Listening

Wednesday, 18 July 2012

Readers: level one


Deep Trouble

Lesley Thompson 

Amy and Matt are bored. They don't want to study for their exams. They want to have a good time. So they drive to the marina at West Palm Beach, and Matt jumps onto one of the boats. 'We can go anywhere!' he jokes.

But when the owners of the boat come back and find them, Amy and Matt are in deep trouble. Matt is a good swimmer and enjoys scuba-diving, but now he must dive for their lives.

 

Five Canterbury Tales 

Geoffrey Chaucer

Text adaptation by Bill Bowler
The year is 1386 and the first flowers of spring are here. A number of pilgrims are going to Canterbury to visit the tomb of Saint Thomas Becket, and they all tell stories on the way.

Who should be the stronger in a marriage - the husband or the wife? And what happens when two men fall in love with the same woman? In these five stories from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales we find different answers to these questions from the Knight, the Wife of Bath, the Clerk of Oxford, the Merchant, and the Franklin.

From the Heart 

 
Anna is a new student at Oxford University. When she arrives in Oxford, she meets Selim, and they become good friends. But Selim is not English, and living in a different country is not easy for him. Anna tries to help but she knows that her father isn't going to like it.

Selim and Anna have each other. But is that enough?
And can they find true happiness together?

 


Housemates 

Alison Watts
 
Chris leaves his home in a small town in Australia to go and study at the University of Sydney. He needs to find somewhere to live.

But it's not easy to find a house to share in a big city. Every house has its problems, and not all of Chris's housemates are easy to live with. In fact, some of them are very difficult people!

Can Chris find the house that he needs with housemates that he can live with?



Jake's Parrot
New
Paul Hearn and Yetis Ozkan
Retold by
John Escott
 
When Jake Stevens goes to work for some months in Ireland, he feels happy. He loves travelling, and talking about his job - making computer games for BananaTech in America.
'Your new game's going to be the best thing at the Irish Computer Games Show!' people at BananaTech Ireland tell him.
But living with a noisy parrot isn't easy, and when Jake asks the most beautiful girl at work out to dinner, she says 'no'.
Then someone steals Jake's game the night before the show. Who - or what - can help him to get it back?

Macbeth 

William Shakespeare
Text adaptation by
Alistair McCallum
 
A dark, rainy day in Scotland, long ago. Returning from battle, Macbeth and his friend Banquo meet three witches. 'Macbeth, the king!' they say, but Macbeth is not a king, he is just a simple soldier.
Macbeth and Banquo cannot forget the witches' words. Soon Macbeth is king, but his wife walks in her sleep at night, and dreams of blood. What lies in the future for Banquo? And how many people must die before Scotland finds peace once more?


Mystery in Muscat


New
Julie Till
'How long is she in Oman for?'
'Ten days. And then they want to take her back home.'
'Ah, yes. But she's not going back to London. They're never going to see her again!'
Jamie and Taymour overhear this strange conversation near their homes in Muscat. Two men want to kill an important visitor, it seems. But who is the woman in danger? And what can the boys do to save her?
Can they, their sisters Sarah and Nadine, and their Australian friend Ruth find the answer to the mystery?

Pollyanna 

Eleanor H. Porter
Text adaptation by Bill Bowler
 
When Pollyanna's farther dies, she goes to live with her Aunt, Miss Polly Harrington. Miss Harrington likes doing good, but she doesn't like children very much!

Pollyanna always tries to find the good in everything. She soon makes many different people in her new home feel happier. But is Miss Polly's life going to change for better or worse after her niece arrives? And what happens to Pollyanna when she has a very bad accident?


 

Sherlock Holmes: The Blue Diamond 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Text adaptation by Bill Bowler
 
'He's an intelligent man. He was once rich and is now poor. His wife loved him once, but she doesn't love him now. And he's thirty or forty years old.'

One look at an old hat, and Sherlock Holmes can tell you a lot about its owner. He sees - and thinks - a lot more than the people around him, and when a beautiful blue diamond disappears, Sherlock is the only man in London who can find it.

 

Sherlock Holmes: The Emerald Crown 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Text adaptation by
Janet Hardy-Gould
 
A man from the British royal family leaves an expensive gold and emerald crown at Holder and Stevenson's - one of the best banks in London. When someone tries to take the crown from Mr Holder's desk, he asks Sherlock Holmes for help. Who wants the crown and why? Only Sherlock can find the answers.

 

Studio Five 

Anthony Manning
 
Fay loves making The Friends' Hour for Studio Five, but her boss - Jason - is always angry with her. One day, a young man - Simon Jones - phones her show. Soon Fay must find Simon, and work hard to keep her job. Then her best friend - Wing - stops helping her. What can Fay do now? Can she and Wing stay friends?

 

 

The Curse of the Mummy 

Joyce Hannam
 
For thousands of years the dead body of the young king Tutankhamun slept under the sands of Egypt. Then, in the autumn of 1922, Howard Carter and his friends find and open his tomb door. These are exciting times, and Carter's young helper Tariq tells the story in his diary.

But soon people begin to die. Who or what is the killer? Is Tutankhamun angry with them for opening his tomb? And who is the beautiful French girl with the face of Tutankhamun's long-dead wife?

The Real McCoy & Other Ghost Stories 

Lesley Thompson
 
'Are you scared, Gordon?' asks Heather.

Four friends talk of ghosts in a hotel in Scotland. That night Gordon sees and hears something strange in his room. But is it really the ghost of Lord McCoy?

These six stories tell of ghosts - friendly, sad, and bad - from Britain, Australia, New Zealand, America - and Egypt!

 

The Teacher's Secret and Other Folk Tales 

Retold by Joyce Hannam
 
Are men cleverer than women? Is a poor man cleverer than a rich man? And what about teachers? Are they always cleverer than their students?

The people in these six well-known folk tales from around the world all want to be clever.
But are some of them just stupid?

 

 

The Travels of Ibn Battuta 

 
'My first journey was a pilgrimage to Mecca. I got on a donkey and said "Goodbye" to my parents in Tangier when I was 21. My mother cried.'

In this way Ibn Battuta, one of the greatest travellers in the world, begins telling his story to his nephew, Ahmed.

His many journeys take him to new and interesting places far from home. He sees many strange and wonderful things, has many funny and frightening experiences, and meets many different people along the way.

This is his story...

The Wild West 

 
How much do you know about the Wild West? What do you know about cowboys and Indians, about wagon trails and gunfights?

Inside this book you will find the true story of the Wild West, and of some of the famous people who lived and worked there. People like Wyatt Earp, Jesse James, Billy the Kid - and Annie Oakley, the best shot in the West.

 

The Wrong Trousers

 

Aardman
Text adaptation by Bill Bowler
 
It's Gromit the dog's birthday, and his friend Wallace gives him an unusual present - a pair of Techno-trousers.

At first Wallace uses the trousers to take Gromit for walks, but when the penguin comes to stay, he uses them one night for something different - very different.

This strange story won the Oscar® for Best Animated Short Film in 1993.

True Heroes of Sport 

Donatella Fitzgerald
 
Some people in the world of sport are heroes only because they are the best at their sport. But the sportsmen and sportswomen in this book - Oscar Pistorius, Michael Phelps, Wilma Rudolph and Natalie du Toit - are all that and much more. All of them went through bad times and learned to be stronger people through sport. Because it isn't living through good times, but living through bad times that makes you into a true hero!

 

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

 Jules Verne 

Text adaptation by Lesley Thompson

 When ship after ship goes down in the Atlantic, Dr Pierre Aronnax and his servant, Conseil, journey from Paris to learn more. What - or who - is attacking these ships?

Aronnax, Conseil, and the Canadian, Ned Land, find the answer to this question when they meet the strange Captain Nemo.

After a long journey under the sea in Nemo's submarine, the Nautilus, the doctor and his friends plan to leave for the surface.
But how can they escape?

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