All Graded Readers

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 A Time of Waiting: Stories from Around the World

New

When did you last meet a polar bear, or go to a magician for help? These stories offer many different experiences. Some are strange, some are scary, some are sad, some are blackly funny. A few are shocking - when Lin Lin returns home for a funeral, she learns a dark and terrible family secret which may destroy her.

Bookworms World Stories collect stories written in English from around the world. These stories are from Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Singapore, South Africa, and Trinidad.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 A Time of Waiting: Stories from Around the World Audio CD Pack

New

When did you last meet a polar bear, or go to a magician for help? These stories offer many different experiences. Some are strange, some are scary, some are sad, some are blackly funny. A few are shocking - when Lin Lin returns home for a funeral, she learns a dark and terrible family secret which may destroy her.

Bookworms World Stories collect stories written in English from around the world. These stories are from Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Singapore, South Africa, and Trinidad.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Oceans

New

Thousands of years ago, people looked out across an ocean and asked themselves, 'What is on the other side?' And the bravest of them began to travel and find the answers - beautiful islands, frozen lands, different peoples . . .

And there are still interesting questions about the oceans. How do they change our weather? Why does the water go up and down twice a day? Why do most animals and plants live near the land? And what can possibly live at the bottom of the ocean, thousands of metres down, where there is no light? Surely nothing can stay alive in a place like that ...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Oceans Audio CD Pack

New

Thousands of years ago, people looked out across an ocean and asked themselves, 'What is on the other side?' And the bravest of them began to travel and find the answers - beautiful islands, frozen lands, different peoples . . .

And there are still interesting questions about the oceans. How do they change our weather? Why does the water go up and down twice a day? Why do most animals and plants live near the land? And what can possibly live at the bottom of the ocean, thousands of metres down, where there is no light? Surely nothing can stay alive in a place like that ...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Future Energy Audio CD Pack

New

Right now, all over the world, people are using energy. As we drive our cars, work on our computers, or even cook food on a wood fire, we probably do not stop to think about where the energy comes from. But when the gas is gone and there is no more coal - what then?

Scientists are finding new answers all the time. Get ready for the children whose running feet make the energy to bring water to their village; for the power station that uses warm and cold water to make energy; for the car that saves energy by growing like a plant ...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Future Energy

New

Right now, all over the world, people are using energy. As we drive our cars, work on our computers, or even cook food on a wood fire, we probably do not stop to think about where the energy comes from. But when the gas is gone and there is no more coal - what then?

Scientists are finding new answers all the time. Get ready for the children whose running feet make the energy to bring water to their village; for the power station that uses warm and cold water to make energy; for the car that saves energy by growing like a plant ...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Dinosaurs

Imagine an animal with teeth as big as bananas - and a brain as big as an orange. Or a flying animal with wings as wide as a small plane. Think about a tail that could knock a man's head off, or a mouth with hundreds of teeth. Is it any surprise that people are interested in dinosaurs?

Nobody has ever seen a living dinosaur, but millions of us go every year to stare at the bones of these enormous animals. In books, films and games, we can't get enough of the secrets of the dinosaur world ...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Dinosaurs Audio CD Pack

Imagine an animal with teeth as big as bananas - and a brain as big as an orange. Or a flying animal with wings as wide as a small plane. Think about a tail that could knock a man's head off, or a mouth with hundreds of teeth. Is it any surprise that people are interested in dinosaurs?

Nobody has ever seen a living dinosaur, but millions of us go every year to stare at the bones of these enormous animals. In books, films and games, we can't get enough of the secrets of the dinosaur world ...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Through the Looking-Glass Pack

Lewis Carroll
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 3 - Classics

'I wish I could get through into looking-glass house,' Alice said. 'Let's pretend that the glass has gone soft and . . . Why, I do believe it has! It's turning into a kind of cloud!'

A moment later Alice is inside the looking-glass world. There she finds herself part of a great game of chess, travelling through forests and jumping across brooks. The chess pieces talk and argue with her, give orders and repeat poems . . .

It is the strangest dream that anyone ever had . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Mysterious Death of Charles Bravo Audio CD Pack

Tim Vicary

STAGE 3 - True Stories

Charles Bravo died from the poison antimony. He took three days to die, and the doctors could do nothing to help him.

There were three people who had reasons for wanting Charles Bravo dead - Florence Bravo herself, Charles Bravo's new young wife; Dr James Gully, Florence's former lover; and Mrs Jane Cox, Florence's friend and companion.

But the enquiry into the death in 1876 could not decide who the murderer was, and for more than 130 years people have wondered who did kill Charles Bravo ...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Formula One Audio CD Pack

Alex Raynham

STAGE 3 - Factfiles (non-fiction)

It's an exciting life - full of fast cars, money, and travel. The names of Formula One champions are known all over the world. And everywhere young drivers dream of success one day in Monaco, Melbourne, Monza ...

But it is a difficult life too. Drivers need strong bodies - and minds. They need to think quickly, drive hard, and sometimes look death in the face. This is the dangerous, exciting world of Formula One - where the world's best drivers have only seconds to win or lose a race.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Mysterious Death of Charles Bravo

Tim Vicary

STAGE 3 - True Stories

Charles Bravo died from the poison antimony. He took three days to die, and the doctors could do nothing to help him.

There were three people who had reasons for wanting Charles Bravo dead - Florence Bravo herself, Charles Bravo's new young wife; Dr James Gully, Florence's former lover; and Mrs Jane Cox, Florence's friend and companion.

But the enquiry into the death in 1876 could not decide who the murderer was, and for more than 130 years people have wondered who did kill Charles Bravo ...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Formula One

Alex Raynham

STAGE 3 - Factfiles (non-fiction)

It's an exciting life - full of fast cars, money, and travel. The names of Formula One champions are known all over the world. And everywhere young drivers dream of success one day in Monaco, Melbourne, Monza ...

But it is a difficult life too. Drivers need strong bodies - and minds. They need to think quickly, drive hard, and sometimes look death in the face. This is the dangerous, exciting world of Formula One - where the world's best drivers have only seconds to win or lose a race.

• Where to order

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

Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 2 - World Stories

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.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Chocolate

Janet Hardy-Gould

You can drink it, and you can cook with it. You can even make buildings, dresses, and hats out of it. You can give it to somebody as a present, or you can buy it for yourself. And of course you can eat it. Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, chocolates with gold on the outside - everybody loves chocolate.

Follow its story, from the forests of Central America hundreds of years ago, through Africa, Europe, and the United States, to the growing markets of India and China. Perhaps you need a little something to eat while you read ...

• Where to order

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.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 World Wonders

Barnaby Newbolt

What are the most beautiful, the most interesting, the most wonderful things in the world? The Great Pyramid, the Great Wall of China, the Panama Canal - everyone has their favourites. And there are natural wonders too - Mount Everest, Niagara Falls, and the Northern Lights, for example.

Here is one person's choice of eleven wonders. Some of them are made by people, and others are natural. Everyone knows the Grand Canyon and the Great Barrier Reef - but what about the Iguazú Falls, or the old city of Petra? Come and discover new wonders ...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Red Dog

Louis de Bernières
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

Red Dog was a Red Cloud kelpie, an Australian sheepdog. His life was full of excitement and adventure. He travelled all over Western Australia, and never really had an owner. But he had many, many friends, and he always knew where to go for a good meal.

Louis de Bernières collected these stories about the life of a real dog in Western Australia. They are all true stories - some are funny, some are sad, but all are unforgettable. Everybody should have a friend like Red Dog.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Red Dog Audio CD Pack

Louis de Bernières
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

Red Dog was a Red Cloud kelpie, an Australian sheepdog. His life was full of excitement and adventure. He travelled all over Western Australia, and never really had an owner. But he had many, many friends, and he always knew where to go for a good meal.

Louis de Bernières collected these stories about the life of a real dog in Western Australia. They are all true stories - some are funny, some are sad, but all are unforgettable. Everybody should have a friend like Red Dog.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Marco Polo and the Silk Road Audio CD Pack

Janet Hardy-Gould

For a child in the great city of Venice in the thirteenth century, there could be nothing better than the stories of sailors. There were stories of strange animals, wonderful cities, sweet spices, and terrible wild deserts where a traveller could die.

One young boy listened, waited, and dreamed. Perhaps one day his father and uncle would return. Perhaps he too could travel with them to great markets in faraway places. For young Marco Polo, later the greatest traveller of his time, a dangerous, exciting world was waiting...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Everest Story

Tim Vicary

Stage 3 - Factfiles

It is beautiful to look at, hard to reach, and terribly difficult to climb. Winds of 200 kilometres per hour or more scream across it day and night, while the temperature falls to -20 °C or lower. Every year, some who try to climb the highest mountain in the world do not return.

But for a century people have been coming to climb Everest - some alone, some in groups, but all with a dream of going to the highest place in the world. This is their story.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Everest Story Audio CD Pack

Tim Vicary

Stage 3 - Factfiles

It is beautiful to look at, hard to reach, and terribly difficult to climb. Winds of 200 kilometres per hour or more scream across it day and night, while temperature falls to -20 °C or lower. Every year, some who try to climb the highest mountain in the world do not return.

But for a century people have been coming to climb Everest - some alone, some in groups, but all with a dream of going to the highests place in the world. This is their story.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Climate Change

Barnaby Newbolt

STAGE 2 - Factfiles

It's a terrible problem - or it's really not as bad as people say. There will be sudden big changes - or slower changes that we can learn to live with. It means the end for many animals, people, even whole islands - but will this happen soon, or hundreds of years from now?

What is the true story about climate change? Why is it happening, and what can we do about it? If we learn about the past, then perhaps there will be time to make changes for the future...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Climate Change Audio CD Pack

Barnaby Newbolt

STAGE 2 - Factfiles

It's a terrible problem - or it's really not as bad as people say. There will be sudden big changes - or slower changes that we can learn to live with. It means the end for many animals, people, even whole islands - but will this happen soon, or hundreds of years from now?

What is the true story about climate change? Why is it happening, and what can we do about it? If we learn about the past, then perhaps there will be time to make changes for the future...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Playing with Fire: Stories from the Pacific Rim Audio CD Pack

Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 3 - World Stories

He smiled, showing teeth yellow from cigarette smoke. He looked at his desk diary, then at her papers again. 'Mmm... a hundred pesos a month, Why, that's one thousand two hundred pesos a year. Surely, you can afford to buy me a forty-peso dinner!'

How can Marina say no? How can she refuse the Chief's next request? He is an evil man, but she needs her promotion...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Beautiful Game

Steve Flinders

STAGE 2 - Factfiles

Some call it football, some call it soccer, and to others it's 'the beautiful game'. By any name, it's a sport with some fascinating stories. There is murder in Colombia, and a game that lasts for two days where many players never see the ball. There's the French writer who learnt lessons about life from playing football, and the women players who had to leave the club grounds because 'Women's football isn't nice'.

The cups, the leagues, the World Cup finals, the stars, the rules - they're all part of the world's favourite sport, the beautiful game.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Beautiful Game Audio CD Pack

Steve Flinders

STAGE 2 - Factfiles

Some call it football, some call it soccer, and to others it's 'the beautiful game'. By any name, it's a sport with some fascinating stories. There is murder in Colombia, and a game that lasts for two days where many players never see the ball. There's the French writer who learnt lessons about life from playing football, and the women players who had to leave the club grounds because 'Women's football isn't nice'.

The cups, the leagues, the World Cup finals, the stars, the rules - they're all part of the world's favourite sport, the beautiful game.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Playing with Fire: Stories from the Pacific Rim

Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 3 - World Stories

He smiled, showing teeth yellow from cigarette smoke. He looked at his desk diary, then at her papers again. 'Mmm... a hundred pesos a month, Why, that's one thousand two hundred pesos a year. Surely, you can afford to buy me a forty-peso dinner!'

How can Marina say no? How can she refuse the Chief's next request? He is an evil man, but she needs her promotion...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Long White Cloud: Stories from New Zealand Audio CD Pack

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 from this volume of World Stories are by New Zealand writers James Courage, Witi Ihimaera, Philip Mincher, and Joy Cowley.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Changing their Skies: Stories from Africa Audio CD Pack

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.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Dancing with Strangers: Stories from Africa

Retold by Clare West

STAGE 3 - World Stories

'Sometimes I think this search is hopeless. So much has happened since I last saw my friends. Perhaps they have died or the rebels have taken them away. But I know I have to find Laker. I know she needs me.'

In a country torn by war, it is easy to stop hoping. All Atita has is an old photograph. She does not even know if she will recognize Laker after all these years . . .

The stories in this volume of World Stories are by African writers Jackee Budesta Batanda, Jack Cope, Mandla Langa, and M. G. Vassanji.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Dancing with Strangers: Stories from Africa Audio CD Pack

Retold by Clare West

STAGE 3 - World Stories

'Sometimes I think this search is hopeless. So much has happened since I last saw my friends. Perhaps they have died or the rebels have taken them away. But I know I have to find Laker. I know she needs me.'

In a country torn by war, it is easy to stop hoping. All Atita has is an old photograph. She does not even know if she will recognize Laker after all these years . . .

The stories in this volume of World Stories are by African writers Jackee Budesta Batanda, Jack Cope, Mandla Langa, and M. G. Vassanji.

• Where to order

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.

• Where to order

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.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Seasons and Celebrations Audio CD Pack

Jackie Maguire

STAGE 2 - Factfiles

In English-speaking countries around the world people celebrate Easter, Valentine's Day, Christmas, and other special days. Some celebrations are new, like Remembrance Day and Mother's Day; others, like the summer solstice, go back thousands of years.

What happens on these special days? What do people eat, where do they go, what do they do? Why is there a special day for eating pancakes? Who is the 'guy' that children take onto the streets in November? And where do many people like to spend the shortest night of the year in England?

Come on a journey through a year of celebrations, from New Year's Eve to Christmas.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Australia and New Zealand

Christine Lindop

STAGE 3 - Factfiles

What do you find in these two countries at the end of the world? One is an enormous island, where only twenty million people live - and the other is two long, narrow islands, with ten sheep for every person. One country has the biggest rock in all the world, and a town where everybody lives under the ground; the other has a beach where you can sit beside the sea in a pool of hot water, and lakes that are bright yellow, green, and blue.

Open this book and start your journey - to two countries where something strange, beautiful or surprising waits around every corner.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Australia and New Zealand Audio CD Pack

Christine Lindop

STAGE 3 - Factfiles

What do you find in these two countries at the end of the world? One is an enormous island, where only twenty million people live - and the other is two long, narrow islands, with ten sheep for every person. One country has the biggest rock in all the world, and a town where everybody lives under the ground; the other has a beach where you can sit beside the sea in a pool of hot water, and lakes that are bright yellow, green, and blue.

Open this book and start your journey - to two countries where something strange, beautiful or surprising waits around every corner.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Rainforests Audio CD Pack

Rowena Akinyemi

STAGE 2 - Factfiles

Deep rivers, tall trees, strange animals, beautiful flowers - this is the rainforest. Burning trees, thick smoke, new roads and cities, dead animals, people without homes - this is the rainforest too. To some people the rainforests mean beautiful places that you can visit; to others they mean trees that they can cut down and sell.

Between 1950 and 2000 half of the world's rainforests disappeared. While you read these words, somewhere in the world people are cutting down rainforest trees. What are these wonderful places that we call rainforests - and is it too late to save them?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 On the Edge

Gillian Cross
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 3 - Thriller & Adventure

When Tug wakes up, he is not in his own bedroom at home. The door is locked and there are bars across the window. Loud music hammers through the house and through his head. Then a woman comes in and says that she is his mother, but Tug knows that she is not his mother . . .

Outside, Jinny stares through the trees at the lonely house on the hill. She hears strange noises, but she turns away. After all, it's none of her business . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Ireland Audio CD Pack

Tim Vicary

STAGE 2 - Factfiles

There are many different Irelands. There is the Ireland of peaceful rivers, green fields, and beautiful islands. There is the Ireland of song and dance, pubs and theatres - the country of James Joyce, Bob Geldof, and Riverdance. And there is the Ireland of guns, fighting, death, and the hope of peace. Come with us and visit all of these Irelands - and many more . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Year of Sharing Audio CD Pack

Harry Gilbert

STAGE 2 - Fantasy & Horror

Richard is bored with the quiet life of his village. He would like to have a motor-car and drive it . . . very fast. But Richard lives in a future world where there are no cars, only bicycles and small villages and green forests.

And now he is twelve years old, and like the other children, he must do his Year of Sharing. He must live alone in the forest with the wild animals. He must learn to share his world; he must learn how animals live and eat and fight . . . and die.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 A Pair of Ghostly Hands and Other Stories

Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 3 - Fantasy & Horror

If you wake up in the night and hear a tap running somewhere in the house, what do you do? You get up, of course, and go and turn the tap off. A little later you hear the tap running again. You are alone in the house, and you know you turned the tap off. What do you do then?

The ghosts in these stories all have unfinished business with the living world. They come back from the grave to continue their work, to keep a promise, to look for something they have lost. Sometimes they want to help people, sometimes they want to punish them - or kill them.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 As the Inspector Said and Other Stories

Retold by John Escott

STAGE 3 - Crime & Mystery

The murder plan seems so neat, so clever. How can it possibly fail? And when Sonia's stupid, boring little husband is dead, she will be free to marry her handsome lover. But perhaps the boring little husband is not so stupid after all . . .

Murder plans that go wrong, a burglar who makes a bad mistake, a famous jewel thief who meets a very unusual detective . . . These five stories from the golden age of crime writing are full of mystery and surprises.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 As the Inspector Said and Other Stories Audio CD Pack

Retold by John Escott

STAGE 3 - Crime & Mystery

The murder plan seems so neat, so clever. How can it possibly fail? And when Sonia's stupid, boring little husband is dead, she will be free to marry her handsome lover. But perhaps the boring little husband is not so stupid after all . . .

Murder plans that go wrong, a burglar who makes a bad mistake, a famous jewel thief who meets a very unusual detective . . . These five stories from the golden age of crime writing are full of mystery and surprises.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Ethan Frome

Edith Wharton
Retold by Susan Kingsley

STAGE 3 - Classics

Life is always hard for the poor, in any place and at any time. Ethan Frome is a farmer in Massachusetts. He works long hours every day, but his farm makes very little money. His wife, Zeena, is a thin, grey woman, always complaining, and only interested in her own ill health.

Then Mattie Silver, a young cousin, comes to live with the Fromes, to help Zeena and do the housework. Her bright smile and laughing voice bring light and hope into the Fromes' house - and into Ethan's lonely life.

But poverty is a prison from which few people escape . . .

• Where to order

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?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Goldfish

Raymond Chandler
Retold by Christine Lindop

STAGE 3 - Crime & Mystery

The Leander pearls were stolen nineteen years ago. The thief was caught, but the pearls were never found, and there is still a $25,000 reward for anyone who finds them. Then somebody comes to private detective Carmady with a story about a guy who knows where the pearls are hidden.

Carmady agrees to talk to the guy who says he knows. But he finds him dead in his bed, with burned feet, and it seems there are quite a lot of people in Los Angeles who have heard the story, and who are out looking for the Leander pearls . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Information Technology Audio CD Pack

Paul A. Davies

STAGE 3 - Factfiles

It is hard to imagine the modern world without information technology. At home, at work, and at play, mobile phones, emails and computers have become part of daily life.

The story of information technology is a story of machines - from the ancient abacus to the small powerful computer chips of today. But it is also a story of people. Meet a woman who wrote computer programs two hundred years ago, a teenage millionaire, a man who began with a paperclip and ended with a house - and the criminals who want your name and your money.

Come and discover the world of information technology.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Martin Luther King Audio CD Pack

Alan C. McLean

STAGE 3 - Factfiles

The United States in the 1950s and 60s was a troubled place. Black people were angry, because they did not have the same rights as whites. It was a time of angry words, of marches, of protests, a time of bombs and killings.

But above the angry noise came the voice of one man - a man of peace. 'I have a dream,' said Martin Luther King, and it was a dream of blacks and whites living together in peace and freedom. This is the story of an extraordinary man, who changed American history in his short life.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Recycling Audio CD Pack

Sue Stewart

STAGE 3 - Factfiles

What will we do when there is nowhere to put our rubbish? Every day, all over the world, people drop cans, boxes, paper, and bottles into bins and never think about them again. And the rubbish mountains get bigger and bigger.

But there is another way - a way that makes old paper into houses, broken bottles into jewellery, and old cans into bridges. Anyone can recycle - it's easy, it saves money, and it's a way to say, 'I care about the Earth.' Saving the world starts with you - here - now.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Brontë Story

Tim Vicary

STAGE 3 - True Stories

On a September day in 1821, in the church of a Yorkshire village, a man and six children stood around a grave. They were burying a woman: the man's wife, the children's mother. The children were all very young, and within a few years the two oldest were dead, too.

Close to the wild beauty of the Yorkshire moors, the father brought up his young family. Who had heard of the Brontës of Haworth then? Branwell died young, but his sisters became famous writers.

But they did not live to grow old or to enjoy their fame. Only their father was left, alone with his memories.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Card

Arnold Bennett
Retold by Nick Bullard

STAGE 3 - Human Interest

Every town should have a 'card' - someone who gets talked about, someone who does mad and wonderful things, someone who makes you laugh.

Bursley in the Five Towns has a 'card': Edward Henry Machin (Denry for short). Denry begins life in a poor little house where the rent is twenty-three pence a week. But before he's thirty, he's made a lot of money, and had more adventures than you and I have had hot dinners. The town of Bursley never stops talking about him. Whatever will young Denry do next?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Last Sherlock Holmes Story Audio CD Pack

Michael Dibdin
Retold by Rosalie Kerr

STAGE 3 - Crime & Mystery

For fifty years after Dr Watson's death, a packet of papers, written by the doctor himself, lay hidden in a locked box. The papers contained an extraordinary report of the case of Jack the Ripper and the horrible murders in the East End of London in 1888. The detective, of course, was the great Sherlock Holmes - but why was the report kept hidden for so long?

This is the story that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never wrote. It is a strange and frightening tale . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The USA Audio CD Pack

Alison Baxter

STAGE 3 - Factfiles

Everybody knows about the United States of America. You can see its films, hear its music, and eat its food just about everywhere in the world. Cowboys, jazz, hamburgers, the Stars and Stripes - that's the United States.

But it's a country with many stories to tell. Stories of busy cities, and quiet, beautiful forests and parks. Stories of a country that fought against Britain, and then against itself, to make the United States of today. Stories of rich and poor, black and white, Native American and immigrant. And the story of what it is really like to be an American today . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 'Who, Sir? Me, Sir?'

K. M. Peyton
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 3 - Human Interest

Sam Sylvester is a teacher who wants his class to have ambition, and to do great things in life. So he enters them for a sporting competition against the rich students of Greycoats School.

The team that he has chosen for the competition think Sam has gone crazy. 'Who, Sir? Me, Sir?' says little Hoomey, his eyes round with horror. 'We'll never beat Greycoats,' the others cry. 'Never in a million years!'

But you don't know what you can do - until you try . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Wyatt's Hurricane

Desmond Bagley
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 3 - Thriller & Adventure

Hurricane Mabel is far out in the Atlantic Ocean and moving slowly northwards. Perhaps it will never come near land at all. But if it hits the island of San Fernandez, many thousands of people will die. There could be winds of more than 250 kilometres an hour. There could be a huge tidal wave from the sea, which will drown the capital city of St Pierre. Mabel will destroy houses, farms, roads, bridges . . .

Only one man, David Wyatt, believes that Mabel will hit San Fernandez, but nobody will listen to him . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Moondial

Helen Cresswell
Retold by John Escott

STAGE 3 - Fantasy & Horror

'Moondial!' As Minty spoke the word, a cold wind went past her, and her ears were filled with a thousand frightened voices. She shut her eyes and put her hands over her ears - and the voices and the wind went away. Minty opened her eyes . . . and knew that she was in a different morning, not the one she had woken up to.

And so Minty's strange adventure begins - a journey through time into the past, where she finds Tom, and Sarah . . . and the evil Miss Vole.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Crown of Violet

Geoffrey Trease
Retold by John Escott

STAGE 3 - Thriller & Adventure

High up on a stone seat in the great open-air theatre of Athens, Alexis, son of Leon, watches the Festival of Plays - and dreams of seeing his own play on that famous stage.

So, as the summer passes, Alexis writes his play for the next year's Festival. But then, with his friend Corinna, he learns that Athens has enemies - enemies who do not like Athenian democracy, and who are planning a revolution to end it all . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Star Zoo

Harry Gilbert

STAGE 3 - Fantasy & Horror

In our world today a hummingbird is a small, brilliantly coloured bird that lives in the tall trees of tropical forests.

In the far distant future, Hummingbird (Hummy for short) is a girl of sixteen who lives somewhere in the Galaxy, on a planet called Just Like Home. She has the name 'Hummingbird' in big letters on all her clothes, but she has never seen a real hummingbird. She has never seen any living animal or bird at all. The Book of Remembering says that there were once many animals on a planet called Earth, but that was before the Burning, a long, long time ago . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Three Strangers and Other Stories

Thomas Hardy
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 3 - Classics

On a stormy winter night, a stranger knocks at the door of a shepherd's cottage. He is cold and hungry, and wants to get out of the rain. He is welcomed inside, but he does not give his name or his business. Who is he, and where has he come from? And he is only the first visitor to call at the cottage that night . . .

In these three short stories, Thomas Hardy gives us pictures of the lives of shepherds and hangmen, dukes and teachers. But rich or poor, young or old, they all have the same feelings of fear, hope, love, jealousy . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Wind in the Willows

Kenneth Grahame
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 3 - Classics

Down by the river bank, where the wind whispers through the willow trees, is a very pleasant place to have a lunch party with a few friends. But life is not always so peaceful for the Mole and the Water Rat. There is the time, for example, when Toad gets interested in motor-cars - goes mad about them in fact . . .

The story of the adventures of Mole, Rat, Badger, and Toad has been loved by young and old for over a hundred years.

• Where to order

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.

• Where to order

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.

• Where to order

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?

• Where to order

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.

• Where to order

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.

• Where to order

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.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Tales from Longpuddle Audio CD Pack

Thomas Hardy
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 2 - Classics

Tony Kytes is a favourite with the girls but he's not terribly clever. If you meet an old girlfriend and she asks for a ride home in your wagon, do you say yes? And then if you meet the girl you are planning to marry, what do you do? Very soon, Tony is in a great muddle, and does not know how to escape from it.

These stories are set in an English country village of the nineteenth century, but Hardy's tales of mistakes and muddles and marriages belong in any place, at any time.

• Where to order

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 2 William Shakespeare

Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 2 - True Stories

William Shakespeare. Born April 1564, at Stratford-upon-Avon. Died April 1616. Married Anne Hathaway: two daughters, one son. Actor, poet, famous playwright. Wrote nearly forty plays.

But what was he like as a man? What did he think about when he rode into London for the first time . . . or when he was writing his plays Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet . . . or when his only son died?

We know the facts of his life, but we can only guess at his hopes, his fears, his dreams.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Justice

Tim Vicary

STAGE 3 - Thriller & Adventure

London: November.

Terrorists blow up the Queen's coach outside Parliament. The Queen escapes, but five people are killed, and forty others badly hurt - ordinary, innocent people, like Alan Cole, the Queen's coachman, who loses his leg in the bombing. And for Alan and his daughter Jane there is more terror to come, in the search for the truth behind the bombing. Will the terrorists be caught and brought to justice?

But what kind of justice? What can give Alan Cole his leg back, or give life back to people who have been blown to pieces by a bomb?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Last Sherlock Holmes Story

Michael Dibdin
Retold by Rosalie Kerr

STAGE 3 - Crime & Mystery

For fifty years after Dr Watson's death, a packet of papers, written by the doctor himself, lay hidden in a locked box. The papers contained an extraordinary report of the case of Jack the Ripper and the horrible murders in the East End of London in 1888. The detective, of course, was the great Sherlock Holmes - but why was the report kept hidden for so long?

This is the story that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never wrote. It is a strange and frightening tale . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Railway Children

Edith Nesbit
Retold by John Escott

STAGE 3 - Human Interest

'We have to leave our house in London,' Mother said to the children. 'We're going to live in the country, in a little house near a railway line.'

And so begins a new life for Roberta, Peter, and Phyllis. They become the railway children - they know all the trains, Perks the station porter is their best friend, and they have many adventures on the railway line.

But why has their father had to go away? Where is he, and will he ever come back?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Tooth and Claw

Saki
Retold by Rosemary Border

STAGE 3 - Human Interest

Conradin is ten years old. He lives alone with his aunt. He has two big secrets. The first is that he hates his aunt. The second is that he keeps a small, wild animal in the garden shed. The animal has sharp, white teeth, and it loves fresh blood. Every night, Conradin prays to this animal and asks it to do one thing for him, just one thing.

This collection of short stories is clever, funny, and shows us 'Nature, red in tooth and claw'. In other words, it is Saki at his very best.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Agatha Christie, Woman of Mystery Audio CD Pack

John Escott

STAGE 2 - True Stories

What does the name 'Agatha Christie' mean? To many people, it means a book about a murder mystery - a 'whodunnit'. 'I'm reading an Agatha Christie,' people say. 'I'm not sure who the murderer is - I think it's . . .' But they are usually wrong, because it is not easy to guess the murderer's name before the end of the book.

But who was Agatha Christie? What was she like? Was her life quiet and unexciting, or was it full of interest and adventure? Was there a mystery in her life, too?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Ear-rings from Frankfurt

Reg Wright

STAGE 2 - Thriller & Adventure

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.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Love among the Haystacks

D.H. Lawrence
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 2 - Classics

It is hay-making time on the Wookey farm. Two brothers are building the haystack, but thinking about other things - about young women, and love. There are angry words, and then a fight between the brothers. But the work goes on, visitors come and go, and the long hot summer day slowly turns to evening.

Then the sun goes down, covering the world with a carpet of darkness. From the hedges around the hayfield comes the rich, sweet smell of wild flowers, and the hay will make a fine, soft bed . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Love among the Haystacks Audio CD Pack

D.H. Lawrence
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 2 - Classics

It is hay-making time on the Wookey farm. Two brothers are building the haystack, but thinking about other things - about young women, and love. There are angry words, and then a fight between the brothers. But the work goes on, visitors come and go, and the long hot summer day slowly turns to evening.

Then the sun goes down, covering the world with a carpet of darkness. From the hedges around the hayfield comes the rich, sweet smell of wild flowers, and the hay will make a fine, soft bed . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Matty Doolin

Catherine Cookson
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

Matty is fifteen and is leaving school in a few weeks' time. He wants to work with animals, and would like to get a job on a farm. But his parents say he's too young to leave home - he must stay in the town and get a job in ship-building, like his father. They also say he can't go on a camping holiday with his friends. And they say he can't keep his dog, Nelson, because Nelson barks all day and eats his father's shoes.

But it is because of Nelson that Matty finds a new life . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Stories from the Five Towns

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.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Tales from Longpuddle

Thomas Hardy
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 2 - Classics

Tony Kytes is a favourite with the girls but he's not terribly clever. If you meet an old girlfriend and she asks for a ride home in your wagon, do you say yes? And then if you meet the girl you are planning to marry, what do you do? Very soon, Tony is in a great muddle, and does not know how to escape from it.

These stories are set in an English country village of the nineteenth century, but Hardy's tales of mistakes and muddles and marriages belong in any place, at any time.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Children of the New Forest

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 Jungle Book Audio CD Pack

Rudyard Kipling
Retold by Ralph Mowat

STAGE 2 - Classics

In the jungle of Southern India the Seeonee Wolf-Pack has a new cub. He is not a wolf - he is Mowgli, a human child, but he knows nothing of the world of men. He lives and hunts with his brothers the wolves. Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther are his friends and teachers. And Shere Khan, the man-eating tiger, is his enemy.

Kipling's famous story of Mowgli's adventures in the jungle has been loved by young and old for more than a hundred years.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Murders in the Rue Morgue

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 Year of Sharing

Harry Gilbert

STAGE 2 - Fantasy & Horror

Richard is bored with the quiet life of his village. He would like to have a motor-car and drive it . . . very fast. But Richard lives in a future world where there are no cars, only bicycles and small villages and green forests.

And now he is twelve years old, and like the other children, he must do his Year of Sharing. He must live alone in the forest with the wild animals. He must learn to share his world; he must learn how animals live and eat and fight . . . and die.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Too Old to Rock and Roll and Other Stories

Jan Mark
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

Greg is a teenager with a problem - his father. After the death of Greg's mother in an accident, his father takes no interest in life at all. Greg tries hard to help him. His father is too old to rock and roll, of course . . . or is he?

These short stories by Jan Mark look at life, love, and friendship through teenagers' eyes.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Kidnapped

The Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751

Robert Louis Stevenson
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 3 - Thriller & Adventure

'I ran to the side of the ship. "Help, help! Murder!" I screamed, and my uncle slowly turned to look at me. I did not see any more. Already strong hands were pulling me away. Then something hit my head; I saw a great flash of fire, and fell to the ground . . .'

And so begin David Balfour's adventures. He is kidnapped, taken to sea, and meets many dangers. He also meets a friend, Alan Breck. But Alan is in danger himself, on the run from the English army across the wild Highlands of Scotland . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Through the Looking-Glass

Lewis Carroll
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 3 - Classics

'I wish I could get through into looking-glass house,' Alice said. 'Let's pretend that the glass has gone soft and . . . Why, I do believe it has! It's turning into a kind of cloud!'

A moment later Alice is inside the looking-glass world. There she finds herself part of a great game of chess, travelling through forests and jumping across brooks. The chess pieces talk and argue with her, give orders and repeat poems . . .

It is the strangest dream that anyone ever had . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 A Stranger at Green Knowe

Lucy M. Boston
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

When Ping sees Hanno in the zoo, he is excited, but also unhappy. Hanno is a magnificent African gorilla, big and black and much stronger than a man. But how can this wonderful wild animal live in a cage, behind bars and locked doors?

Then Hanno escapes from the zoo. And a few days later his footprints are seen near Green Knowe, the old house deep in the English countryside where Ping is spending his holiday . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Agatha Christie, Woman of Mystery

John Escott

STAGE 2 - True Stories

What does the name 'Agatha Christie' mean? To many people, it means a book about a murder mystery - a 'whodunnit'. 'I'm reading an Agatha Christie,' people say. 'I'm not sure who the murderer is - I think it's . . .' But they are usually wrong, because it is not easy to guess the murderer's name before the end of the book.

But who was Agatha Christie? What was she like? Was her life quiet and unexciting, or was it full of interest and adventure? Was there a mystery in her life, too?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 2 - Classics

There, on top of the mushroom, was a large caterpillar, smoking a pipe. After a while the Caterpillar took the pipe out of its mouth and said to Alice in a slow, sleepy voice, 'Who are you?'

What strange things happen when Alice falls down the rabbit-hole and into Wonderland! She has conversations with the Caterpillar and the Cheshire Cat, goes to the Mad Hatter's tea party, plays croquet with the King and Queen of Hearts . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Audio CD Pack

Lewis Carroll
Retold by Jenifer Bassett

STAGE 2 - Classics

There, on top of the mushroom, was a large caterpillar, smoking a pipe. After a while the Caterpillar took the pipe out of its mouth and said to Alice in a slow, sleepy voice, 'Who are you?'

What strange things happen when Alice falls down the rabbit-hole and into Wonderland! She has conversations with the Caterpillar and the Cheshire Cat, goes to the Mad Hatter's tea party, plays croquet with the King and Queen of Hearts . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Cries from the Heart: Stories from Around the World Audio CD Pack

Retold by Jenifer Bassett

STAGE 2 - World Stories

From Botswana to New Zealand, from Jamaica to Nigeria, from Uganda to Malaysia, from India to South Africa, these moving stories show us that the human heart is the same in every place. Fear and pain, happiness and sadness belong to us all.

These eight stories were winning entries in the 2004 Commonwealth Short Story Competition. The writers are Sefi Atta, Adrienne M. Frater, Lauri Kubuitsile, Erica N. Robinson, Jackee Budesta Batanda, Janet Tay Hui Ching, Anuradha Muralidharan, and Tod Collins.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Dead Man's Island Audio CD Pack

John Escott

STAGE 2 - Thriller & Adventure

Mr Ross lives on an island where no visitors come. He stops people from taking photographs of him. He is young and rich, but he looks sad. And there is one room in his house which is always locked.

Carol Sanders and her mother come to the island to work for Mr Ross. Carol soon decides that there is something very strange about Mr Ross. Where did he get his money from? How can a young man buy an island? So she watches, and she listens - and one night she learns what is behind the locked door.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Death in the Freezer Audio CD Pack

Tim Vicary

STAGE 2 - Crime & Mystery

Ellen Shore's family is an ordinary American family, and Ellen is six years old when her brother Al is born. Her parents are very pleased to have a son, but Ellen is not pleased, because now baby Al comes first.

And when they are adults, Al still comes first. He begins a rock band and makes records. Soon he is rich and famous - very rich, but he gives nothing to his sister Ellen. She has a difficult life, with three young kids and very little money. And she learns to hate her rich, famous, unkind brother...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Five Children and It

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 . . .

• Where to order

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 . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Grace Darling

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.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Hamlet

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?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 One Thousand Dollars and Other Plays

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.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Return to Earth

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.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Romeo and Juliet Audio CD Pack

William Shakespeare
Retold by Alistair McCallum

STAGE 2 - Playscripts

This is the most famous of all Shakespeare's plays - a story of passionate young love.

What's in a name? Does it really matter if you are called Montague or Capulet? When Romeo, son of Lord and Lady Montague, falls in love with the most beautiful girl he's ever seen, he finds out that it does matter. It makes all the difference in the world, because both families hate each other bitterly.

For a time, Romeo and Juliet manage to keep their love secret. But when Romeo is sent away from Verona, and arrangements are made for Juliet to marry Paris, a friend of her father's, hope begins to die. Can any of their friends help the young lovers to be together for ever?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Importance of Being Earnest

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 Mystery of Allegra

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

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 3 Information Technology

Paul A. Davies

STAGE 3 - Factfiles

It is hard to imagine the modern world without information technology. At home, at work, and at play, mobile phones, emails and computers have become part of daily life.

The story of information technology is a story of machines - from the ancient abacus to the small powerful computer chips of today. But it is also a story of people. Meet a woman who wrote computer programs two hundred years ago, a teenage millionaire, a man who began with a paperclip and ended with a house - and the criminals who want your name and your money.

Come and discover the world of information technology.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Martin Luther King

Alan C. McLean

STAGE 3 - Factfiles

The United States in the 1950s and 60s was a troubled place. Black people were angry, because they did not have the same rights as whites. It was a time of angry words, of marches, of protests, a time of bombs and killings.

But above the angry noise came the voice of one man - a man of peace. 'I have a dream,' said Martin Luther King, and it was a dream of blacks and whites living together in peace and freedom. This is the story of an extraordinary man, who changed American history in his short life.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Rabbit-Proof Fence

Doris Pilkington Garimara
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 3 - True Stories

Fourteen-year-old Molly and her cousins Daisy and Gracie were mixed-race Aborigines. In 1931 they were taken away from their families and sent to a camp to be trained as good 'white' Australians. They were told to forget their mothers, their language, their home.

But Molly would not forget. She and her cousins escaped and walked back to Jigalong, 1600 kilometres away, following the rabbit-proof fence north as part of their guide across the desert.

This is the true stoy of that walk, told by Molly's daughter, Doris. It is also a prize-winning film.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Recycling

Sue Stewart

STAGE 3 - Factfiles

What will we do when there is nowhere to put our rubbish? Every day, all over the world, people drop cans, boxes, paper, and bottles into bins and never think about them again. And the rubbish mountains get bigger and bigger.

But there is another way - a way that makes old paper into houses, broken bottles into jewellery, and old cans into bridges. Anyone can recycle - it's easy, it saves money, and it's a way to say, 'I care about the Earth.' Saving the world starts with you - here - now.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The USA

Alison Baxter

STAGE 3 - Factfiles

Everybody knows about the United States of America. You can see its films, hear its music, and eat its food just about everywhere in the world. Cowboys, jazz, hamburgers, the Stars and Stripes - that's the United States.

But it's a country with many stories to tell. Stories of busy cities, and quiet, beautiful forests and parks. Stories of a country that fought against Britain, and then against itself, to make the United States of today. Stories of rich and poor, black and white, Native American and immigrant. And the story of what it is really like to be an American today . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Cries from the Heart: Stories from Around the World

Retold by Jenifer Bassett

STAGE 2 - World Stories

From Botswana to New Zealand, from Jamaica to Nigeria, from Uganda to Malaysia, from India to South Africa, these moving stories show us that the human heart is the same in every place. Fear and pain, happiness and sadness belong to us all.

These eight stories were winning entries in the 2004 Commonwealth Short Story Competition. The writers are Sefi Atta, Adrienne M. Frater, Lauri Kubuitsile, Erica N. Robinson, Jackee Budesta Batanda, Janet Tay Hui Ching, Anuradha Muralidharan, and Tod Collins.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Death in the Freezer

Tim Vicary

STAGE 2 - Crime & Mystery

Ellen Shore's family is an ordinary American family, and Ellen is six years old when her brother Al is born. Her parents are very pleased to have a son, but Ellen is not pleased, because now baby Al comes first.

And when they are adults, Al still comes first. He begins a rock band and makes records. Soon he is rich and famous - very rich, but he gives nothing to his sister Ellen. She has a difficult life, with three young kids and very little money. And she learns to hate her rich, famous, unkind brother...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Much Ado About Nothing

William Shakespeare
Retold by Alistair McCallum

STAGE 2 - Playscripts

There are two love stories in this fast-moving comedy. Brave young Claudio and Leonato's pretty daughter Hero are in love and want to marry, but Don John has a wicked plan to stop their wedding. Will he succeed, or will the truth come out? Will Claudio and Hero marry, after all?

Beatrice and Benedick are always arguing with each other, but how do they really feel? Perhaps they are more interested in each other than they seem to be! Their friends work hard to bring them closer together.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Much Ado About Nothing Audio CD Pack

William Shakespeare
Retold by Alistair McCallum

STAGE 2 - Playscripts

There are two love stories in this fast-moving comedy. Brave young Claudio and Leonato's pretty daughter Hero are in love and want to marry, but Don John has a wicked plan to stop their wedding. Will he succeed, or will the truth come out? Will Claudio and Hero marry, after all?

Beatrice and Benedick are always arguing with each other, but how do they really feel? Perhaps they are more interested in each other than they seem to be! Their friends work hard to bring them closer together.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 New Yorkers - Short Stories Audio CD Pack (American English)

O. Henry
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

A housewife, a tramp, a lawyer, a waitress, an actress - ordinary people living ordinary lives in New York at the beginning of this century. The city has changed greatly since that time, but its people are much the same. Some are rich, some are poor, some are happy, some are sad, some have found love, some are looking for love.

O. Henry's famous short stories - sensitive, funny, sympathetic - give us vivid pictures of the everyday lives of these New Yorkers.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Rainforests

Rowena Akinyemi

STAGE 2 - Factfiles

Deep rivers, tall trees, strange animals, beautiful flowers - this is the rainforest. Burning trees, thick smoke, new roads and cities, dead animals, people without homes - this is the rainforest too. To some people the rainforests mean beautiful places that you can visit; to others they mean trees that they can cut down and sell.

Between 1950 and 2000 half of the world's rainforests disappeared. While you read these words, somewhere in the world people are cutting down rainforest trees. What are these wonderful places that we call rainforests - and is it too late to save them?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Robinson Crusoe Audio CD Pack

Daniel Defoe
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 2 - Classics

'I often walked along the shore, and one day I saw something in the sand. I went over to look at it more carefully . . . It was a footprint - the footprint of a man!'

In 1659 Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked on a small island off the coast of South America. After fifteen years alone, he suddenly learns that there is another person on the island. But will this man be a friend - or an enemy?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare
Retold by Alistair McCallum

STAGE 2 - Playscripts

This is the most famous of all Shakespeare's plays - a story of passionate young love.

What's in a name? Does it really matter if you are called Montague or Capulet? When Romeo, son of Lord and Lady Montague, falls in love with the most beautiful girl he's ever seen, he finds out that it does matter. It makes all the difference in the world, because both families hate each other bitterly.

For a time, Romeo and Juliet manage to keep their love secret. But when Romeo is sent away from Verona, and arrangements are made for Juliet to marry Paris, a friend of her father's, hope begins to die. Can any of their friends help the young lovers to be together for ever?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Seasons and Celebrations

Jackie Maguire

STAGE 2 - Factfiles

In English-speaking countries around the world people celebrate Easter, Valentine's Day, Christmas, and other special days. Some celebrations are new, like Remembrance Day and Mother's Day; others, like the summer solstice, go back thousands of years.

What happens on these special days? What do people eat, where do they go, what do they do? Why is there a special day for eating pancakes? Who is the 'guy' that children take onto the streets in November? And where do many people like to spend the shortest night of the year in England?

Come on a journey through a year of celebrations, from New Year's Eve to Christmas.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Love of a King

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 Voodoo Island

Michael Duckworth

STAGE 2 - Fantasy & Horror

Mr James Conway wants to make money. He wants to build new houses and shops - and he wants to build them on an old graveyard, on the island of Haiti.

There is only one old man who still visits the graveyard; and Mr Conway is not afraid of one old man.

But the old man has friends - friends in the graveyard, friends who lie dead, under the ground. And when Mr Conway starts to build his houses, he makes the terrible mistake of disturbing the sleep of the dead . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Bestseller Pack

Pack contains one copy of each of the following ten titles:

The Call of the Wild
Chemical Secret
A Christmas Carol
Frankenstein
Love Story
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Prisoner of Zenda
The Secret Garden
Skyjack!
Tales of Mystery and Imagination

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Anne of Green Gables Audio CD Pack

L.M. Montgomery
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

Marilla Cuthbert and her brother Matthew want to adopt an orphan, to help on the farm at Green Gables. They ask for a boy, but they get Anne, who has red hair and freckles, and who talks and talks and talks.

They didn't want a girl, but how can they send a child back, like an unwanted parcel? So Anne stays, and begins a new life in the sleepy, quiet village of Avonlea in Canada.

But it is not so quiet after Anne comes to live there . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Dead Man's Island

John Escott

STAGE 2 - Thriller & Adventure

Mr Ross lives on an island where no visitors come. He stops people from taking photographs of him. He is young and rich, but he looks sad. And there is one room in his house which is always locked.

Carol Sanders and her mother come to the island to work for Mr Ross. Carol soon decides that there is something very strange about Mr Ross. Where did he get his money from? How can a young man buy an island? So she watches, and she listens - and one night she learns what is behind the locked door.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Dracula Audio CD Pack

Bram Stoker
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 2 - Fantasy & Horror

In the mountains of Transylvania there stands a castle. It is the home of Count Dracula - a dark, lonely place, and at night the wolves howl around the walls.

In the year 1875 Jonathan Harker comes from England to do business with the Count. But Jonathan does not feel comfortable at Castle Dracula. Strange things happen at night, and very soon, he begins to feel afraid. And he is right to be afraid, because Count Dracula is one of the Un-Dead - a vampire that drinks the blood of living people . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Henry VIII and his Six Wives Audio CD Pack

Janet Hardy-Gould

STAGE 2 - True Stories

There were six of them - three Katherines, two Annes, and a Jane. One of them was the King's wife for twenty-four years, another for only a year and a half. One died, two were divorced, and two were beheaded. It was a dangerous, uncertain life.

After the King's death in 1547, his sixth wife finds a box of old letters - one from each of the first five wives. They are sad, angry, frightened letters. They tell the story of what it was like to be the wife of Henry VIII of England.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Huckleberry Finn Audio CD Pack

Mark Twain
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 2 - Classics

Who wants to live in a house, wear clean clothes, be good, and go to school every day? Not young Huckleberry Finn, that's for sure.

So Huck runs away, and is soon floating down the great Mississippi River on a raft. With him is Jim, a black slave who is also running away. But life is not always easy for the two friends.

And there's 300 dollars waiting for anyone who catches poor Jim . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Ireland

Tim Vicary

STAGE 2 - Factfiles

There are many different Irelands. There is the Ireland of peaceful rivers, green fields, and beautiful islands. There is the Ireland of song and dance, pubs and theatres - the country of James Joyce, Bob Geldof, and Riverdance. And there is the Ireland of guns, fighting, death, and the hope of peace. Come with us and visit all of these Irelands - and many more . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 New Yorkers - Short Stories Audio CD Pack (British English)

O. Henry
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

A housewife, a tramp, a lawyer, a waitress, an actress - ordinary people living ordinary lives in New York at the beginning of this century. The city has changed greatly since that time, but its people are much the same. Some are rich, some are poor, some are happy, some are sad, some have found love, some are looking for love.

O. Henry's famous short stories - sensitive, funny, sympathetic - give us vivid pictures of the everyday lives of these New Yorkers.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Sherlock Holmes Short Stories Audio CD Pack

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 2 - Crime & Mystery

Sherlock Holmes is the greatest detective of them all. He sits in his room, and smokes his pipe. He listens, and watches, and thinks. He listens to the steps coming up the stairs; he watches the door opening - and he knows what question the stranger will ask.

In these three of his best stories, Holmes has three visitors to the famous flat in Baker Street - visitors who bring their troubles to the only man in the world who can help them.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Canterville Ghost Audio CD Pack

Oscar Wilde
Retold by John Escott

STAGE 2 - Fantasy & Horror

There has been a ghost in the house for three hundred years, and Lord Canterville's family have had enough of it. So Lord Canterville sells his grand old house to an American family. Mr Hiram B. Otis is happy to buy the house and the ghost - because of course Americans don't believe in ghosts.

The Canterville ghost has great plans to frighten the life out of the Otis family. But Americans don't frighten easily - especially not two noisy little boys - and the poor ghost has a few surprises waiting for him.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Death of Karen Silkwood Audio CD Pack

Joyce Hannam

STAGE 2 - True Stories

This is the story of Karen Silkwood. It begins with her death.

Why does her story begin where it should end? Certain people wanted her death to be an ending. Why? What were they afraid of? Karen Silkwood had something to tell us, and she believed that it was important. Why didn't she live to tell us? Will we ever know what really happened? The questions go on and on, but there are no answers.

This is a true story. It happened in Oklahoma, USA, where Karen Silkwood lived and worked . . . and died.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Jungle Book

Rudyard Kipling
Retold by Ralph Mowat

STAGE 2 - Classics

In the jungle of Southern India the Seeonee Wolf-Pack has a new cub. He is not a wolf - he is Mowgli, a human child, but he knows nothing of the world of men. He lives and hunts with his brothers the wolves. Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther are his friends and teachers. And Shere Khan, the man-eating tiger, is his enemy.

Kipling's famous story of Mowgli's adventures in the jungle has been loved by young and old for more than a hundred years.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 A Christmas Carol Audio CD Pack

Charles Dickens
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 3 - Classics

Christmas is humbug, Scrooge says - just a time when you find yourself a year older and not a penny richer. The only thing that matters to Scrooge is business, and making money.

But on Christmas Eve three spirits come to visit him. They take him travelling on the wings of the night to see the shadows of Christmas past, present, and future - and Scrooge learns a lesson that he will never forget.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Chemical Secret Audio CD Pack

Tim Vicary

STAGE 3 - Thriller & Adventure

The job was too good. There had to be a problem - and there was.

John Duncan was an honest man, but he needed money. He had children to look after. He was ready to do anything, and his bosses knew it.

They gave him the job because he couldn't say no; he couldn't afford to be honest. And the job was like a poison inside him. It changed him and blinded him, so that he couldn't see the real poison - until it was too late.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Frankenstein Audio CD Pack

Mary Shelley
Retold by Patrick Nobes

STAGE 3 - Fantasy & Horror

Victor Frankenstein thinks he has found the secret of life. He takes parts from dead people and builds a new 'man'. But this monster is so big and frightening that everyone runs away from him - even Frankenstein himself!

The monster is like an enormous baby who needs love. But nobody gives him love, and soon he learns to hate. And, because he is so strong, the next thing he learns is how to kill . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Love Story Audio CD Pack

Erich Segal
Retold by Rosemary Border

STAGE 3 - Human interest

This is a love story you won't forget. Oliver Barrett meets Jenny Cavilleri. He plays sports, she plays music. He's rich, and she's poor. They argue, and they fight, and they fall in love.

So they get married, and make a home together. They work hard, they enjoy life, they make plans for the future. Then they learn that they don't have much time left.

Their story has made people laugh, and cry, all over the world.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Skyjack! Audio CD Pack

Tim Vicary

STAGE 3 - Thriller & Adventure

When a large plane is hijacked, the Prime Minister looks at the list of passengers and suddenly becomes very, very frightened.

There is a name on the list that the Prime Minister knows very well - too well. There is someone on that plane who will soon be dead - if the hijackers can find out who he is!

And there isn't much time. One man lies dead on the runway. In a few minutes the hijackers will use their guns again. And the Prime Minister knows who they are going to kill.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Tales of Mystery and Imagination Audio CD Pack

Edgar Allan Poe
Retold by Margaret Naudi

STAGE 3 - Fantasy & Horror

The human mind is a dark, bottomless pit, and sometimes it works in strange and frightening ways. That sound in the night . . . is it a door banging in the wind, or a murdered man knocking inside his coffin? The face in the mirror . . . is it yours, or the face of someone standing behind you, who is never there when you turn round?

These famous short stories by Edgar Allan Poe, that master of horror, explore the dark world of the imagination, where the dead live and speak, where fear lies in every shadow of the mind . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Call of the Wild Audio CD Pack

Jack London
Retold by Nick Bullard

STAGE 3 - Classics

When men find gold in the frozen north of Canada, they need dogs - big, strong dogs to pull the sledges on the long journeys to and from the gold mines.

Buck is stolen from his home in the south and sold as a sledge-dog. He has to learn a new way of life - how to work in harness, how to stay alive in the ice and the snow . . . and how to fight. Because when a dog falls down in a fight, he never gets up again.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Prisoner of Zenda Audio CD Pack

Anthony Hope
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 3 - Thriller & Adventure

'We must leave for Zenda at once, to find the King!' cried Sapt. 'If we're caught, we'll all be killed!'

So Rudolf Rassendyll and Sapt gallop through the night to find the King of Ruritania. But the King is now a prisoner in the Castle of Zenda. Who will rescue him from his enemies, the dangerous Duke Michael and Rupert of Hentzau?

And who will win the heart of the beautiful Princess Flavia?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Secret Garden Audio CD Pack

Frances Hodgson Burnett
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 3 - Human Interest

Little Mary Lennox is a bad-tempered, disagreeable child. When her parents die in India, she is sent back to England to live with her uncle in a big, lonely, old house.

There is nothing to do all day except walk in the gardens - and watch the robin flying over the high walls of the secret garden . . . which has been locked for ten years. And no one has the key.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Picture of Dorian Gray Audio CD Pack

Oscar Wilde
Retold by Jill Nevile

STAGE 3 - Fantasy & Horror

'When we are happy, we are always good,' says Lord Henry, 'but when we are good, we are not always happy.'

Lord Henry's lazy, clever words lead the young Dorian Gray into a world where it is better to be beautiful than to be good; a world where anything can be forgiven - even murder - if it can make people laugh at a dinner party.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Piano Audio CD Pack

Rosemary Border

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

One day, a farmer tells a farm boy to take everything out of an old building and throw it away. 'It's all rubbish,' he says.

In the middle of all the rubbish, the boy finds a beautiful old piano. He has never played before, but now, when his fingers touch the piano, he begins to play. He closes his eyes and the music comes to him - and the music moves his fingers.

When he opens his eyes again, he knows that his life has changed forever...

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Bestseller Pack

Pack contains one copy of each of the following ten titles:

Anne of Green Gables
The Canterville Ghost
The Death of Karen Silkwood
Dracula
Henry VIII and his Six Wives
Huckleberry Finn
New Yorkers
The Piano
Robinson Crusoe
Sherlock Holmes Short Stories

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Anne of Green Gables

L.M. Montgomery
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

Marilla Cuthbert and her brother Matthew want to adopt an orphan, to help on the farm at Green Gables. They ask for a boy, but they get Anne, who has red hair and freckles, and who talks and talks and talks.

They didn't want a girl, but how can they send a child back, like an unwanted parcel? So Anne stays, and begins a new life in the sleepy, quiet village of Avonlea in Canada.

But it is not so quiet after Anne comes to live there . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Henry VIII and his Six Wives

Janet Hardy-Gould

STAGE 2 - True Stories

There were six of them - three Katherines, two Annes, and a Jane. One of them was the King's wife for twenty-four years, another for only a year and a half. One died, two were divorced, and two were beheaded. It was a dangerous, uncertain life.

After the King's death in 1547, his sixth wife finds a box of old letters - one from each of the first five wives. They are sad, angry, frightened letters. They tell the story of what it was like to be the wife of Henry VIII of England.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 2 - Classics

Who wants to live in a house, wear clean clothes, be good, and go to school every day? Not young Huckleberry Finn, that's for sure.

So Huck runs away, and is soon floating down the great Mississippi River on a raft. With him is Jim, a black slave who is also running away. But life is not always easy for the two friends.

And there's 300 dollars waiting for anyone who catches poor Jim . . .

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 New Yorkers - Short Stories

O. Henry
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

A housewife, a tramp, a lawyer, a waitress, an actress - ordinary people living ordinary lives in New York at the beginning of this century. The city has changed greatly since that time, but its people are much the same. Some are rich, some are poor, some are happy, some are sad, some have found love, some are looking for love.

O. Henry's famous short stories - sensitive, funny, sympathetic - give us vivid pictures of the everyday lives of these New Yorkers.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Robinson Crusoe

Daniel Defoe
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 2 - Classics

'I often walked along the shore, and one day I saw something in the sand. I went over to look at it more carefully . . . It was a footprint - the footprint of a man!'

In 1659 Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked on a small island off the coast of South America. After fifteen years alone, he suddenly learns that there is another person on the island. But will this man be a friend - or an enemy?

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Sherlock Holmes Short Stories

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 2 - Crime & Mystery

Sherlock Holmes is the greatest detective of them all. He sits in his room, and smokes his pipe. He listens, and watches, and thinks. He listens to the steps coming up the stairs; he watches the door opening - and he knows what question the stranger will ask.

In these three of his best stories, Holmes has three visitors to the famous flat in Baker Street - visitors who bring their troubles to the only man in the world who can help them.

• Where to order

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Death of Karen Silkwood

Joyce Hannam

STAGE 2 - True Stories

This is the story of Karen Silkwood. It begins with her death.

Why does her story begin where it should end? Certain people wanted her death to be an ending. Why? What were they afraid of? Karen Silkwood had something to tell us, and she believed that it was important. Why didn't she live to tell us? Will we ever know what really happened? The questions go on and on, but there are no answers.

This is a true story. It happened in Oklahoma, USA, where Karen Silkwood lived and worked . . . and died.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Piano

Rosemary Border

STAGE 2 - Human Interest

One day, a farmer tells a farm boy to take everything out of an old building and throw it away. 'It's all rubbish,' he says.

In the middle of all the rubbish, the boy finds a beautiful old piano. He has never played before, but now, when his fingers touch the piano, he begins to play. He closes his eyes and the music comes to him - and the music moves his fingers.

When he opens his eyes again, he knows that his life is changed for ever...

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Chemical Secret

Tim Vicary

STAGE 3 - Thriller & Adventure

The job was too good. There had to be a problem - and there was.

John Duncan was an honest man, but he needed money. He had children to look after. He was ready to do anything, and his bosses knew it.

They gave him the job because he couldn't say no; he couldn't afford to be honest. And the job was like a poison inside him. It changed him and blinded him, so that he couldn't see the real poison - until it was too late.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 Dracula

Bram Stoker
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 2 - Fantasy & Horror

In the mountains of Transylvania there stands a castle. It is the home of Count Dracula - a dark, lonely place, and at night the wolves howl around the walls.

In the year 1875 Jonathan Harker comes from England to do business with the Count. But Jonathan does not feel comfortable at Castle Dracula. Strange things happen at night, and very soon, he begins to feel afraid. And he is right to be afraid, because Count Dracula is one of the Un-Dead - a vampire that drinks the blood of living people . . .

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Canterville Ghost

Oscar Wilde
Retold by John Escott

STAGE 2 - Fantasy & Horror

There has been a ghost in the house for three hundred years, and Lord Canterville's family have had enough of it. So Lord Canterville sells his grand old house to an American family. Mr Hiram B. Otis is happy to buy the house and the ghost - because of course Americans don't believe in ghosts.

The Canterville ghost has great plans to frighten the life out of the Otis family. But Americans don't frighten easily - especially not two noisy little boys - and the poor ghost has a few surprises waiting for him.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 3 - Classics

Christmas is humbug, Scrooge says - just a time when you find yourself a year older and not a penny richer. The only thing that matters to Scrooge is business, and making money.

But on Christmas Eve three spirits come to visit him. They take him travelling on the wings of the night to see the shadows of Christmas past, present, and future - and Scrooge learns a lesson that he will never forget.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Frankenstein

Mary Shelley

STAGE 3 - Fantasy & Horror

Victor Frankenstein thinks he has found the secret of life. He takes parts from dead people and builds a new 'man'. But this monster is so big and frightening that everyone runs away from him - even Frankenstein himself!

The monster is like an enormous baby who needs love. But nobody gives him love, and soon he learns to hate. And, because he is so strong, the next thing he learns is how to kill . . .

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Love Story

Erich Segal
Retold by Rosemary Border

STAGE 3 - Human Interest

This is a love story you won't forget. Oliver Barrett meets Jenny Cavilleri. He plays sports, she plays music. He's rich, and she's poor. They argue, and they fight, and they fall in love.

So they get married, and make a home together. They work hard, they enjoy life, they make plans for the future. Then they learn that they don't have much time left.

Their story has made people laugh, and cry, all over the world.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Skyjack!

Tim Vicary

STAGE 3 - Thriller & Adventure

When a large plane is hijacked, the Prime Minister looks at the list of passengers and suddenly becomes very, very frightened.

There is a name on the list that the Prime Minister knows very well - too well. There is someone on that plane who will soon be dead - if the hijackers can find out who he is!

And there isn't much time. One man lies dead on the runway. In a few minutes the hijackers will use their guns again. And the Prime Minister knows who they are going to kill.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 Tales of Mystery and Imagination

Edgar Allan Poe

STAGE 3 - Fantasy & Horror

The human mind is a dark, bottomless pit, and sometimes it works in strange and frightening ways. That sound in the night . . . is it a door banging in the wind, or a murdered man knocking inside his coffin? The face in the mirror . . . is it yours, or the face of someone standing behind you, who is never there when you turn round?

These famous short stories by Edgar Allan Poe, that master of horror, explore the dark world of the imagination, where the dead live and speak, where fear lies in every shadow of the mind . . .

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Call of the Wild

Jack London
Retold by Nick Bullard

STAGE 3 - Classics

When men find gold in the frozen north of Canada, they need dogs - big, strong dogs to pull the sledges on the long journeys to and from the gold mines.

Buck is stolen from his home in the south and sold as a sledge-dog. He has to learn a new way of life - how to work in harness, how to stay alive in the ice and the snow . . . and how to fight. Because when a dog falls down in a fight, he never gets up again.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde
Retold by Jill Nevile

STAGE 3 - Fantasy & Horror

'When we are happy, we are always good,' says Lord Henry, 'but when we are good, we are not always happy.'

Lord Henry's lazy, clever words lead the young Dorian Gray into a world where it is better to be beautiful than to be good; a world where anything can be forgiven - even murder - if it can make people laugh at a dinner party.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Prisoner of Zenda

Anthony Hope
Retold by Diane Mowat

STAGE 3 - Thriller & Adventure

'We must leave for Zenda at once, to find the King!' cried Sapt. 'If we're caught, we'll all be killed!'

So Rudolf Rassendyll and Sapt gallop through the night to find the King of Ruritania. But the King is now a prisoner in the Castle of Zenda. Who will rescue him from his enemies, the dangerous Duke Michael and Rupert of Hentzau?

And who will win the heart of the beautiful Princess Flavia?

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Secret Garden

Frances Hodgson Burnett
Retold by Clare West

STAGE 3 - Human Interest

Little Mary Lennox is a bad-tempered, disagreeable child. When her parents die in India, she is sent back to England to live with her uncle in a big, lonely, old house.

There is nothing to do all day except walk in the gardens - and watch the robin flying over the high walls of the secret garden . . . which has been locked for ten years. And no one has the key.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Bestseller Packs

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2

CEF level A2/B1

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