Huckleberry Finn
American English
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…
(Word count 6,180)
Five Children and It
When the children dug a hole in the gravel-pit, they were very surprised at what they found. ‘It’ was a Psammead, a sand-fairy, thousands of years old.
It was a strange little thing – fat and furry, and with eyes on long stalks. It was often very cross and unfriendly, but it could give wishes – one wish a day. ‘How wonderful!’ the children said.
But wishes are difficult things. They can get you into trouble…
(Word count 5,945)
Henry VIII and His Six Wives
There were six of them – three Katherines, two Annes, and a Jane. One of them was the King’s wife for twenty-four years, another for only a year and a half. One died, two were divorced, and two were beheaded. It was a dangerous, uncertain life.
After the King’s death in 1547, his sixth wife finds a box of old letters – one from each of the first five wives. They are sad, angry, frightened letters. They tell the story of what it was like to be the wife of Henry VIII of England.
(Word count 6,310)
Cries from the Heart. Stories from Around the World
From Nigeria to New Zealand, from Jamaica to Malaysia, from India to South Africa, these stories show us that the human heart is the same in every place. People everywhere have the same feelings of fear and pain, happiness and sadness. Bookworms World Stories collect stories written in English from around the world, and the eight stories in this book were selected from the winning entries in the Commonwealth Short Story Competition. All the stories in this edition are from two previous Bookworms titles: Cries from the Heart and Songs from the Soul.
(Word count 6,683)
New Yorkers. Short Stories
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.
(Word count 5,895)
Agatha Christie, Woman of Mystery
What does the name ‘Agatha Christie’ mean? To many people, it means a book about a murder mystery – a ‘whodunnit’. ‘I’m reading an Agatha Christie,’ people say. ‘I’m not sure who the murderer is – I think it’s… ’ But they are usually wrong, because it is not easy to guess the murderer’s name before the end of the book.
But who was Agatha Christie? What was she like? Was her life quiet and unexciting, or was it full of interest and adventure? Was there a mystery in her life, too?
(Word count 5,955)