

'At home we started with an innocent life. Walking home from village dances across pale wet fields, looking at birds on the moonlit lake, playing a tune across the water in the early morning with no other sound in the clear cold air.'

Innocence and experience, loss and longing, humour and sadness run hand in hand through these stories.

The stories in this volume of World Stories are by Irish writers Brian Friel, Edna O'Brien, William Trevor, Lorcan Byrne, Frank O'Connor, Claire Keegan, Eamonn Sweeney, and Somerville & Ross.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 Bestseller Pack

Pack contains one copy of each of the following eight titles:

American Crime Stories
Cry Freedom
The Enemy
Jane Eyre
Night Without End
Oliver Twist
Pride and Prejudice
Tess of the d'Urbervilles

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Starter Red Roses Audio CD Pack

Christine Lindop

STARTER - Human Interest

'Who is the man with the roses in his hand?' thinks Anna. 'I want to meet him.'

'Who is the girl with the guitar?' thinks Will. 'I like her. I want to meet her.'

But they do not meet.

'There are lots of men!' says Anna's friend Vicki, but Anna cannot forget Will. And then one rainy day . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 Jeeves and Friends - Short Stories

P.G. Wodehouse
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 5 - Human Interest

What on earth would Bertie Wooster do without Jeeves, his valet? Jeeves is calm, tactful, resourceful, and has the answer to every problem. Bertie, a pleasant young man but a bit short of brains, turns to Jeeves every time he gets into trouble. And Bertie is always in trouble.

These six stories include the most famous of P. G. Wodehouse's memorable characters. There are three stories about Bertie and Jeeves, and three about Lord Emsworth, who, like Bertie, is often in trouble, battling with his fierce sister Lady Constance, and his even fiercer Scottish gardener, the red-bearded Angus McAllister . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 Decline and Fall

Evelyn Waugh
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 6 - Human Interest

After a wild, drunken party, Paul Pennyfeather is forced to leave Oxford and begin a new life out in the wide world. His experiences take him from a boys' private school in Wales, where he meets some rather strange people, to a life of luxury in a grand country house and the Ritz Hotel, and then to seven years' hard labour in prison. Where will it all end?

The black humour of this story about English society in the 1920s is as fresh today as it was when the novel was first written.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Ethan Frome

Edith Wharton
Retold by Susan Kingsley

STAGE 3 - Classics

Life is always hard for the poor, in any place and at any time. Ethan Frome is a farmer in Massachusetts. He works long hours every day, but his farm makes very little money. His wife, Zeena, is a thin, grey woman, always complaining, and only interested in her own ill health.

Then Mattie Silver, a young cousin, comes to live with the Fromes, to help Zeena and do the housework. Her bright smile and laughing voice bring light and hope into the Fromes' house - and into Ethan's lonely life.

But poverty is a prison from which few people escape . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Go, Lovely Rose and Other Stories

H.E. Bates
Retold by Rosemary Border

STAGE 3 - Human Interest

A warm summer night. The moon shines down on the quiet houses and gardens. Everyone is asleep. Everyone except the man in pyjamas and slippers, standing on the wet grass at the end of his garden, watching and waiting . . .

In these three short stories, H. E. Bates presents ordinary people like you and me. But as we get to know them better, we see that their feelings are not at all ordinary. In fact, what happens to them - and in them - is passionate, and even extraordinary. Could this happen to you and me?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Card

Arnold Bennett
Retold by Nick Bullard

STAGE 3 - Human Interest

Every town should have a 'card' - someone who gets talked about, someone who does mad and wonderful things, someone who makes you laugh.

Bursley in the Five Towns has a 'card': Edward Henry Machin (Denry for short). Denry begins life in a poor little house where the rent is twenty-three pence a week. But before he's thirty, he's made a lot of money, and had more adventures than you and I have had hot dinners. The town of Bursley never stops talking about him. Whatever will young Denry do next?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 'Who, Sir? Me, Sir?'

K. M. Peyton
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 3 - Human Interest

Sam Sylvester is a teacher who wants his class to have ambition, and to do great things in life. So he enters them for a sporting competition against the rich students of Greycoats School.

The team that he has chosen for the competition think Sam has gone crazy. 'Who, Sir? Me, Sir?' says little Hoomey, his eyes round with horror. 'We'll never beat Greycoats,' the others cry. 'Never in a million years!'

But you don't know what you can do - until you try . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 Persuasion

Jane Austen
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 4 - Classics

At nineteen Anne Elliot refuses an offer of marriage from Frederick Wentworth, persuaded to do so by Lady Russell, a friend of her dead mother. Wentworth is a sailor, with no money and an uncertain future, says Lady Russell - just a nobody, certainly not worthy of a baronet's daughter.

Eight years later Wentworth returns, a rich and successful captain, looking for a wife. Anne is still unmarried, but Captain Wentworth clearly prefers the company of the two Musgrove girls . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 The Scarlet Letter Audio CD Pack

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Retold by John Escott

STAGE 4 - Classics

Scarlet is the colour of sin, and the letter 'A' stands for 'Adultery'. In the 1600s, in Boston, Massachusetts, love was allowed only between a husband and a wife. A child born outside marriage was a child of sin.

Hester Prynne must wear the scarlet letter on her dress for the rest of her life. How can she ever escape from this public shame? What will happen to her child, growing up in the shadow of the scarlet letter? The future holds no joy for Hester Prynne.

And what will happen to her sinful lover - the father of her child?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 David Copperfield Audio CD Pack

Charles Dickens
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 5 - Classics

'Please, Mr Murdstone! Don't beat me! I've tried to learn my lessons, really I have, sir!' sobs David.

Although he is only eight years old, Mr Murdstone does beat him, and David is so frightened that he bites his cruel stepfather's hand. For that, he is kept locked in his room for five days and nights, and nobody is allowed to speak to him.

As David grows up, he learns that life is full of trouble and misery and cruelty. But he also finds laughter and kindness, trust and friendship . . . and love.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 The Age of Innocence

Edith Wharton
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 5 - Classics

Into the narrow social world of New York in the 1870s comes Countess Ellen Olenska, surrounded by shocked whispers about her failed marriage to a rich Polish Count. A woman who leaves her husband can never be accepted in polite society.

Newland Archer is engaged to young May Welland, but the beautiful and mysterious Countess needs his help. He becomes her friend and defender, but friendship with an unhappy, lonely woman is a dangerous path for a young man to follow - especially a young man who is soon to be married.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 The Bride Price

Buchi Emecheta
Retold by Rosemary Border

STAGE 5 - Human Interest

When her father dies, Aku-nna and her young brother have no one to look after them. They are welcomed by their uncle because of Aku-nna's 'bride price' - the money that her future husband will pay for her.

In her new, strange home one man is kind to her and teaches her to become a woman. Soon they are in love, although everyone says he is not a suitable husband for her. The more the world tries to separate them, the more they are drawn together - until, finally, something has to break.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 The Dead of Jericho

Colin Dexter
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 5 - Crime & Mystery

Chief Inspector Morse is drinking a pint of beer. He is thinking about an attractive woman who lives not far away. The woman he is thinking of is hanging, dead, from the ceiling of her kitchen. On the floor lies a chair, almost two metres away from the woman's feet.

Chief Inspector Morse finishes his pint, and orders another. Perhaps he will visit Anne, after all. But he is in no particular hurry.

Meanwhile, Anne is still hanging in her kitchen, waiting for the police to come and cut her down. She is in no hurry, either.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 The Garden Party and Other Stories

Katherine Mansfield
Retold by Rosalie Kerr

STAGE 5 - Human Interest

Oh, how delightful it is to fall in love for the first time! How exciting to go to your first dance when you are a girl of eighteen! But life can also be hard and cruel, if you are young and inexperienced and travelling alone across Europe . . . or if you are a child from the wrong social class . . . or a singer without work and the rent to be paid.

Set in Europe and New Zealand, these nine stories by Katherine Mansfield dig deep beneath the appearances of life to show us the causes of human happiness and despair.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 Dublin People - Short Stories

Maeve Binchy
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 6 - Human Interest

A young country girl comes to live and work in Dublin. Jo is determined to be modern and independent, and to have a wonderful time. But life in a big city is full of strange surprises for a shy country girl . . .

Gerry Moore is a man with a problem - alcohol. He knows he must give it up, and his family and friends watch nervously as he battles against it. But drink is a hard enemy to fight . . .

These stories by the Irish writer Maeve Binchy are full of affectionate humour and wit, and sometimes a little sadness.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 Tess of the d'Urbervilles Audio CD Pack

Thomas Hardy
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 6 - Classics

A pretty young girl has to leave home to make money for her family. She is clever and a good worker; but she is uneducated and does not know the cruel ways of the world. So, when a rich young man says he loves her, she is careful - but not careful enough. He is persuasive, and she is overwhelmed. It is not her fault, but the world says it is. Her young life is already stained by men's desires, and by death.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 The Joy Luck Club

Amy Tan
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 6 - Human Interest

There are so many things that a mother wishes to teach her daughter. How to lose your innocence but not your hope. How to keep hoping, when hope is your only joy. How to laugh for ever.

This is the story of four mothers and their daughters - Chinese-American women, the mothers born in China, and the daughters born in America. Through their eyes we see life in pre-Revolutionary China, and life in downtown San Francisco; women struggling to find a cultural identity that can include a past and a future half a world apart.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Stories from the Five Towns Audio CD Pack

Arnold Bennett
Retold by Nick Bullard

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

Arnold Bennett is famous for his stories about the Five Towns and the people who live there. They look and sound just like other people, and, like all of us, sometimes they do some very strange things. There's Sir Jee, who is a rich businessman. So why is he making a plan with a burglar? Then there is Toby Hall. Why does he decide to visit Number 11 Child Row, and who does he find there? And then there are the Hessian brothers and Annie Emery - and the little problem of twelve thousand pounds.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Children of the New Forest Audio CD Pack

Captain Marryat
Retold by Rowena Akinyemi

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

England in 1647: King Charles is in prison, and Cromwell's men are fighting the King's men. These are dangerous times for everybody.

The four Beverley children have no parents; their mother is dead and their father died while fighting for the King. Now Cromwell's soldiers have come to burn the house - with the children in it.

The four of them escape into the New Forest - but how will they live? What will they eat? And will Cromwell's soldiers find them?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Last Sherlock Holmes Story

Michael Dibdin
Retold by Rosalie Kerr

STAGE 3 - Crime & Mystery

For fifty years after Dr Watson's death, a packet of papers, written by the doctor himself, lay hidden in a locked box. The papers contained an extraordinary report of the case of Jack the Ripper and the horrible murders in the East End of London in 1888. The detective, of course, was the great Sherlock Holmes - but why was the report kept hidden for so long?

This is the story that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never wrote. It is a strange and frightening tale . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Railway Children

Edith Nesbit
Retold by John Escott

STAGE 3 - Human Interest

'We have to leave our house in London,' Mother said to the children. 'We're going to live in the country, in a little house near a railway line.'

And so begins a new life for Roberta, Peter, and Phyllis. They become the railway children - they know all the trains, Perks the station porter is their best friend, and they have many adventures on the railway line.

But why has their father had to go away? Where is he, and will he ever come back?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Tooth and Claw

Saki
Retold by Rosemary Border

STAGE 3 - Human Interest

Conradin is ten years old. He lives alone with his aunt. He has two big secrets. The first is that he hates his aunt. The second is that he keeps a small, wild animal in the garden shed. The animal has sharp, white teeth, and it loves fresh blood. Every night, Conradin prays to this animal and asks it to do one thing for him, just one thing.

This collection of short stories is clever, funny, and shows us 'Nature, red in tooth and claw'. In other words, it is Saki at his very best.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Retold by John Escott

STAGE 4 - Classics

Scarlet is the colour of sin, and the letter 'A' stands for 'Adultery'. In the 1600s, in Boston, Massachusetts, love was allowed only between a husband and a wife. A child born outside marriage was a child of sin.

Hester Prynne must wear the scarlet letter on her dress for the rest of her life. How can she ever escape from this public shame? What will happen to her child, growing up in the shadow of the scarlet letter? The future holds no joy for Hester Prynne.

And what will happen to her sinful lover - the father of her child?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 Washington Square Audio CD Pack

Henry James
Retold by Kieran McGovern

STAGE 4 - Classics

When a handsome young man begins to court Catherine Sloper, she feels she is very lucky. She is a quiet, gentle girl, but neither beautiful nor clever; no one had ever admired her before, or come to the front parlour of her home in Washington Square to whisper soft words of love to her.

But in New York in the 1840s young ladies are not free to marry where they please. Catherine must have her father's permission, and Dr Sloper is a rich man. One day Catherine will have a fortune of 30,000 dollars a year . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 David Copperfield

Charles Dickens
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 5 - Classics

'Please, Mr Murdstone! Don't beat me! I've tried to learn my lessons, really I have, sir!' sobs David.

Although he is only eight years old, Mr Murdstone does beat him, and David is so frightened that he bites his cruel stepfather's hand. For that, he is kept locked in his room for five days and nights, and nobody is allowed to speak to him.

As David grows up, he learns that life is full of trouble and misery and cruelty. But he also finds laughter and kindness, trust and friendship . . . and love.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 Far from the Madding Crowd

Thomas Hardy
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 5 - Classics

Bathsheba Everdene is young, proud, and beautiful. She is an independent woman and can marry any man she chooses - if she chooses. In fact, she likes her independence, and she likes fighting her own battles in a man's world.

But it is never wise to ignore the power of love. There are three men who would very much like to marry Bathsheba. When she falls in love with one of them, she soon wishes she had kept her independence. She learns that love brings misery, pain, and violent passions that can destroy lives . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 Far from the Madding Crowd Audio CD Pack

Thomas Hardy
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 5 - Classics

Bathsheba Everdene is young, proud, and beautiful. She is an independent woman and can marry any man she chooses - if she chooses. In fact, she likes her independence, and she likes fighting her own battles in a man's world.

But it is never wise to ignore the power of love. There are three men who would very much like to marry Bathsheba. When she falls in love with one of them, she soon wishes she had kept her independence. She learns that love brings misery, pain, and violent passions that can destroy lives . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 Great Expectations Audio CD Pack

Charles Dickens
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 5 - Classics

In a gloomy, neglected house Miss Havisham sits, as she has sat year after year, in a wedding dress and veil that were once white, and are now faded and yellow with age. Her face is like a death's head; her dark eyes burn with bitterness and hate. By her side sits a proud and beautiful girl, and in front of her, trembling with fear in his thick country boots, stands young Pip.

Miss Havisham stares at Pip coldly, and murmurs to the girl at her side: 'Break his heart, Estella. Break his heart!'

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 Cold Comfort Farm

Stella Gibbons
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 6 - Human Interest

The farm lies in the shadow of a hill, and the farmyard rarely sees the sun, even in summer, when the sukebind hangs heavy in the branches. Here live the Starkadders - Aunt Ada Doom, Judith, Amos, Seth, Reuben, Elfine... They lead messy, untidy lives, full of dark thoughts, moody silences, and sudden noisy quarrels.

That is, until their attractive young cousin arrives from London. Neat, sensible, efficient, Flora Poste cannot bear messes (they are so uncivilized). She begins to tidy up the Starkadders' lives at once . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Starter Sally's Phone Audio CD Pack

Christine Lindop

STARTER - Human Interest

Sally is always running - and she has her phone with her all the time: at home, on the train, at work, at lunchtime, and at the shops.

But then one afternoon suddenly she has a different phone . . . and it changes her life.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Matty Doolin

Catherine Cookson
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

Matty is fifteen and is leaving school in a few weeks' time. He wants to work with animals, and would like to get a job on a farm. But his parents say he's too young to leave home - he must stay in the town and get a job in ship-building, like his father. They also say he can't go on a camping holiday with his friends. And they say he can't keep his dog, Nelson, because Nelson barks all day and eats his father's shoes.

But it is because of Nelson that Matty finds a new life . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Stories from the Five Towns

Arnold Bennett
Retold by Nick Bullard

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

Arnold Bennett is famous for his stories about the Five Towns and the people who live there. They look and sound just like other people, and, like all of us, sometimes they do some very strange things. There's Sir Jee, who is a rich businessman. So why is he making a plan with a burglar? Then there is Toby Hall. Why does he decide to visit Number 11 Child Row, and who does he find there? And then there are the Hessian brothers and Annie Emery - and the little problem of twelve thousand pounds.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Children of the New Forest

Captain Marryat
Retold by Rowena Akinyemi

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

England in 1647: King Charles is in prison, and Cromwell's men are fighting the King's men. These are dangerous times for everybody.

The four Beverley children have no parents; their mother is dead and their father died while fighting for the King. Now Cromwell's soldiers have come to burn the house - with the children in it.

The four of them escape into the New Forest - but how will they live? What will they eat? And will Cromwell's soldiers find them?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Too Old to Rock and Roll and Other Stories

Jan Mark
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

Greg is a teenager with a problem - his father. After the death of Greg's mother in an accident, his father takes no interest in life at all. Greg tries hard to help him. His father is too old to rock and roll, of course . . . or is he?

These short stories by Jan Mark look at life, love, and friendship through teenagers' eyes.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 A Dubious Legacy

Mary Wesley
Retold by Rosalie Kerr

STAGE 4 - Human Interest

In 1944 Henry Tillotson brings his new wife, Margaret, home to his farmhouse in the English countryside. Margaret is a strange, unpleasant woman, determined, it seems, to make Henry's life miserable. 'Poor Henry!' say his friends, as they visit at weekends and holidays. 'What an awful life he has!' But Henry is not at all the sad and disappointed man we might expect him to be. He manages to enjoy life, and indeed, has quite a lot of fun, one way and another . . .

Mary Wesley's story takes a sharp but light-hearted look at love, sex, and marriage - and the things people will do to get what they want.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 Lorna Doone

R.D. Blackmore
Retold by David Penn

STAGE 4 - Human Interest

One winter's day in 1673 young John Ridd is riding home from school, across the wild lonely hills of Exmoor. He has to pass Doone valley - a dangerous place, as the Doones are famous robbers and murderers. All Exmoor lives in fear of the Doones.

At home there is sad news waiting for young John, and he learns that he has good reason to hate the Doones. But in the years to come he meets Lorna Doone, with her lovely smile and big dark eyes. And soon he is deeply, hopelessly, in love . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 Washington Square

Henry James
Retold by Kieran McGovern

STAGE 4 - Classics

When a handsome young man begins to court Catherine Sloper, she feels she is very lucky. She is a quiet, gentle girl, but neither beautiful nor clever; no one had ever admired her before, or come to the front parlour of her home in Washington Square to whisper soft words of love to her.

But in New York in the 1840s young ladies are not free to marry where they please. Catherine must have her father's permission, and Dr Sloper is a rich man. One day Catherine will have a fortune of 30,000 dollars a year . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 Great Expectations

Charles Dickens
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 5 - Classics

In a gloomy, neglected house Miss Havisham sits, as she has sat year after year, in a wedding dress and veil that were once white, and are now faded and yellow with age. Her face is like a death's head; her dark eyes burn with bitterness and hate. By her side sits a proud and beautiful girl, and in front of her, trembling with fear in his thick country boots, stands young Pip.

Miss Havisham stares at Pip coldly, and murmurs to the girl at her side: 'Break his heart, Estella. Break his heart!'

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 Sense and Sensibility

Jane Austen
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 5 - Classics

Sometimes the Dashwood girls do not seem like sisters. Elinor is all calmness and reason, and can be relied upon for practical, common sense opinions. Marianne, on the other hand, is all sensibility, full of passionate and romantic feeling. She has no time for dull common sense - or for middle-aged men of thirty-five, long past the age of marriage.

True love can only be felt by the young, of course. And if your heart is broken at the age of seventeen, how can you ever expect to recover from the passionate misery that fills your life, waking and sleeping?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 Sense and Sensibility Audio CD Pack

Jane Austen
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 5 - Classics

Sometimes the Dashwood girls do not seem like sisters. Elinor is all calmness and reason, and can be relied upon for practical, common sense opinions. Marianne, on the other hand, is all sensibility, full of passionate and romantic feeling. She has no time for dull common sense - or for middle-aged men of thirty-five, long past the age of marriage.

True love can only be felt by the young, of course. And if your heart is broken at the age of seventeen, how can you ever expect to recover from the passionate misery that fills your life, waking and sleeping?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 Wuthering Heights Audio CD Pack

Emily Brontë
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 5 - Classics

The wind is strong on the Yorkshire moors. There are few trees, and fewer houses, to block its path. There is one house, however, that does not hide from the wind. It stands out from the hill and challenges the wind to do its worst. The house is called Wuthering Heights.

When Mr Earnshaw brings a strange, small, dark child back home to Wuthering Heights, it seems he has opened his doors to trouble. He has invited in something that, like the wind, is safer kept out of the house.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 Barchester Towers

Anthony Trollope
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 6 - Classics

Mrs Proudie, the warlike wife of the new Bishop of Barchester, brings the Reverend Slope into the Bishop's Palace to help dominate her husband and rule the local clergy. But Slope is a snake in the grass, determined to find a rich wife, to win advancement for himself, even to fight Mrs Proudie if necessary.

Their battle becomes a furious dance, involving rich, pretty Widow Bold, angry Archdeacon Grantly, man-eating Signora Neroni, gentle Mr Harding, confused Parson Quiverful and his fourteen noisy children.

This classic comic story is Trollope's most famous novel.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 Jane Eyre Audio CD Pack

Charlotte Brontë
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 6 - Classics

Jane Eyre is alone in the world. Disliked by her aunt's family, she is sent away to school. Here she learns that a young girl, with neither money nor family to support her, can expect little from the world. She survives, but she wants more from life than simply to survive: she wants respect, and love. When she goes to work for Mr Rochester, she hopes she has found both at once. But the sound of strange laughter, late at night, behind a locked door, warns her that her troubles are only beginning.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 Oliver Twist Audio CD Pack

Charles Dickens
Retold by Richard Rogers

STAGE 6 - Classics

London in the 1830s was no place to be if you were a hungry ten-year-old boy, an orphan without friends or family, with no home to go to, and only a penny in your pocket to buy a piece of bread.

But Oliver Twist finds some friends - Fagin, the Artful Dodger, and Charley Bates. They give him food and shelter, and play games with him, but it is not until some days later that Oliver finds out what kind of friends they are and what kind of 'games' they play . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 6 - Classics

'The moment I first met you, I noticed your pride, your sense of superiority, and your selfish disdain for the feelings of others. You are the last man in the world whom I could ever be persuaded to marry,' said Elizabeth Bennet.

And so Elizabeth rejects the proud Mr Darcy. Can nothing overcome her prejudice against him? And what of the other Bennet girls - their fortunes, and misfortunes, in the business of getting husbands?

This famous novel by Jane Austen is full of wise and humorous observation of the people and manners of her times.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Thomas Hardy
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 6 - Classics

A pretty young girl has to leave home to make money for her family. She is clever and a good worker; but she is uneducated and does not know the cruel ways of the world. So, when a rich young man says he loves her, she is careful - but not careful enough. He is persuasive, and she is overwhelmed. It is not her fault, but the world says it is. Her young life is already stained by men's desires, and by death.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 The African Queen

C.S. Forester
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 4 - Human Interest

The African Queen is an old, dirty, ugly, unreliable steamboat. No one would expect a missionary's sister and a rough, uneducated mechanic to take a boat like that down a dangerous river through the forests of Central Africa. But Rose Sayer and Charlie Allnutt do just that.

Why do they do it? The First World War has just begun, and Rose has a wild and crazy plan. She and Charlie set off down the river and come close to death many times, but they survive all dangers - except the danger of falling in love . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 A Stranger at Green Knowe

Lucy M. Boston
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

When Ping sees Hanno in the zoo, he is excited, but also unhappy. Hanno is a magnificent African gorilla, big and black and much stronger than a man. But how can this wonderful wild animal live in a cage, behind bars and locked doors?

Then Hanno escapes from the zoo. And a few days later his footprints are seen near Green Knowe, the old house deep in the English countryside where Ping is spending his holiday . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Cries from the Heart: Stories from Around the World Audio CD Pack

Retold by Jenifer Bassett

STAGE 2 - World Stories

From Botswana to New Zealand, from Jamaica to Nigeria, from Uganda to Malaysia, from India to South Africa, these moving stories show us that the human heart is the same in every place. Fear and pain, happiness and sadness belong to us all.

These eight stories were winning entries in the 2004 Commonwealth Short Story Competition. The writers are Sefi Atta, Adrienne M. Frater, Lauri Kubuitsile, Erica N. Robinson, Jackee Budesta Batanda, Janet Tay Hui Ching, Anuradha Muralidharan, and Tod Collins.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Rabbit-Proof Fence

Doris Pilkington Garimara
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 3 - True Stories

Fourteen-year-old Molly and her cousins Daisy and Gracie were mixed-race Aborigines. In 1931 they were taken away from their families and sent to a camp to be trained as good 'white' Australians. They were told to forget their mothers, their language, their home.

But Molly would not forget. She and her cousins escaped and walked back to Jigalong, 1600 kilometres away, following the rabbit-proof fence north as part of their guide across the desert.

This is the true stoy of that walk, told by Molly's daughter, Doris. It is also a prize-winning film.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Starter Bestseller Pack

Pack contains one copy of each of the following ten titles:

Girl on a Motorcycle
New York Café
Drive into Danger
The Fifteenth Character
Mystery in London
Sally's Phone
Escape
Taxi of Terror
Robin Hood
Survive!

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Starter Red Roses

Christine Lindop

STARTER - Human Interest

'Who is the man with the roses in his hand?' thinks Anna. 'I want to meet him.'

'Who is the girl with the guitar?' thinks Will. 'I like her. I want to meet her.'

But they do not meet.

'There are lots of men!' says Anna's friend Vicki, but Anna cannot forget Will. And then one rainy day . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 Remember Miranda

Rowena Akinyemi

STAGE 1 - Human Interest

Cathy Wilson is driving to Norfolk, to begin her new job with the Harvey family. She is going to look after the two young children, Tim and Susan. Cathy meets the children's father, and their grandmother, and their aunt. She meets Nick, the farmer who lives across the fields. But she doesn't meet Miranda, the children's mother, because Miranda is dead.

She died two years ago, and Cathy cannot learn anything about her. Everybody remembers Miranda, but nobody wants to talk about her . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 The Meaning of Gifts: Stories from Turkey Audio CD Pack

Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 1 - World Stories

'I'm afraid to look in the storeroom. All our food for the winter - where is it now? Inside those hungry guests! They never stop eating! And they never say thank you! And those children - my God, they eat more than their parents!'

Izzet Efendi and his family are afraid that their guests are never going to go home, but what can they do?

Bookworms World Stories collect stories from around the world. This volume has stories by Turkish writers Huseyin Rahmi Gurpinar, Ayse Kilimci, Sait Faik, and Yalvac Ural.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Cries from the Heart: Stories from Around the World

Retold by Jenifer Bassett

STAGE 2 - World Stories

From Botswana to New Zealand, from Jamaica to Nigeria, from Uganda to Malaysia, from India to South Africa, these moving stories show us that the human heart is the same in every place. Fear and pain, happiness and sadness belong to us all.

These eight stories were winning entries in the 2004 Commonwealth Short Story Competition. The writers are Sefi Atta, Adrienne M. Frater, Lauri Kubuitsile, Erica N. Robinson, Jackee Budesta Batanda, Janet Tay Hui Ching, Anuradha Muralidharan, and Tod Collins.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 New Yorkers - Short Stories Audio CD Pack (American English)

O. Henry
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

A housewife, a tramp, a lawyer, a waitress, an actress - ordinary people living ordinary lives in New York at the beginning of this century. The city has changed greatly since that time, but its people are much the same. Some are rich, some are poor, some are happy, some are sad, some have found love, some are looking for love.

O. Henry's famous short stories - sensitive, funny, sympathetic - give us vivid pictures of the everyday lives of these New Yorkers.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Bestseller Pack

Pack contains one copy of each of the following ten titles:

The Call of the Wild
Chemical Secret
A Christmas Carol
Frankenstein
Love Story
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Prisoner of Zenda
The Secret Garden
Skyjack!
Tales of Mystery and Imagination

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 The Accidental Tourist

Anne Tyler
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 5 - Human Interest

Everyday life in Baltimore, USA, is full of problems - getting the washing done, buying groceries and dog food, avoiding the neighbors . . . After the death of his son and the departure of his wife, Macon's attempts to run his own life become increasingly desperate - and more and more odd.

Meanwhile, he has to get on with his work, writing tourist guides for business people. Then his dog Edward starts to bite people, and he has to send for Muriel, the dog trainer. And day by day, Macon's life gets more and more complicated.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Starter King Arthur

Janet Hardy-Gould

STARTER - Human Interest

It is the year 650 in England. There is war everywhere because the old king is dead and he has no son. Only when the new king comes can the fighting stop and the strange, magical story of King Arthur begin. But first, Merlin the ancient magician has to find a way of finding the next king . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Starter Robin Hood

John Escott

STARTER - Human Interest

'You're a brave man, but I am afraid for you,' says Lady Marian to Robin of Locksley. She is afraid because Robin does not like Prince John's new taxes and wants to do something for the poor people of Nottingham. When Prince John hears this, Robin is suddenly in danger - great danger.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Starter Survive!

Helen Brooke

STARTER - Human Interest

You are in a small plane, going across the Rocky Mountains. Suddenly, the engine starts to make strange noises . . .

Soon you are alone, in the snow, at the top of a mountain, and it is very, very cold. Can you find your way out of the mountain?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 Bestseller Pack

Pack contains one copy of each of the following ten titles:

Black Beauty
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Gulliver's Travels
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Little Women
Silas Marner
A Tale of Two Cities
The Thirty-Nine Steps
Three Men in a Boat
Treasure Island

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 Remember Miranda Audio CD Pack

Rowena Akinyemi

STAGE 1 - Human Interest

Cathy Wilson is driving to Norfolk, to begin her new job with the Harvey family. She is going to look after the two young children, Tim and Susan. Cathy meets the children's father, and their grandmother, and their aunt. She meets Nick, the farmer who lives across the fields. But she doesn't meet Miranda, the children's mother, because Miranda is dead.

She died two years ago, and Cathy cannot learn anything about her. Everybody remembers Miranda, but nobody wants to talk about her . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 A Little Princess Audio CD Pack

Frances Hodgson Burnett
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 1 - Human Interest

Sara Crewe is a very rich little girl. She first comes to England when she is seven, and her father takes her to Miss Minchin's school in London. Then he goes back to his work in India. Sara is very sad at first, but she soon makes friends at school.

But on her eleventh birthday, something terrible happens, and now Sara has no family, no home, and not a penny in the world . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 Christmas in Prague Audio CD Pack

Joyce Hannam

STAGE 1 - Human Interest

In a house in Oxford three people are having breakfast - Carol, her husband Jan, and his father Josef. They are talking about Prague, because Carol wants them all to go there for Christmas.

Josef was born in Prague, but he left his home city when he was a young man. He is an old man now, and he would like to see Prague again before he dies. But he is afraid. He still remembers another Christmas in Prague, many long years ago - a Christmas that changed his life for ever . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 One-Way Ticket - Short Stories

Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 1 - Human Interest

Tom Walsh had a lot to learn about life. He liked travelling, and he was in no hurry. He liked meeting people, anyone and everyone. He liked the two American girls on the train. They were nice and very friendly. They knew a lot of places. Tom thought they were fun. Tom certainly had a lot to learn about life.

This is a collection of short stories about adventures on trains. Strange, wonderful, and frightening things can happen on trains - and all of them happen here.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 One-Way Ticket Audio CD Pack

Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 1 - Human Interest

Tom Walsh had a lot to learn about life. He liked travelling, and he was in no hurry. He liked meeting people, anyone and everyone. He liked the two American girls on the train. They were nice and very friendly. They knew a lot of places. Tom thought they were fun. Tom certainly had a lot to learn about life.

This is a collection of short stories about adventures on trains. Strange, wonderful, and frightening things can happen on trains - and all of them happen here.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 The Lottery Winner

Rosemary Border

STAGE 1 - Human Interest

Everybody wants to win the lottery. A million pounds, perhaps five million, even ten million. How wonderful! Emma Carter buys a ticket for the lottery every week, and puts the ticket carefully in her bag. She is seventy-three years old and does not have much money. She would like to visit her son in Australia, but aeroplane tickets are very expensive.

Jason Williams buys lottery tickets every week too. But he is not a very nice young man. He steals things. He hits old ladies in the street, snatches their bags and runs away . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 The Lottery Winner Audio CD Pack

Rosemary Border

STAGE 1 - Human Interest

Everybody wants to win the lottery. A million pounds, perhaps five million, even ten million. How wonderful! Emma Carter buys a ticket for the lottery every week, and puts the ticket carefully in her bag. She is seventy-three years old and does not have much money. She would like to visit her son in Australia, but aeroplane tickets are very expensive.

Jason Williams buys lottery tickets every week too. But he is not a very nice young man. He steals things. He hits old ladies in the street, snatches their bags and runs away . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 The Meaning of Gifts: Stories from Turkey

Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 1 - World Stories

'I'm afraid to look in the storeroom. All our food for the winter - where is it now? Inside those hungry guests! They never stop eating! And they never say thank you! And those children - my God, they eat more than their parents!'

Izzet Efendi and his family are afraid that their guests are never going to go home, but what can they do?

Bookworms World Stories collect stories from around the world. This volume has stories by Turkish writers Huseyin Rahmi Gurpinar, Ayse Kilimci, Sait Faik, and Yalvac Ural.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Anne of Green Gables Audio CD Pack

L.M. Montgomery
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

Marilla Cuthbert and her brother Matthew want to adopt an orphan, to help on the farm at Green Gables. They ask for a boy, but they get Anne, who has red hair and freckles, and who talks and talks and talks.

They didn't want a girl, but how can they send a child back, like an unwanted parcel? So Anne stays, and begins a new life in the sleepy, quiet village of Avonlea in Canada.

But it is not so quiet after Anne comes to live there . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 New Yorkers - Short Stories Audio CD Pack (British English)

O. Henry
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

A housewife, a tramp, a lawyer, a waitress, an actress - ordinary people living ordinary lives in New York at the beginning of this century. The city has changed greatly since that time, but its people are much the same. Some are rich, some are poor, some are happy, some are sad, some have found love, some are looking for love.

O. Henry's famous short stories - sensitive, funny, sympathetic - give us vivid pictures of the everyday lives of these New Yorkers.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Love Story Audio CD Pack

Erich Segal
Retold by Rosemary Border

STAGE 3 - Human interest

This is a love story you won't forget. Oliver Barrett meets Jenny Cavilleri. He plays sports, she plays music. He's rich, and she's poor. They argue, and they fight, and they fall in love.

So they get married, and make a home together. They work hard, they enjoy life, they make plans for the future. Then they learn that they don't have much time left.

Their story has made people laugh, and cry, all over the world.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Secret Garden Audio CD Pack

Frances Hodgson Burnett
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 3 - Human Interest

Little Mary Lennox is a bad-tempered, disagreeable child. When her parents die in India, she is sent back to England to live with her uncle in a big, lonely, old house.

There is nothing to do all day except walk in the gardens - and watch the robin flying over the high walls of the secret garden . . . which has been locked for ten years. And no one has the key.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 A Tale of Two Cities Audio CD Pack

Charles Dickens
Retold by Ralph Mowat

STAGE 4 - Classics

'The Marquis lay there, like stone, with a knife pushed into his heart. On his chest lay a piece of paper, with the words: Drive him fast to the grave. This is from JACQUES.'

The French Revolution brings terror and death to many people. But even in these troubled times people can still love and be kind. They can be generous and true-hearted . . . and brave.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 Black Beauty Audio CD Pack

Anna Sewell
Retold by John Escott

STAGE 4 - Human Interest

When Black Beauty is trained to carry a rider on his back, or to pull a carriage behind him, he finds it hard at first. But he is lucky - his first home is a good one, where his owners are kind people, who would never be cruel to a horse.

But in the nineteenth century many people were cruel to their horses, whipping them and beating them, and using them like machines until they dropped dead. Black Beauty soon finds this out, and as he describes his life, he has many terrible stories to tell.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 Little Women Audio CD Pack

Louisa May Alcott
Retold by John Escott

STAGE 4 - Human Interest

When Christmas comes for the four March girls, there is no money for expensive presents and they give away their Christmas breakfast to a poor family. But there are no happier girls in America than Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. They miss their father, of course, who is away at the Civil War, but they try hard to be good so that he will be proud of his 'little women' when he comes home.

This heart-warming story of family life has been popular for more than a hundred years.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 Silas Marner

George Eliot
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 4 - Classics

In a hole under the floorboards Silas Marner the linen-weaver keeps his gold. Every day he works hard at his weaving, and every night he takes the gold out and holds the bright coins lovingly, feeling them and counting them again and again. The villagers are afraid of him and he has no family, no friends. Only the gold is his friend, his delight, his reason for living.

But what if a thief should come in the night and take his gold away? What will Silas do then? What could possibly comfort him for the loss of his only friend?

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 Silas Marner Audio CD Pack

George Eliot
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 4 - Classics

In a hole under the floorboards Silas Marner the linen-weaver keeps his gold. Every day he works hard at his weaving, and every night he takes the gold out and holds the bright coins lovingly, feeling them and counting them again and again. The villagers are afraid of him and he has no family, no friends. Only the gold is his friend, his delight, his reason for living.

But what if a thief should come in the night and take his gold away? What will Silas do then? What could possibly comfort him for the loss of his only friend?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 Jane Eyre

Charlotte Brontë
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 6 - Classics

Jane Eyre is alone in the world. Disliked by her aunt's family, she is sent away to school. Here she learns that a young girl, with neither money nor family to support her, can expect little from the world. She survives, but she wants more from life than simply to survive: she wants respect, and love. When she goes to work for Mr Rochester, she hopes she has found both at once. But the sound of strange laughter, late at night, behind a locked door, warns her that her troubles are only beginning.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 Oliver Twist

Charles Dickens
Retold by Richard Rogers

STAGE 6 - Classics

London in the 1830s was no place to be if you were a hungry ten-year-old boy, an orphan without friends or family, with no home to go to, and only a penny in your pocket to buy a piece of bread.

But Oliver Twist finds some friends - Fagin, the Artful Dodger, and Charley Bates. They give him food and shelter, and play games with him, but it is not until some days later that Oliver finds out what kind of friends they are and what kind of 'games' they play . . .

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Oxford Bookworms Library Starter Give us the Money

Maeve Clarke

STARTER - Crime & Mystery

'Every day is the same. Nothing exciting ever happens to me,' thinks Adam one boring Monday morning.

But today is not the same. When he helps a beautiful young woman because some men want to take her bag, life gets exciting and very, very dangerous.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Starter Sally's Phone

Christine Lindop

STARTER - Human Interest

Sally is always running - and she has her phone with her all the time: at home, on the train, at work, at lunchtime, and at the shops.

But then one afternoon suddenly she has a different phone . . . and it changes her life.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Starter Star Reporter

John Escott

STARTER - Human Interest

'There's a new girl in town,' says Joe, and soon Steve is out looking for her.

Marietta is easy to find in a small town, but every time he sees her something goes wrong . . . and his day goes from bad to worse.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Piano Audio CD Pack

Rosemary Border

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

One day, a farmer tells a farm boy to take everything out of an old building and throw it away. 'It's all rubbish,' he says.

In the middle of all the rubbish, the boy finds a beautiful old piano. He has never played before, but now, when his fingers touch the piano, he begins to play. He closes his eyes and the music comes to him - and the music moves his fingers.

When he opens his eyes again, he knows that his life has changed forever...

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 Christmas in Prague

Joyce Hannam

STAGE 1 - Human Interest

In a house in Oxford three people are having breakfast - Carol, her husband Jan, and his father Josef. They are talking about Prague, because Carol wants them all to go there for Christmas.

Josef was born in Prague, but he left his home city when he was a young man. He is an old man now, and he would like to see Prague again before he dies. But he is afraid. He still remembers another Christmas in Prague, many long years ago - a Christmas that changed his life for ever . . .

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Bestseller Pack

Pack contains one copy of each of the following ten titles:

Anne of Green Gables
The Canterville Ghost
The Death of Karen Silkwood
Dracula
Henry VIII and his Six Wives
Huckleberry Finn
New Yorkers
The Piano
Robinson Crusoe
Sherlock Holmes Short Stories

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 Wuthering Heights

Emily Brontë
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 5 - Classics

The wind is strong on the Yorkshire moors. There are few trees, and fewer houses, to block its path. There is one house, however, that does not hide from the wind. It stands out from the hill and challenges the wind to do its worst. The house is called Wuthering Heights.

When Mr Earnshaw brings a strange, small, dark child back home to Wuthering Heights, it seems he has opened his doors to trouble. He has invited in something that, like the wind, is safer kept out of the house.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Anne of Green Gables

L.M. Montgomery
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

Marilla Cuthbert and her brother Matthew want to adopt an orphan, to help on the farm at Green Gables. They ask for a boy, but they get Anne, who has red hair and freckles, and who talks and talks and talks.

They didn't want a girl, but how can they send a child back, like an unwanted parcel? So Anne stays, and begins a new life in the sleepy, quiet village of Avonlea in Canada.

But it is not so quiet after Anne comes to live there . . .

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 New Yorkers - Short Stories

O. Henry
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

A housewife, a tramp, a lawyer, a waitress, an actress - ordinary people living ordinary lives in New York at the beginning of this century. The city has changed greatly since that time, but its people are much the same. Some are rich, some are poor, some are happy, some are sad, some have found love, some are looking for love.

O. Henry's famous short stories - sensitive, funny, sympathetic - give us vivid pictures of the everyday lives of these New Yorkers.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Piano

Rosemary Border

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

One day, a farmer tells a farm boy to take everything out of an old building and throw it away. 'It's all rubbish,' he says.

In the middle of all the rubbish, the boy finds a beautiful old piano. He has never played before, but now, when his fingers touch the piano, he begins to play. He closes his eyes and the music comes to him - and the music moves his fingers.

When he opens his eyes again, he knows that his life is changed for ever...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 Black Beauty

Anna Sewell
Retold by John Escott

STAGE 4 - Human Interest

When Black Beauty is trained to carry a rider on his back, or to pull a carriage behind him, he finds it hard at first. But he is lucky - his first home is a good one, where his owners are kind people, who would never be cruel to a horse.

But in the nineteenth century many people were cruel to their horses, whipping them and beating them, and using them like machines until they dropped dead. Black Beauty soon finds this out, and as he describes his life, he has many terrible stories to tell.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 Three Men in a Boat

Jerome K. Jerome
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 4 - Human Interest

'I like work. I find it interesting . . . I can sit and look at it for hours.'

With ideas like this, perhaps it is not a good idea to spend a holiday taking a boat trip up the River Thames. But this is what the three friends - and Montmorency the dog - decide to do. It is the sort of holiday that is fun to remember afterwards, but not so much fun to wake up to early on a cold, wet morning.

This famous book has made people laugh all over the world for a hundred years . . . and they are still laughing.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 Little Women

Louisa May Alcott
Retold by John Escott

STAGE 4 - Human Interest

When Christmas comes for the four March girls, there is no money for expensive presents and they give away their Christmas breakfast to a poor family. But there are no happier girls in America than Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. They miss their father, of course, who is away at the Civil War, but they try hard to be good so that he will be proud of his 'little women' when he comes home.

This heart-warming story of family life has been popular for more than a hundred years.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 A Little Princess

Frances Hodgson Burnett
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 1 - Human Interest

Sara Crewe is a very rich little girl. She first comes to England when she is seven, and her father takes her to Miss Minchin's school in London. Then he goes back to his work in India. Sara is very sad at first, but she soon makes friends at school.

But on her eleventh birthday, something terrible happens, and now Sara has no family, no home, and not a penny in the world . . .

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Love Story

Erich Segal
Retold by Rosemary Border

STAGE 3 - Human Interest

This is a love story you won't forget. Oliver Barrett meets Jenny Cavilleri. He plays sports, she plays music. He's rich, and she's poor. They argue, and they fight, and they fall in love.

So they get married, and make a home together. They work hard, they enjoy life, they make plans for the future. Then they learn that they don't have much time left.

Their story has made people laugh, and cry, all over the world.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Secret Garden

Frances Hodgson Burnett
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 3 - Human Interest

Little Mary Lennox is a bad-tempered, disagreeable child. When her parents die in India, she is sent back to England to live with her uncle in a big, lonely, old house.

There is nothing to do all day except walk in the gardens - and watch the robin flying over the high walls of the secret garden . . . which has been locked for ten years. And no one has the key.

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Oxford Bookworms Collection A Tangled Web

Edited by Christine Lindop and Alison Sykes-McNulty

Deception is usually frowned on as morally unacceptable, but is it always wrong? Can hiding or distorting the truth sometimes have good effects, adding to the sum of human happiness? These ten stories are full of secrets and lies, from a light-hearted bit of fun to dark and desperate deceit; but whether harmless or evil, deception can sometimes lead to quite unexpected complications.

This collection contains stories by Ray Bradbury, Roald Dahl, Maeve Binchy, V.S. Naipaul, Somerset Maugham, Frederick Forsyth, Clare Boylan, Paul Theroux, Oscar Wilde, and Joanna Trollope.

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Oxford Bookworms Collection And All for Love...

Edited by Diane Mowat and Jennifer Bassett

What sad, appalling, and surprising things people do in the name of love and for the sake of love. These short stories give us love won and love lost, love revenged, love thrown away, love in triumph, love in despair. It might be love between men and women, children and parents, even humans and cats; but whichever it is, love is a force to be reckoned with.

This collection contains stories by Maeve Binchy, Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, H.E. Bates, Graham Greene, Fay Weldon, Patricia Highsmith, John Morrison, and Somerset Maugham.

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Oxford Bookworms Collection The Eye of Childhood

Edited by John Escott and Jennifer Bassett

What does it feel like to be a child? Learning how to negotiate with the unpredictable adult world, learning how to pick a path through life's traps and hazards, learning when the time has come to put away childish things. The writers of these short stories show us the world as seen from the far side of the child-adult divide, a gap that is sometimes small, and sometimes an unbridgeable chasm.

This collection contains stories by John Updike, Graham Greene, William Boyd, Susan Hill, D. H. Lawrence, Saki, Penelope Lively, Bernard MacLaverty, Frank Tuohy, and Morley Callaghan.

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Oxford Bookworms Collection From the Cradle to the Grave

Edited by Clare West

These stories explore the trials of life from youth to old age: the idealism of young people, the stresses of marriage, the anxieties of parenthood, and the loneliness and fears of older people. The wide variety of writing styles includes black humour, satire, and compassionate and realistic observation of the follies and foibles of humankind.

This collection contains stories by Evelyn Waugh, Roald Dahl, Somerset Maugham, Saki, Frank Sargeson, Raymond Carver, H.E. Bates, and Susan Hill.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Starter Stage

CEF level A1

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Dominoes Two

Bill Bowler and Sue Parminter

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4

CEF level B1/B2

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5

CEF level B2

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Dominoes Three

Bill Bowler and Sue Parminter

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Oxford Bookworms Library

English graded readers series for secondary level to adult

Jennifer Bassett

Beginner to Advanced
A1 to C1

Read your way to better English with Oxford Bookworms

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6

CEF level B2/C1

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Dominoes One

Bill Bowler and Sue Parminter

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Dominoes Starter

Bill Bowler and Sue Parminter

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2

CEF level A2/B1

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3

CEF level B1

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