All Graded Readers

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 2 The Importance of Being Earnest Audio CD Pack

Oscar Wilde
Retold by Susan Kingsley

STAGE 2 - Playscripts

This famous play by Oscar Wilde is one of the finest comedies in the English language.

Algernon knows that his friend Jack does not always tell the truth. For example, in town his name is Ernest, while in the country he calls himself Jack. And who is the girl who gives him presents 'from little Cecily, with all her love'?

But when the beautiful Gwendolen Fairfax says that she can only love a man whose name is Ernest, Jack decides to change his name, and become Ernest forever. Then Cecily agrees to marry Algernon, but only if his name is Ernest, too, and things become a little difficult for the two young men.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Love of a King Audio CD Pack

Peter Dainty

STAGE 2 - True Stories

All he wanted to do was to marry the woman he loved. But his country said 'No!'

He was Edward VIII, King of Great Britain, King of India, King of Australia, and King of thirty-nine other countries. And he loved the wrong woman.

She was beautiful and she loved him - but she was already married to another man.

It was a love story that shook the world. The King had to choose: to be King, or to have love . . . and leave his country, never to return.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Murders in the Rue Morgue Audio CD Pack

Edgar Allan Poe
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 2 - Crime & Mystery

The room was on the fourth floor, and the door was locked - with the key on the inside. The windows were closed and fastened - on the inside. The chimney was too narrow for a cat to get through. So how did the murderer escape? And whose were the two angry voices heard by the neighbours as they ran up the stairs? Nobody in Paris could find any answers to this mystery.

Except Auguste Dupin, who could see further and think more clearly than other people. The answers to the mystery were all there, but only a clever man could see them.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Mystery of Allegra Audio CD Pack

Peter Foreman

STAGE 2 - Fantasy & Horror

Allegra is an unusual name. It means 'happy' in Italian, but the little girl in this story is sometimes very sad. She is only five years old, but she tells Adrian, her new friend, that she is going to die soon. How does she know?

And who is the other Allegra? The girl in a long white nightdress, who has golden hair and big blue eyes. The girl who comes only at night, and whose hands and face are cold, so cold . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Pit and the Pendulum and Other Stories Audio CD Pack

Edgar Allan Poe
Retold by John Escott

STAGE 2 - Fantasy & Horror

Everybody has bad dreams. Horrible things move towards you in the dark, things you can hear but not see. Then you wake up, in your own warm bed, and turn over to go back to sleep.

But imagine that you wake up on a hard floor, in a darkness blacker than the blackest night. You listen to the silence, and smell a wet dead smell. Death is all around you, waiting . . .

In these stories by Edgar Allan Poe, death whispers at you from every dark corner, and fear can send you mad . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 The Songs of Distant Earth and Other Stories

Arthur C. Clarke
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 4 - Fantasy & Horror

'High above them, Lora and Clyde heard a sound their world had not heard for centuries - the thin scream of a starship coming in from outer space, leaving a long white tail like smoke across the clear blue sky. They looked at each other in wonder. After three hundred years of silence, Earth had reached out once more to touch Thalassa . . .'

And with the starship comes knowledge, and love, and pain.

In these five science-fiction stories Arthur C. Clarke takes us travelling through the universe into the unknown, but always possible future.

• 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 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