All Graded Readers

Reading in English is one of the most effective ways to improve language skills. Our readers series are highly respected for their grading and content.

Inside All Graded Readers (144)

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

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Five Children and It Audio CD Pack

Edith Nesbit
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 2 - Fantasy & Horror

When the children dug a hole in the gravel-pit, they were very surprised at what they found. 'It' was a Psammead, a sand-fairy, thousands of years old.

It was a strange little thing - fat and furry, and with eyes on long stalks. It was often very cross and unfriendly, but it could give wishes - one wish a day. 'How wonderful!' the children said.

But wishes are difficult things. They can get you into trouble . . .

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 Death of an Englishman

Magdalen Nabb
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 4 - Crime & Mystery

It was a very inconvenient time for murder. Florence was full of Christmas shoppers and half the police force was already on holiday.

At first it seemed quite an ordinary murder. Of course, there are always a few mysteries. In this case, the dead man had been in the habit of moving his furniture at three o'clock in the morning. Naturally, the police wanted to know why. The case became more complicated. But all the time, the answer was right under their noses. They just couldn't see it. It was, after all, a very ordinary murder.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 The Moonspinners

Mary Stewart
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 4 - Thriller & Adventure

When Nicola arrives in Crete a day early, she gets more than just an extra day of holiday. She comes to a village where no one can be trusted, and she becomes involved in a murder mystery that puts her own life in danger.

This story is set in a small village in the mountains of Crete. This is an island where people have strong feelings, where arguments begin suddenly, and end quickly. And Nicola has arrived in the middle of an argument that could end very quickly - with a gun.

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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.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 A Morbid Taste For Bones

Ellis Peters
Retold by John Escott

STAGE 4 - Crime & Mystery

Murder in the twelfth century is no different from murder today. There is still a dead body, though this time with an arrow through the heart instead of a bullet. There is still a need to bury the dead, to comfort the living - and to catch the murderer.

When Brother Cadfael comes to a village in the Welsh hills, he finds himself doing all three of those things. And there is nothing simple about this death. The murdered man's daughter needs Cadfael's help in more ways than one. There are questions about the arrow. And the burial is the strangest thing of all . . .

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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 . . .

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 The Big Sleep

Raymond Chandler
Retold by Rosalie Kerr

STAGE 4 - Crime & Mystery

General Sternwood has four million dollars, and two young daughters, both pretty and both wild. He's an old, sick man, close to death, but he doesn't like being blackmailed. So he asks private detective Philip Marlowe to get the blackmailer off his back.

Marlowe knows the dark side of life in Los Angeles well, and nothing much surprises him. But the Sternwood girls are a lot wilder than their old father realizes. They like men, drink, drugs - and it's not just a question of blackmail.

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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 . . .

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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!'

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