A level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library graded readers. Retold for Learners of English by Susan Kingsley. Life is always hard for the poor, in any place and at any time. Ethan Frome is a farmer in Massachusetts. He works long hours every day, but his farm makes very little money. His wife, Zeena, is a thin, grey woman, always complaining, and only interested in her own ill health. Then Mattie Silver, a young cousin, comes to live with the Fromes, to help Zeena and do the housework. Her bright smile and laughing voice bring light and hope into the Fromes’ house – and into Ethan’s lonely life. But poverty is a prison from which few people escape…
A level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library graded readers. 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.
A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded readers. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary, Sarah Harland is nineteen, and she is in prison. At the airport, they find heroin in her bag. So, now she is waiting to go to court. If the court decides that it was her heroin, then she must die. She says she did not do it. But if she did not, who did? Only two people can help Sarah: her mother, and an old boyfriend who does not love her now. Can they work together? Can they find the real criminal before it is too late?
A level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. 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 level 6 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Diane Mowat. When Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley leave school, their feet are set on very different paths. Kind, foolish Amelia returns to her comfortable home and wealthy family, to await a suitable marriage, while Becky must look out for herself, earning her own living in a hard world. But Becky is neither kind nor foolish, and with her quick brain and keen eye for a chance, her fortunes soon rise, while Amelia's fall. Greed, ambition, loyalty, folly, wisdom… this famous novel gives us a witty and satirical picture of English society during the Napoleonic wars.
A level 4 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by John Escott. Suddenly, there was a high voice screaming in the darkness: ""Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!"" It was Long John Silver's parrot, Captain Flint! I turned to run…' But young Jim Hawkins does not escape from the pirates this time. Will he and his friends find the treasure before the pirates do? Will they escape from the island, and sail back to England with a ship full of gold?
A level 4 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by John Escott. When Black Beauty is trained to carry a rider on his back, or to pull a carriage behind him, he finds it hard at first. But he is lucky – his first home is a good one, where his owners are kind people, who would never be cruel to a horse. But in the nineteenth century many people were cruel to their horses, whipping them and beating them, and using them like machines until they dropped dead. Black Beauty soon finds this out, and as he describes his life, he has many terrible stories to tell.
A Starter level Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. 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…
A level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Diane Mowat. A housewife, a tramp, a lawyer, a waitress, an actress – ordinary people living ordinary lives in New York at the beginning of the twentieth century. The city has changed greatly since that time, but its people are much the same. Some are rich, some are poor, some are happy, some are sad, some have found love, some are looking for love. O. Henry's famous short stories – sensitive, funny, sympathetic – give us vivid pictures of the everyday lives of these New Yorkers.
A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Written for Learners of English by Janet Hardy-Gould. It's a good place for gold,' said people in the 1840s, and they came from all over the world. 'It's a good place for a prison,' said the US government in the 1920s, and they put Al Capone there on the island of Alcatraz. 'It's a good place for love,' said the hippies in the 1960s, and they put flowers in their hair and came to Haight Ashbury. And San Francisco is still a good place – to take a hundred photographs, or see the Chinatown parade, or just to sit in a coffee shop and be in this interesting, different city…