Based on the story of Katherine Mansfield. Retold 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." By the book 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. Classics, modern ... |
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Based on the story of Anne Tyler. Retold by Jennifer Bassett. ... Everyday life in Baltimore, USA, is full of problems - getting the washing done, buying groceries and dog food, avoiding the neighbours... After the death of his son and the departure of his wife, Macon's attempts to run his own life become increasingly desperate - and more and more odd. Meanwhile, he has to get on with his work, writing tourist guides for business people. Then his dog Edward starts to bite people, and he has to send for Muriel, the dog trainer. And day by day, Macon's life gets more and more complicated. Classics, modern fiction, ... |
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Based on the story of Isaac Asimov. Retold by Rowena Akinyemi. ... A human being is a soft, weak creature. It needs constant supplies of air, water, and food; it has to spend a third of its life asleep, and it can't work if the temperature is too hot or too cold. But a robot is made of strong metal. It uses electrical energy directly, never sleeps, and can work in any temperature. It is stronger, more efficient - and sometimes more human than human beings. Isaac Asimov was one of the greatest sciencefiction writers, and these short stories give us an unforgettable and terrifying vision of the future. Classics, ... |
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Retold by Rosemary Border. ... "After dinner we turned the lights out and played hide and seek. In the dark, I touched a hand, a very cold hand. Now, because of the game, I had to hide in the dark with... with this cold person - not speaking, not knowing who it was. Slowly the others found us, hid with us, until we were all there - all thirteen. Thirteen? But there were only twelve people in the house! We touched each other in the dark, counting. Thirteen. Quickly, nervously, I lit a match to see..." By the book Classics, modern fiction, non-fiction and more. Written for secondary and adult students the ... |
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Based on the story of Jerome K. Jerome. Retold by Diane Mowat. ... "I like work. I find it interesting... I can sit and look at it for hours." By the book With ideas like this, perhaps it is not a good idea to spend a holiday taking a boat trip up the River Thames. But this is what the three friends - and Montmorency the dog - decide to do. It is the sort of holiday that is fun to remember afterwards, but not so much fun to wake up too early on a cold, wet morning. This famous book has made people laugh all over the world for a hundred years... and they are still laughing. Classics, modern fiction, non- ... |
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Based on the story of Louisa May Alcott. Retold 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. Classics, modern fiction, non-fiction and more. Written for secondary and adult ... |
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Based on the story of Jonathan Swift. Retold by Clare West. ... "Soon I felt something alive moving along my leg and up my body to my face, and when I looked down, I saw a very small human being, only fifteen centimetres tall... I was so surprised that I gave a great shout." By the book But that is only the first of many surprises which Gulliver has on his travels. He visits a land of giants and a flying island, meets ghosts from the past and horses which talk... Classics, modern fiction, non-fiction and more. Written for secondary and adult students the Oxford Bookworms Library has seven reading levels ... |
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Elizabeth Gilbert, a successful writer, had everything - a husband, friends, a big house in New York. But one day she realized she did not want any of it. A new relationship brought more heartbreak, deep depression followed, and in desperation, she started to pray. She decided to spend a year without any new relationships, and to travel in Italy, India, and Indonesia, searching for meaning in her life. This memoir is the true story of her journey of discovery through pleasure, religion, and back to love again. It has also been made into a major movie. Classics, modern fiction, non-fiction and more. Written for secondary ... |
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Based on the story of Robert Louis Stevenson. Retold 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? Classics, modern ... |
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Why aren't the students at Mangrove High School allowed to study maths or use computers? Who are the strange Wardens who watch over them all the time? And is someone listening in on their thoughts, when they are sent to The Room? Finn and Ellie both know that something isn't right in their world. But when they start asking questions, their lives are turned upside-down - and suddenly even their families are no longer what they seemed. Finn is in great danger, but when his brother Adam offers to help, he needs to find out fast if he can really trust him... Classics, modern fiction, non-fiction and more. Written for ... |
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Based on the story of Lewis Carroll. Retold by Jennifer Bassett. ... "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!" By the book 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... Classics, modern fiction, non-fiction and more. ... |
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Based on the story of Thomas Hardy. Retold by Clare West. ... 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... Classics, modern fiction, ... |