Tales from Longpuddle - With Audio Level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library

Hardy, Thomas

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 Jennifer Bassett. 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.

Huckleberry Finn - With Audio Level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library

Twain, Mark

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 Diane Mowat. 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 . . .

A Midsummer Night's Dream Level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library

Shakespeare, William

A level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Written for Learners of English by William Shakespeare. There are broken hearts and kisses and then weddings, so this is a story about love. There are actors who are funny because they cannot act, so it is also a story that makes people laugh. And there are fairies, spirits of the night, so it is a story about mischief and magic too. What happens when love and laughter come together with magic in an Athenian forest? A Midsummer Night's Dream was written in about 1596 and is one of Shakespeare's most popular plays. It has been retold for Bookworms, not as a play, but as a story.

One-way Ticket Short Stories Level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library

Bassett, Jennifer

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded readers. Written for Learners of English by Jennifer Bassett Tom Walsh had a lot to learn about life. He liked travelling, and he was in no hurry. He liked meeting people, anyone and everyone. He liked the two American girls on the train. They were nice and very friendly. They knew a lot of places. Tom thought they were fun. Tom certainly had a lot to learn about life. This is a collection of short stories about adventures on trains. Strange, wonderful, and frightening things can happen on trains - and all of them happen here.

Drive into Danger - With Audio Starter Level Oxford Bookworms Library

Border, Rosemary

A Starter level Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. This version includes an audio book: listen to the story as you read. Written for Learners of English by Rosemary Border. 'I can drive a truck,' says Kim on her first day at work in the office. When Kim's passenger Andy finds something strange under the truck things get dangerous - very dangerous.

The Prisoner of Zenda - With Audio Level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library

Hope, Anthony

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 Diane Mowat. '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?

The Withered Arm - With Audio Level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library

Hardy, Thomas

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. This version includes an audio book: listen to the story as you read. 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 . . .

Sense and Sensibility Level 5 Oxford Bookworms Library

Austen, Jane

A level 5 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Clare West. Sometimes the Dashwood girls do not seem like sisters. Elinor is all calmness and reason, and can be relied upon for practical, common sense opinions. Marianne, on the other hand, is all sensibility, full of passionate and romantic feeling. She has no time for dull common sense - or for middle-aged men of thirty-five, long past the age of marriage. True love can only be felt by the young, of course. And if your heart is broken at the age of seventeen, how can you ever expect to recover from the passionate misery that fills your life, waking and sleeping?

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library

Twain, Mark

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Nick Bullard Tom Sawyer does not like school. He does not like work, and he never wants to get out of bed in the morning. But he likes swimming and fishing, and having adventures with his friends. And he has a lot of adventures. One night, he and his friend Huck Finn go to the graveyard to look for ghosts. They don't see any ghosts that night. They see something worse than a ghost - much, much worse . . .

A Christmas Carol Level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library

Dickens, Charles

A level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Clare West 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 . . .

The Omega Files Short Stories - With Audio Level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library

Bassett, Jennifer

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 Jennifer Bassett. In EDI (the European Department of Intelligence in Brussels) there are some very secret files - the Omega Files. There are strange, surprising, and sometimes horrible stories in these files, but not many people know about them. You never read about them in the newspapers. Hawker and Jude know all about the Omega Files, because they work for EDI. They think fast, they move fast, and they learn some very strange things. They go all over the world, asking difficult questions in dangerous places, but they don't always find the answers . . .

Great Expectations - With Audio Level 5 Oxford Bookworms Library

Dickens, Charles

A level 5 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. This version includes an audio book: listen to the story as you read. Retold for Learners of English by Clare West. In a gloomy, neglected house Miss Havisham sits, as she has sat year after year, in a wedding dress and veil that were once white, and are now faded and yellow with age. Her face is like a death's head; her dark eyes burn with bitterness and hate. By her side sits a proud and beautiful girl, and in front of her, trembling with fear in his thick country boots, stands young Pip. Miss Havisham stares at Pip coldly, and murmurs to the girl at her side: 'Break his heart, Estella. Break his heart!'

The Piano Man Level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library

Vicary, Tim

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary. A woman finds a man on a beach. He is very cold, his clothes are wet, and he cannot speak. The woman phones for help, and an ambulance comes and takes the man to hospital. In hospital they ask the man questions, but he does not answer. He still cannot speak - or does not want to speak. Who is he, this strange man from the sea? What is his name? Where did he come from? And why do they call him the Piano Man?

Chemical Secret - With Audio Level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library

Vicary, Tim

A level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. This version includes an audio book: listen to the story as you read. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary. 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.

The Bridge and Other Love Stories - With Audio Level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library

Lindop, Christine

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 Christine Lindop. Luke is a good-looking young man, but he's not very clever with words. Gemma is clever with words, but what does she want? Lucy and Becky are good friends, but what about Sam? He makes wonderful cakes, but does he make mistakes too? Nina and Dragan are in love, so deeply in love, but they live in the wrong place, at the wrong time ...All love stories have moments of happiness, pain, misunderstanding, laughter, and sometimes great sadness. But love will nearly always find a way . . .

The Butler Did It and Other Plays - With Audio Level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library

Bowler, Bill

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. This version includes an audio book: listen to the story as you read. Retold for Learners of English by Clare West. How do you get a licence if you want to keep a monkey? What can you do if your wife has a lover? How can you see into the future? Where can you go for an exciting but cheap holiday somewhere hot and far away? How can you persuade your girlfriend or boyfriend to marry you? The characters in these six original short plays are looking for answers to these questions. While trying to solve their problems, people get into some very funny situations. Each play gives an amusing view of life today, and there is often an unexpected ending.

Japan - With Audio Level 1 Factfiles Oxford Bookworms Library

Bladon, Rachel

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 Rachel Bladon. What is Japan? It is everything new and modern: the Tokyo Sky Tree, 634 metres high; amazing cameras and phones; karaoke and manga; trains going past at 300 kilometres an hour. And it is everything ancient too: beautiful palaces; high mountains and hot springs; cherry blossom in the spring; quiet gardens with water and trees. Here the past meets the future all the time. From sumo wrestlers to robots, Japan has something amazing for everybody.

The Phantom of the Opera - With Audio Level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library

Bassett, Jennifer

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 Jennifer Bassett. 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?

Ghosts International: Troll and Other Stories - With Audio Level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library

Walker, Sarah

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 Sarah Walker. In Sweden, nobody wants a troll to come into their garden, but how do you stop them? On a lonely road at night in Oman, Abdul's car breaks down and he takes a ride with a stranger, but perhaps it is safer to walk. In England some young people play a scary game, and in Asia, a soldier returns home - at last. Every country in the world has stories about ghosts and spirits and monsters of one kind or another. Some people believe in ghosts, and some don't - but everyone enjoys a good ghost story.

The Scarlet Letter - With Audio Level 4 Oxford Bookworms Library

Hawthorne, Nathaniel

A level 4 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. Scarlet is the colour of sin, and the letter 'A' stands for 'Adultery'. In the 1600s, in Boston, Massachusetts, love was allowed only between a husband and a wife. A child born outside marriage was a child of sin. Hester Prynne must wear the scarlet letter on her dress for the rest of her life. How can she ever escape from this public shame? What will happen to her child, growing up in the shadow of the scarlet letter? The future holds no joy for Hester Prynne. And what will happen to her sinful lover - the father of her child?

The Elephant Man Level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library

Vicary, Tim

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary He is not beautiful. His mother does not want him, children run away from him. People laugh at him, and call him 'The Elephant Man'. Then someone speaks to him - and listens to him! At the age of 27, Joseph Merrick finds a friend for the first time in his life. This is a true and tragic story. It is also a famous film.

Robinson Crusoe Level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library

Defoe, Daniel

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

New York Cafe - With Audio Starter Level Oxford Bookworms Library

Dean, Michael

A Starter level Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. This version includes an audio book: listen to the story as you read. Written for Learners of English by Michael Dean. It is the year 2030, and an e-mail message arrives at New York Cafe: 'I want to help people and make them happy!' But not everybody is happy about the e-mail, and soon the police and the President are very interested in the New York Cafe.

Lorna Doone - With Audio Level 4 Oxford Bookworms Library

Blackmore, R. D.

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 David Penn. One winter's day in 1673 young John Ridd is riding home from school, across the wild lonely hills of Exmoor. He has to pass Doone valley - a dangerous place, as the Doones are famous robbers and murderers. All Exmoor lives in fear of the Doones. At home there is sad news waiting for young John, and he learns that he has good reason to hate the Doones. But in the years to come he meets Lorna Doone, with her lovely smile and big dark eyes. And soon he is deeply, hopelessly, in love . . .