All Graded Readers

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 The Garden Party and Other Stories Audio CD Pack

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.

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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.

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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?

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Ear-rings from Frankfurt Audio CD Pack

Reg Wright

Richard Walton is in trouble again. He has lost his job, and he has borrowed money from his sister, Jennifer - again. And now he has disappeared. Jennifer is looking for him, and so are the police. They both have some questions that they want to ask him.

How did he lose his job? Why did he fly to Frankfurt? Who gave his girlfriend those very expensive gold ear-rings?

Only Richard can answer these questions. But nobody can find Richard.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Grace Darling Audio CD Pack

Tim Vicary

STAGE 2 - True Stories

All they could hear was the wind, and the waves crashing on to the rocks. All they could see was the night. They could not see the ship, broken in two. They could not see the people holding on to the dark wet rock, slowly dying of cold. And they could not hear the cries for help - only the wind.

How could they save the people on the rock? Was their wooden boat stronger than the iron ship? Were a man and his daughter stronger than the great waves that broke the ship in two?

The Forfarshire was wrecked off the north-east coast of England in 1838. This is the true story of Grace Darling - a girl who became a famous heroine on that stormy night.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Hamlet Audio CD Pack

William Shakespeare
Retold by Alistair McCallum

STAGE 2 - Playscripts

This famous play by William Shakespeare, written in about 1600, is one of the finest in the English language.

Why does Hamlet, the young Prince of Denmark, look so sad? Why does he often say strange things? His family and friends are worried about him. Perhaps he is mad!

But Hamlet thinks that he has discovered a terrible secret about a recent crime in his family. Now he has no time for Ophelia, the sweet girl who loves him, or his friends, who were at school with him. He sits alone, and thinks, and plans. What will he decide to do? Will he ever be happy again?

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 One Thousand Dollars and Other Plays Audio CD Pack

O. Henry
Retold by John Escott

STAGE 2 - Playscripts

Money or love? Which is more important in life? Can money buy anything? Can it help a young man to marry the girl he loves? Does money really make people happy, or does it just cause problems?

These four plays about money, love, and life are adapted from short stories written a hundred years ago by the great American storyteller O. Henry.

Henry had his own difficulties with money and loneliness, and wrote from personal experience.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Return to Earth Audio CD Pack

John Christopher
Retold by Susan Binder

STAGE 2 - Fantasy & Horror

As they walk through a park in the distant future, Harl and Ellen talk about their work and their lives. But they will never have a life together because their work as scientists is more important to them than their love. Harl plans to leave Earth, on a long and dangerous journey through space. Ellen plans to stay on Earth, to change the way the human mind works.

When Harl returns to Earth, Ellen will be long dead . . . and the world will be a very different place.

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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.

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