All Graded Readers

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

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.

• Where to Order

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.

• Where to Order

Bookworms Club Stories for Reading Circles Teacher's Handbook

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

• Where to Order

Bookworms Club Stories for Reading Circles Diamond (Stages 5 and 6)

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

• 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 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 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 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 Enemy Audio CD Pack

Desmond Bagley
Retold by Ralph Mowat

STAGE 6 - Thriller & Adventure

On a beautiful summer evening in the quiet town of Marlow, a young woman is walking home from church. She passes a man who is looking at the engine of his car. He turns round, smiles at her . . . and throws acid into her face.

Then her father, the scientist George Ashton, disappears. And her sister, Penny, discovers that her husband-to-be, Malcolm, is a government agent. Why has Ashton disappeared, and why is Malcolm told to hunt for him? Who is George Ashton, anyway?

And who is the enemy?

• 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 Meteor and Other Stories

John Wyndham
Retold by Patrick Nobes

STAGE 6 - Fantasy & Horror

It was just a smooth round metal ball, less than a metre in diameter. Although it was still hot from its journey through the huge nothingness of space, it looked quite harmless. But what was it, exactly? A meteor, perhaps - just one of those pieces of rock from outer space that occasionally fall down on to the planet Earth. But meteors don't usually make strange hissing sounds . . .

In this collection of four of his famous science-fiction stories, John Wyndham creates visions of the future that make us think carefully about the way we live now.

• 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 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 Stage 6 Deadheads

Reginald Hill
Retold by Rosalie Kerr

STAGE 6 - Crime & Mystery

An English rose garden on a summer's day. A small boy watches with interest as his great-aunt cuts the deadheads off the rosebushes with a sharp knife. What could be more peaceful, more harmless?

Young Patrick grows up to be a calm, pleasant man, with a good job, a wife and two children, and the best rose garden for miles around. When somebody tells the police that Patrick Aldermann is killing people, Chief Superintendent Dalziel thinks it's probably all nonsense. But Inspector Pascoe is not so sure . . .

• Where to Order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 Night Without End

Alistair MacLean
Retold by Margaret Naudi

STAGE 6 - Thriller & Adventure

On the Polar ice-cap, 640 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, the deadly, icy winds can freeze a man to death in minutes. But the survivors of the crashed airliner are lucky - they are rescued by three scientists from a nearby weather station.

But why did the airliner crash in the first place? Who smashed the radio to pieces? And why does the dead pilot have a bullet hole in his back? The rescue quickly turns into a nightmare: a race through the endless Arctic night, a race against time, cold, hunger - and a killer with a gun.

• 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 The Enemy

Desmond Bagley
Retold by Ralph Mowat

STAGE 6 - Thriller & Adventure

On a beautiful summer evening in the quiet town of Marlow, a young woman is walking home from church. She passes a man who is looking at the engine of his car. He turns round, smiles at her . . . and throws acid into her face.

Then her father, the scientist George Ashton, disappears. And her sister, Penny, discovers that her husband-to-be, Malcolm, is a government agent. Why has Ashton disappeared, and why is Malcolm told to hunt for him? Who is George Ashton, anyway?

And who is the enemy?

• 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 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 American Crime Stories Audio CD Pack

Retold John Escott

STAGE 6 - Crime & Mystery

'Curtis Colt didn't kill that liquor store woman, and that's a fact. It's not right that he should have to ride the lightning - that's what prisoners call dying in the electric chair. Curtis doesn't belong in it, and I can prove it.' But can Curtis's girlfriend prove it? Murder has undoubtedly been done, and if Curtis doesn't ride the lightning for it, then who will?

These seven short stories, by well-known writers such as Dashiel Hammett, Patricia Highsmith, and Nancy Pickard, will keep you on the edge of your seat.

• Where to Order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 Cry Freedom

John Briley
Retold by Rowena Akinyemi

STAGE 6 - True Stories

They said Steve Biko was a man of violence; then why did he talk of peace? They said he wanted revolution; so why did he talk of friendship? They said he died of hunger; why was his body broken and bruised?

This is the story of a man's fight with the government of South Africa. It is the story of all people who prefer truth to lies. It is the story of all people who cry 'Freedom', and who are not afraid to die.

• Where to Order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 American Crime Stories

Retold by John Escott

STAGE 6 - Crime & Mystery

'Curtis Colt didn't kill that liquor store woman, and that's a fact. It's not right that he should have to ride the lightning - that's what prisoners call dying in the electric chair. Curtis doesn't belong in it, and I can prove it.' But can Curtis's girlfriend prove it? Murder has undoubtedly been done, and if Curtis doesn't ride the lightning for it, then who will?

These seven short stories, by well-known writers such as Dashiel Hammett, Patricia Highsmith, and Nancy Pickard, will keep you on the edge of your seat.

• Where to Order

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 . . .

• Where to Order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 The Woman in White

Wilkie Collins
Retold by Richard G. Lewis

STAGE 6 - Thriller & Adventure

The woman in white first appears at night on a lonely heath near London and is next seen at a grave-side in Cumberland. Who is she? Where has she come from, and what is her history? She seems alone and friendless, frightened and confused. And it seems she knows a secret - a secret that could bring ruin and shame to a man who will do anything to keep her silent.

This famous mystery thriller by Wilkie Collins has excitement, suspense, romance, and a plot that twists and turns on every page.

• Where to Order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 The Fly and Other Horror Stories

Retold by John Escott

STAGE 6 - Fantasy & Horror

Flies are a nuisance. They are annoying when they buzz around you, but you can brush them away with your hand. After all, a fly is only about half the size of your fingernail. But suppose it wasn't. Catch a fly and look at it closely - look at its head, its eyes, its legs. Now imagine that this thing was the size of a human being . . .

These eight stories offer horror in many shapes and forms, in worlds full of monsters and evil spirits, where terror lies waiting in the shadows, and where the living and the dead dance hand in hand.

• 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.

• Where to Order

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.

• Where to Order

Oxford Bookworms Collection

Unabridged short stories for advanced English students

Series Advisers: H.G. Widdowson and Jennifer Bassett

Advanced - young adults and adults

Oxford Bookworms Collection – the perfect next step towards advanced English reading

• Where to Order

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.

• Where to Order

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.

• Where to Order

Oxford Bookworms Collection A Window on the Universe

Edited by Jennifer Bassett

What does the future hold in store for the human race? Aliens from distant galaxies, telepathic horror, interstellar war, time-warps, the shriek of a rose, collision with an asteroid - the unknown lies around every corner, and the universe is a big place. These nine science-fiction stories offer possibilities that are fantastic, humorous, alarming, but always thought-provoking.

This collection contains stories by Ray Bradbury, Bill Brown, Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, Jerome Bixby, Isaac Asimov, Brian Aldiss, Roald Dahl, and John Wyndham.

• Where to Order

Oxford Bookworms Collection Crime Never Pays

Edited by Clare West

Murder: the unlawful, intentional killing of a human being - a terrible crime. But murder stories are always fascinating. Who did it? And how? Or why? And was it murder, or just an unfortunate accident? Who will triumph, the murderer or the detective? This collection contains a wide range of murder stories, from the astute detection of the famous Sherlock Holmes, to the chilling psychology of Ruth Rendell.

This collection contains stories by Agatha Christie, Ruth Rendell, Graham Greene, Angela Noel, Dorothy L. Sayers, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Margery Allingham, and Patricia Highsmith.

• Where to Order

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.

• Where to Order