Five Children and It Level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library

Nesbit, Edith

A level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Diane Mowat 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 . . .

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Level 4 Oxford Bookworms Library

Stevenson, Robert Louis

A level 4 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Rosemary Border You are walking through the streets of London. It is getting dark and you want to get home quickly. You enter a narrow side-street. Everything is quiet, but as you pass the door of a large, windowless building, you hear a key turning in the lock. A man comes out and looks at you. You have never seen him before, but you realize immediately that he hates you. You are shocked to discover, also, that you hate him. Who is this man that everybody hates? And why is he coming out of the laboratory of the very respectable Dr Jekyll?

Dead Man's Island - With Audio Level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library

Escott, John

A level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. This version includes an audio book: listen to the story as you read. Written for Learners of English by John Escott. 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.

Remember Miranda Level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library

Akinyemi, Rowena

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded readers. Written for Learners of English by Rowena Akinyemi Cathy Wilson is driving to Norfolk, to begin her new job with the Harvey family. She is going to look after the two young children, Tim and Susan. Cathy meets the children's father, and their grandmother, and their aunt. She meets Nick, the farmer who lives across the fields. But she doesn't meet Miranda, the children's mother, because Miranda is dead. She died two years ago, and Cathy cannot learn anything about her. Everybody remembers Miranda, but nobody wants to talk about her . . .

The Kiss: Love Stories from North America Level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library

Bassett, Jennifer

A level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Jennifer Bassett. Love stories with a difference . . . There's a kiss by a fireside that was a mistake, there's a man-hating aunt by the seaside, and a gunman in Texas wanting a fight. There's a white heron flying over a forest, and a messenger running between two benches in a park. And of course, there's a girl who meets a boy . . . These love stories are by US writers Kate Chopin, Stephen Crane, Sarah Orne Jewett, O. Henry, and Canadian writer Lucy Maud Montgomery (author of the famous Anne of Green Gables).

One Thousand Dollars and Other Plays - With Audio Level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library

Henry, O.

A level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. This version includes an audio book: listen to the story as you read. Retold for Learners of English by John Escott. 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.

Little Women - With Audio Level 4 Oxford Bookworms Library

Alcott, Louisa May

A level 4 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. This version includes an audio book: listen to the story as you read. Retold for Learners of English by John Escott. When Christmas comes for the four March girls, there is no money for expensive presents and they give away their Christmas breakfast to a poor family. But there are no happier girls in America than Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. They miss their father, of course, who is away at the Civil War, but they try hard to be good so that he will be proud of his 'little women' when he comes home. This heart-warming story of family life has been popular for more than a hundred years.

Chocolate - With Audio Level 2 Factfiles Oxford Bookworms Library

Hardy-Gould, Janet

A level 2 Factfiles Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. This version includes an audio book: listen to the story as you read. Written for Learners of English by 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 . . .

The Railway Children - With Audio Level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library

Nesbit, Edith

A level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. This version includes an audio book: listen to the story as you read. Retold for Learners of English by John Escott. '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?

Remember Miranda - With Audio Level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library

Akinyemi, Rowena

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. This version includes an audio book: listen to the story as you read. Written for Learners of English by Rowena Akinyemi. Cathy Wilson is driving to Norfolk, to begin her new job with the Harvey family. She is going to look after the two young children, Tim and Susan. Cathy meets the children's father, and their grandmother, and their aunt. She meets Nick, the farmer who lives across the fields. But she doesn't meet Miranda, the children's mother, because Miranda is dead. She died two years ago, and Cathy cannot learn anything about her. Everybody remembers Miranda, but nobody wants to talk about her . . .

The Woman in White Level 6 Oxford Bookworms Library

Collins, Wilkie

A level 6 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Richard G. Lewis The woman in white first appears at night on a lonely heath near London and is next seen at a grave-side in Cumberland. Who is she? Where has she come from, and what is her history? She seems alone and friendless, frightened and confused. And it seems she knows a secret - a secret that could bring ruin and shame to a man who will do anything to keep her silent. This famous mystery thriller by Wilkie Collins has excitement, suspense, romance, and a plot that twists and turns on every page.

The Garden Party and Other Stories Level 5 Oxford Bookworms Library

Mansfield, Katherine

A level 5 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Rosalie Kerr Oh, how delightful it is to fall in love for the first time! How exciting to go to your first dance when you are a girl of eighteen! But life can also be hard and cruel, if you are young and inexperienced and travelling alone across Europe . . . or if you are a child from the wrong social class . . . or a singer without work and the rent to be paid. Set in Europe and New Zealand, these nine stories by Katherine Mansfield dig deep beneath the appearances of life to show us the causes of human happiness and despair.

Goodbye Mr Hollywood Level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library

Escott, John

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded readers. Written for Learners of English by John Escott Nick Lortz is sitting outside a caf in Whistler, a village in the Canadian mountains, when a stranger comes and sits next to him. She's young, pretty, and has a beautiful smile. Nick is happy to sit and talk with her. But why does she call Nick 'Mr Hollywood'? Why does she give him a big kiss when she leaves? And who is the man at the next table - the man with short white hair? Nick learns the answers to these questions three long days later - in a police station on Vancouver Island.

Mystery in London Starter Level Oxford Bookworms Library

Helen Brooke

A Starter level Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Written for Learners of English by Helen Brooke. Six women are dead because of the Whitechapel Killer. Now another woman lies in a London street and there is blood everywhere. She is very ill. You are the famous detective Mycroft Pound; can you catch the killer before he escapes?

The Thirty-Nine Steps Level 4 Oxford Bookworms Library

Buchan, John

A level 4 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Nick Bullard 'I turned on the light, but there was nobody there. Then I saw something in the corner that made my blood turn cold. Scudder was lying on his back. There was a long knife through his heart, pinning him to the floor.' Soon Richard Hannay is running to his life across the hills of Scotland. The police are chasing him for a murder he did not do, and another, more dangerous enemy is chasing him as well - the mysterious 'Black Stone'. Who are these people? And why do they want Hannay dead?

The Withered Arm Level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library

Hardy, Thomas

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded readers. Retold for Learners of English by Jennifer Bassett A woman and a man . . . words of love whispered on a summer night. Later, there is a child, but no wedding-ring. And then the man leaves the first woman, finds a younger woman, marries her . . . It's an old story. Yes, it's an old, old story. It happens all the time -- today, tomorrow, a hundred years ago. People don't change. But this story, set among the green hills of southern England, has something different about it. Perhaps it is only a dream, or perhaps it is magic - a kind of strange dark magic that begins in the world of dreams and phantoms . . .