Hollywood Level 1 Factfiles Oxford Bookworms Library

Hardy-Gould, Janet

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Written for Learners of English by Janet Hardy-Gould. Hollywood - nine big white letters against the Hollywood Hills. Every year millions of people come from all over the world and look up at this famous sign. Why do they come? They come to see the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and to see the hand and foot prints outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre. They come to visit Universal Studios, and perhaps to see a movie star or two. Most of all, they come to be in the most famous place in movie history - exciting, wonderful Hollywood!

Sherlock Holmes: Two Plays Level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by John Escott. Sherlock Holmes is the greatest detective the world has ever seen, and he knows it. As the famous bank-robber, John Clay, says to him, 'You think of everything, Mr Holmes. You're very clever.' People come to him with problems that no one, not even the police, can solve. Holmes sits, and thinks, and smokes his pipe, and in the end he finds the answer. In these plays, based on two of his stories, Holmes, helped by his old friend, Dr Watson, uses his great intelligence to solve two unusual and interesting cases.

A Christmas Carol - With Audio Level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library

Dickens, Charles

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 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 Kiss: Love Stories from North America - With Audio Level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library

Bassett, Jennifer

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 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).

Dracula Level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library

Stoker, Bram

A level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Diane Mowat 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 U-Dead - a vampire that drinks the blood of living people . . .

Shirley Homes and the Cyber Thief - 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. Shirley Homes, private investigator. Like Sherlock Holmes a hundred years ago, she lives in London, enjoys working on difficult cases, and has some helpful friends. She understands people, is a good listener, and of course, she is clever with computers. In today's world that is important, because a lot of crime is cyber crime. In this second Shirley Homes detective story, Shirley must catch a cyber thief. But how? You can't see a cyber thief, you can't hear a cyber thief. Only the computer knows, and the computer isn't talking . . .

Little Lord Fauntleroy Level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library

Burnett, Frances Hodgson

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Jennifer Bassett. Cedric Errol is seven years old. He lives with his mother in a little house in New York. They don't have much money, but mother and son are good friends. Cedric is a kind, friendly little boy, and everybody likes him. His father was English, but he is now dead, and Cedric and his mother are alone in the world. But one day a lawyer arrives from England with some very surprising news about Cedric's grandfather . . .

Anne of Green Gables Level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library

Montgomery, L. M.

A level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Clare West 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 . . .

The White Stones Starter Level Oxford Bookworms Library

Lester Vaughan

A Starter level Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Written for Learners of English by Lester Vaughan. 'The people on this island don't like archaeologists,' the woman on the ferry says. You only want to study the 4,500 year-old Irish megalithic stones but very soon strange things begin to happen to you. Can you solve the mystery in time?

The President's Murderer - 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. The President is dead! A man is running in the night. He is afraid and needs to rest. But there are people behind him - people with lights, and dogs, and guns. A man is standing in front of a desk. His boss is very angry, and the man is tired and needs to sleep. But first he must find the other man, and bring him back - dead or alive. Two men: the hunter and the hunted. Which will win and which will lose? Long live the President!

The Girl with Red Hair - With Audio Starter Level Oxford Bookworms Library

Lindop, Christine

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 Christine Lindop. Every day people come to Mason's store - old people, young people, men and women. From his office, and in the store, Mark watches them. And when they leave the store, he forgets them. Then one day a girl with red hair comes to the store, and everything changes for Mark. Now he can't forget the beautiful face, those green eyes, and that red hair . . .

Sherlock Holmes Short Stories Level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

A level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Clare West 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.

Red Roses - With Audio Starter Level Oxford Bookworms Library

Lindop, Christine

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 Christine Lindop. 'Who is the man with the roses in his hand?' thinks Anna. 'I want to meet him.' 'Who is the girl with the guitar?' thinks Will. 'I like her. I want to meet her.' But they do not meet. 'There are lots of men!' says Anna's friend Vicki, but Anna cannot forget Will. And then one rainy day . . .

Pit and the Pendulum and Other Stories - With Audio Level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library

Poe, Edgar Allan

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. 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 . . .

Five Short Plays - With Audio Level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library

Ford, Martyn

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 Martyn Ford. What do you do if you have a boring job in a restaurant, serving fast food to people who have no time to eat? Smile, and do your best? Perhaps it's better to find a place where time doesn't matter so much. What if you dream of travelling to other countries, but your friends just laugh? Do you stay at home with them? Or do you decide to be more adventurous? Perhaps you hear that someone has bought the last bag of salt in town. Do you buy a bag from him at a high price? Or try to make him give you a bag? Our world is full of these kinds of problems. They make life interesting, and sometimes very funny. These five short plays show people trying to decide what to do in unexpected or difficult situations.

The Wind in the Willows - With Audio Level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library

Grahame, Kenneth

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

Sense and Sensibility - With Audio Level 5 Oxford Bookworms Library

Austen, Jane

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. 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?

Leonardo da Vinci Level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library

Raynham, Alex

A level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Written for Learners of English by Alex Raynham. 'What does the world look like from the moon?' 'How do our bodies work?' 'Is it possible for people to fly?' 'Can I make a horse of bronze that is 8 metres tall?' 'How can we have cleaner cities?' All his life, Leonardo da Vinci asked questions. We know him as a great artist, but he was one of the great thinkers of all time, and even today, doctors and scientists are still learning from his ideas. Meet the man who made a robot lion, wrote backwards, and tried to win a war by moving a river . . .

Oliver Twist - With Audio Level 6 Oxford Bookworms Library

Dickens, Charles

A level 6 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. This version includes an audio book: listen to the story as you read. Retold for Learners of English by Richard Rogers. London in the 1830s was no place to be if you were a hungry ten-year-old boy, an orphan without friends or family, with no home to go to, and only a penny in your pocket to buy a piece of bread. But Oliver Twist finds some friends - Fagin, the Artful Dodger, and Charley Bates. They give him food and shelter, and play games with him, but it is not until some days later that Oliver finds out what kind of friends they are and what kind of 'games' they play . . .

Age of Innocence - With Audio Level 5 Oxford Bookworms Library

Wharton, Edith

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. Into the narrow social world of New York in the 1870s comes Countess Ellen Olenska, surrounded by shocked whispers about her failed marriage to a rich Polish Count. A woman who leaves her husband can never be accepted in polite society. Newland Archer is engaged to young May Welland, but the beautiful and mysterious Countess needs his help. He becomes her friend and defender, but friendship with an unhappy, lonely woman is a dangerous path for a young man to follow - especially a young man who is soon to be married.

Last Chance - With Audio Starter Level Oxford Bookworms Library

Burrows Phillip, Foster Mark

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 Phillip Burrows and Mark Foster. 'How can Mr Frank be angry now?' thinks Mike happily. His film is good and he is the only cameraman on the volcano. Now he can go home. But then he finds Jenny and she is dying. Rocks start to move and Mike is afraid. Can they get off the volcano alive? And what happens to Mike's camera and film?  

The Hound of the Baskervilles - With Audio Level 4 Oxford Bookworms Library

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

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 Patrick Nobes. Dartmoor. A wild, wet place in the south-west of England. A place where it is easy to get lost, and to fall into the soft green earth which can pull the strongest man down to his death. A man is running for his life. Behind him comes an enormous dog - a dog from his worst dreams, a dog from hell. Between him and a terrible death stands only one person - the greatest detective of all time, Sherlock Holmes.

William and Kate Level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library

Lindop, Christine

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Written for Learners of English by Christine Lindop. Everybody took photos of Prince William when he first arrived at the University of St Andrews. Crowds of photographers came to the little Scottish town next to the sea and took pictures of this new student - the nineteen-year-old grandson of the Queen of England. But nobody photographed Kate Middleton on her first day at the university. She moved in quietly, ready to begin her studies in art history. She was just an ordinary student with an ordinary future in front of her. Or was she?

Sherlock Holmes and the Duke's Son Level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Jennifer Bassett Dr Huxtable has a school for boys in the north of England. When the Duke of Holdernesse decides to send his young son there, that is good news for the school. The Duke is a very important person, and Dr Huxtable is happy to have his son in the school. But two weeks later Dr Huxtable is the unhappiest man in England. Why? And why does he take the train down to London and go to Baker Street? Why does he need the help of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes? Because someone has kidnapped the Duke's son . . .