Oxford Bookworms Library

English graded readers series for secondary level to adult

Inside Oxford Bookworms Library (485)

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 The Phantom of the Opera

Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 1 - Fantasy & Horror

It is 1880, in the Opera House in Paris. Everybody is talking about the Phantom of the Opera, the ghost that lives somewhere under the Opera House. The Phantom is a man in black clothes. He is a body without a head, he is a head without a body. He has a yellow face, he has no nose, he has black holes for eyes. Everybody is afraid of the Phantom - the singers, the dancers, the directors, the stage workers . . .

But who has actually seen him?

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 The Wizard of Oz

L. Frank Baum
Retold by Rosemary Border

STAGE 1 - Fantasy & Horror

Dorothy lives in Kansas, USA, but one day a cyclone blows her and her house to a strange country called Oz. There, Dorothy makes friends with the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion.

But she wants to go home to Kansas. Only one person can help her, and that is the country's famous Wizard. So Dorothy and her friends take the yellow brick road to the Emerald City, to find the Wizard of Oz . . .

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 White Death

Tim Vicary

STAGE 1 - Thriller & Adventure

Sarah Harland is nineteen, and she is in prison. At the airport, they find heroin in her bag. So, now she is waiting to go to court. If the court decides that it was her heroin, then she must die.

She says she did not do it. But if she did not, who did? Only two people can help Sarah: her mother, and an old boyfriend who does not love her now. Can they work together? Can they find the real criminal before it is 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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