All Graded Readers

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 Les Misérables

New

Retold by Jennifer Bassett

France, 1815. Jean Valjean leaves prison after nineteen years. These are dangerous and troubled times, and life is hard. Valjean must begin a new life, but how can he escape his past, and his enemy, Inspector Javert?

This story for Bookworms is loosely based on the famous novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, one of France's greatest writers. The novel was written in 1862, and the story has been retold many times - in a musical, in plays for radio and theatre, and in more than fifty films for television and cinema.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 Gazing at Stars: Stories from Asia

Retold by Clare West

STAGE 6 - World Stories

How fair is fair trade? When the American models leave the Malaysian island after their fashion shoot, they take away more than just photographs, and leave behind a family that will never be the same again.

Bookworms World Stories collect stories written in English from around the world. These stories from China, India, Malaysia, and Singapore, are by writers Lui Hong, Attia Hosain, Preeta Samarasan, Hwee Hwee Tan, Ridjal Noor, Shashi Deshpande, Ovidia Yu, Nora Adam, Nirupama Subramanian, and Catherine Lim.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Songs from the Soul: Stories from Around the World

Retold by Jennifer Bassett

Good luck in Malaysia, bad news in New Zealand, a chicken and a jug of cider in Britain, a goat and a pumpkin in India, fun and games in a cyber café in Nigeria ... The countries change, but people's lives are always strange and wonderful in any place.

Bookworms World Stories collect stories written in English from around the world. These stories are by Shahana Chaudhury, Mary McCluskey, Nandita Ray, Suchitra Karthik Kumar, Susan Costello, Anthony C. Diala, Preeta Krishna, and Folakemi Emem-Akpan.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 The Price of Peace: Stories from Africa

Retold by Christine Lindop

STAGE 4 - World Stories

Careful, Connie, please. Your little sister's eyes are looking angry. Look at the sudden lines around her mouth. Connie, a sister is a good thing. Even a younger sister. 'Mercy, who are you going out with?'

Connie gets an answer to her question, but it is not the answer she wants to hear. And what is the price of peace between sisters?

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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.

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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.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 Doors to a Wider Place: Stories from Australia

Retold by Christine Lindop

STAGE 4 - World Stories

'When it came to football, Billy was different. Black hands grab the ball. Black feet kick the ball. Black hopes rise up with the ball to the sickly white sky. No one can stop him now. He forgets about the river, and the people of his blood . . .'

But who can forget their own past? Billy finds that the ties which hold him to the people of his blood are strong indeed . . .

The stories in this volume of World Stories are by Australian writers Mena Abdullah & Ray Mathew, Judith Wright, Archie Weller, Dal Stivens, David Malouf, Marion Halligan.

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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.

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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?

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