Based on the story of William Shakespeare . Retold by Alistair McCallum . ... This is the most famous of all Shakespeare's plays - a story of young love. What's in a name? Does it really matter if you are called Montague or Capulet? When Romeo, son of Lord Montague, falls in love with the most beautiful girl he's ever seen, he finds that it does matter. It makes all the difference in the world, because both families hate each other. For a time, Romeo and Juliet manage to keep their love secret. But when Romeo is sent away from Verona, hope begins to die. Can any of their friends help the young lovers to be ... |
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Based on the story of Arnold Bennett. Retold by Nick Bullard . ... Every town should have a "card" - someone who gets talked about, someone who does mad and wonderful things, someone who makes you laugh. Bursley in the Five Towns has a "card": Edward Henry Machin (Denry for short). Denry begins life in a poor little house where the rent is twenty-three pence a week. But before he's thirty, he's made a lot of money, and had more adventures than you and I have had hot dinners. The town of Bursley never stops talking about him. Whatever will young Denry do next? Classics, modern fiction, non- ... |
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Based on the story of Charles Dickens . Retold 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. Classics, modern fiction, non-fiction and more. Written for secondary and adult students the Oxford Bookworms Library has seven reading levels from A1 - C1 of ... |
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Based on the story of Bram Stoker . Retold 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 Un-Dead - a vampire that drinks the blood of living people... Classics, modern fiction, non-fiction and more. Written for ... |
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Based on the story of Desmond Bagley. Retold by Ralph Mowat. ... On a beautiful summer evening in the quiet town of Marlow, a young woman is walking home from church. She passes a man who is looking at the engine of his car. He turns round, smiles at her... and throws acid into her face. Then her father, the scientist George Ashton, disappears. And her sister, Penny, discovers that her husband-to-be, Malcolm, is a government agent. Why has Ashton disappeared, and why is Malcolm told to hunt for him? Who is George Ashton, anyway? And who is the enemy? Classics, modern fiction, non-fiction and more. Written for secondary ... |
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Based on the story of Jane Austen . Retold by Clare West . ... The moment I first met you, I noticed your pride, your sense of superiority, and your selfish disdain for the feelings of others. You are the last man in the world whom I could ever be persuaded to marry' said Elizabeth Bennet. And so Elizabeth rejects the proud Mr Darcy. Can nothing overcome her prejudice against him? And what of the other Bennet girls - their fortunes, and misfortunes, in the business of getting husbands? This famous novel by Jane Austen is full of wise and humorous observation of the people and manners of her times. Classics, modern ... |
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Based on the story of Charlotte Bronte . Retold by Clare West . ... Jane Eyre is alone in the world. Disliked by her aunt's family, she is sent away to school. Here she learns that a young girl, with neither money nor family to support her, can expect little from the world. She survives, but she wants more from life than simply to survive: she wants respect, and love. When she goes to work for Mr Rochester, she hopes she has found both at once. But the sound of strange laughter, late at night, behind a locked door, warns her that her troubles are only beginning. Classics, modern fiction, non-fiction and more. ... |
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Based on the story of Colin Dexter . Retold by Clare West . ... Chief Inspector Morse is drinking a pint of beer. He is thinking about an attractive woman who lives not far away. The woman he is thinking of is hanging, dead, from the ceiling of her kitchen. On the floor lies a chair, almost two metres away from the woman's feet. Chief Inspector Morse finishes his pint, and orders another. Perhaps he will visit Anne, after all. But he is in no particular hurry. Meanwhile, Anne is still hanging in her kitchen, waiting for the police to come and cut her down. She is in no hurry, either. Classics, modern fiction, non- ... |
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Based on the story of Buchi Emecheta. Retold by Rosemary Border . ... When her father dies, Aku-nna and her young brother have no one to look after them. They are welcomed by their uncle because of Aku-nna's bride price - the money that her future husband will pay for her. In her new, strange home one man is kind to her and teaches her to become a woman. Soon they are in love, although everyone says he is not a suitable husband for her. The more the world tries to separate them, the more they are drawn together - until, finally, something has to break. Classics, modern fiction, non-fiction and more. Written for ... |
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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 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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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 ... |
